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Evidence

“Did you get that big tax cut Mike DeWine's been bragging about? 

There may be a reason why. 

The Columbus Dispatch said DeWine's tax cuts overwhelmingly favored the wealthy.”

Columbus Dispatch: Cuts Go “Overwhelmingly” to the Rich.  The “tax cuts of the past six years overwhelmingly favored wealthier Americans…”  [Columbus Dispatch 7/16/06]

Wealthiest Ohioans Benefit the Most. The wealthiest 1% of Ohioans, with an average yearly income of $784,000, received over a quarter of the tax cuts. [Citizens for Tax Justice analysis, 6/22/06]

3 Million Ohioans Receive Less Than 20% of the Cuts.  The bottom 60% (approximately 3.2 million taxpayers) received only 18.1% of the cuts.

In 2003, 48 percent of Ohio taxpayers (2.5 million) got less than $100 from the 2003 tax bill.

In 2005, 75 percent of Ohio taxpayers (4.2 million) got less than $100 from the 2003 tax bill.

[Citizens for Tax Justice analysis: “The Bush Tax Cuts in Ohio”]

Dayton Daily News: Cuts Are No Benefit For Middle Class.  In an editorial entitled, “Tax Cut No Boon to Middle Class,”  the Dayton Daily News wrote,“in debating the tax issue, the White House has been aggressively misleading… it would simply not have the major benefit for middle-class Americans that the White House is pretending.” [Dayton Daily News Editorial.  3/16/03]

Akron Beacon-Journal: Cuts Skewed Towards Wealthy.  The Akron Beacon-Journal described the tax cuts as “…weighted toward wealthy taxpayers”  and “skews[ed] heavily in favor of the wealthy.” [Akron Beacon-Journal Editorial.  5/27/04; Akron Beacon Journal Editorial. 5/12/06]

“Sherrod Brown voted for middle-class tax cuts instead.”

Sherrod Brown Has Voted At Least 33 Times for Tax Cuts.  Including:

·      He voted for the college tuition tax credit.  [H.Amdt. 207 to HR 2014 Roll Call 243 6/26/97; HR 2014, Vote #350, 7/31/1997]

·       Earned Income Tax Credit [HR 6, Vote #73, 3/29/2001; HR 2488 , Vote #331, 7/22/1999]

·       To extend Child Tax Credit  [HR 1308, Roll Call 472, 9/24/04; HCR 393 , Vote #91, 3/25/2004; HR 3 , Vote #42, 3/8/2001]

·       To end the marriage penalty [HR 4181, Roll Call 138, 4/28/04; HCR 393, Vote #89, 3/25/2004]

Voted for the Relief for Working Families Tax Act of 2003.  Adoption of the conference report on the bill that would extend the $1,000 per child tax credit through 2009, the upper limit for the current 10 percent bracket through 2010 and tax breaks for married couples through 2008. It also would provide a one-year extension of current income exemptions from the alternative minimum tax and extend the expiring research and development tax credit through 2005.  [HR 1308, Vote #472, 9/23/04]

Brown Voted to Reduce Taxes by $585.5 Billion By Reducing the Marriage Tax, Expand Earned Income Tax Credit.

Voted to reduce taxes by $585.5 billion over 10 years. The plan would lower the current 15 percent tax bracket to 12 percent on the first $20,000 of couples' taxable income and $10,000 for single taxpayers. It would double the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly to twice that of individuals filing singly. The plan would adjust the alternative minimum tax so that anyone with tax liability would receive the benefit of the rate reduction. It also would simplify and expand the earned income tax credit for low-income earners. [HR 6, Vote #73, 3/29/2001]

Brown Voted to Provide Permanent Marriage Penalty Relief.  The bill would permanently extend tax provisions eliminating the marriage penalty by making the standard deduction for married couples double that of single taxpayers and increasing the upper limit of the 15 percent tax bracket for married couples to twice that of singles. The bill would also exempt married couples from having to pay higher rates because their combined earnings push them into higher brackets. [CQ Today, 4/28/04; New York Times, 4/29/2004; HR 4181, Vote #138, 4/28/2004]

Brown Announced Additional Middle Class Tax Cuts.  Brown “used the front porch of a two-story home in a middle-class north Columbus neighborhood to unveil a package of tax breaks that he said would help working families cope with financial stresses from birth to old age.”  [Plain Dealer 9/7/06]

“While Brown was fighting for the middle-class, DeWine was giving billions in tax breaks to his big contributors – like oil companies,…”

FACT: DeWine Has Voted For Billions in Tax Breaks for Big Oil.

DeWine Voted to Protect Tax Loopholes.  DeWine supported the 2006 tax bill protects loopholes that provided another $5 billion in tax breaks for Big Oil.  [HR 4297, Vote #118, 5/11/06; Washington Post, 4/26/06]

DeWine Voted Twice For the 2005 Energy Bill, Gave Billions to Oil Industry.  Included $6 Billion in Oil & Gas Subsidies.  In 2005, DeWine voted  twice for the final version of the Energy Bill.  The bill included a 7.5 billion gallon Renewable Fuels Standard, and lacked the controversial liability shield for producers of MTBE.  The bill also contained $6 billion in oil and gas subsidies. [HR 6, 7/29/05, #212; HR 6, 7/29/05, #213;  Public Citizen 8/05]

