You’re all seen those incessant TV Ads run by two GOP super PACS (Congressional Leadership Fund & Senate Leadership Fund) that attack both Maggie Hassan and Chris Pappas for “raising $3 billion in new taxes on NH families making less than $75,000.” I couldn’t recall any instance of our NH delegation voting to raise taxes on anyone other than large corporations and the super wealthy, so I was puzzled as to where and when this supposedly happened.

Well, as it turns out, it’s another false claim by Republicans attempting to confuse and mislead voters. Per ‘FactCheck.org’ (