DeWine Voted for Energy Tax Breaks; Mostly for Fossil Fuels.   In 2003, Senator DeWine voted to invoke cloture, and  limit debate, on a conference report for energy policy.  The policy would have created $25.7 billion in tax breaks.  The tax breaks would have provided $11.9 billion for oil and gas production.  [HR 6, Vote 456, 11/21/2003]

DeWine Voted for “Multi-Billion Dollar Giveaway” to Energy Industry.  In 2002, DeWine voted for an energy bill that included $14 billion in tax breaks for energy industries, including the oil and gas industry.  The non-partisan Taxpayers for Common Sense called the bill “a multi-billion dollar giveaway to the wealthy and profitable oil, gas and coal industries.”  [HR 4, Vote #94, 4/25/02; Taxpayers for Common Sense 4/25/02]

DeWine Has Received Over $400,000 in Campaign Donations from Oil and Gas Industry.  [www.fec.gov]

CEO Pay Averaged $32 Million in 2005.  In a year of record gas prices at the pump, the top executives at the 15 largest oil companies earned a total of $512.9 million, averaging $32 million in salary. [Bloomberg News, 8/30/06]

“…companies who outsource jobs,…”

DeWine Voted to Keep Tax Breaks that Export Jobs Overseas.  In May 2004, DeWine voted to maintain $39 billion in tax breaks on overseas income. The amendment would provide for an immediate 9 percent tax deduction for domestic manufacturers. [S 1637, 5/11/04, #90]

DeWine Voted For Overseas  Profits and Against a Manufacturing Jobs Tax Credit. In May 2004, DeWine voted against an amendment that would strike international tax provisions, which critics charged would encourage manufacturers to move jobs overseas, instead of create more jobs for Americans.  It would replace them with a new tax credit equal to 1.66 percent of the wages an employer paid to each employee in manufacturing up to $35,000 per employee.  [S 1637, 5/5/04, #82]

“…even corporations who move their plants overseas.”

DeWine Supported Tax Breaks for Overseas Profits.

DeWine Voted to Keep Tax Incentives for Offshore Companies. In 2005, DeWine voted against an amendment that would repeal tax incentives for domestic companies that move their manufacturing plants to offshore locations and use the resulting revenue to reduce the federal deficit and debt by $3.2 billion from 2006 to 2010.  [S Con Res 18, 3/17/05, #63]

DeWine Favored Shipping American Jobs Overseas.  In 2004, DeWine voted against prohibiting American tax dollars from being used to ship jobs outside the country.  The amendment DeWine voted against would have: limited the ability of civilian agencies to award contracts to companies that would use offshore workers, prohibited the privatization of jobs when contractors would take the work overseas, and require states to certify that they will not use federal funds for services performed outside the United States, eliminated tax advantages for companies that move factories overseas to make goods that are shipped back to the U.S. market, and prohibited companies from deferring taxes on income earned from these “runaway” manufacturing plants.  [S Con Res 95, #41, 3/11/04]

Overseas Profits Kept Out of the United States.  According to the New York  Times, “American companies have deferred paying American taxes on as much as $600 billion in foreign profits, and they can continue doing so as long as they keep those profits outside the United States.”  [New York Times, 5/6/04]

DeWine Voted Against Requiring U.S. Companies To Invest Foreign Profits In United States.  DeWine voted against a measure to encourage companies with offshore production to reinvest foreign profits in the United States rather than avoid paying American taxes.  The Senate bill would give them one year to bring back those profits, which would be taxed at a rate of only 5 percent rather than the standard 35 percent corporate rate, for the purpose of investment in job creation, research and development, capital investment, or funding pension plans. [S 1637, 5/5/04, #81; New York Times, 5/6/04]

DeWine Opposed Forcing U.S. Companies to Pay Taxes on Domestic Sales of Products Made Abroad.  DeWine, on May 5, 2004, voted against an amendment that would require U.S. companies to pay taxes on money they earn from domestic sales of products they make abroad.  The Washington Post reported that “Democrats said an existing law allowing deferral of taxes…encourages exportation of jobs and stacks the deck against companies that do not ship jobs overseas.”  [S 1637, 5/5/04, #83; The Washington Post, 05/06/04]

Senator Dorgan: Companies That Moved Offshore “Got a Tax Incentive For Leaving.”  Senator Byron Dorgan said, “it is unfair to U.S. domestic companies to compete against another company that decides to send its production overseas, get rid of its American workers, and then end up competing against its former competitors that stayed in this country, but compete in a way that provides this company that left this tremendous advantage because they now pay lower taxes. They got a tax incentive for leaving.” [Byron Dorgan, Floor Statement, 05/05/04]

Outsourcers Support DeWine.  DeWine took over $1 million in campaign contributions from companies that outsource American jobs.  [www.fec.gov; http://www.cnn.com]

“I'm Sherrod Brown - I approve this message. It's time to put the middle-class first.”

Brown Announced Middle Class Tax Cut Package.  “Brown… announced a plan for targeting middle-class tax breaks…. The plan would apply to households with incomes between $40,000 and $150,000…. 'I would rather see the government give tax breaks to the middle class, than giving more tax breaks to wealthiest 1 or 2 percent,’ Brown said”  [Elyria Chronicle-Telegram 9/7/06]

Brown Offerd “Path to Opportunity.”  “Brown's "Path to Opportunity" package would include $1,000 tax credits for parents in the first three years of their children's lives, increasing current child care tax credits, increased tax deductions for college tuition, a "first home" tax credit for individuals and married couples, and an elder care tax credit.”  [Cincinnati Enquirer 9/7/06]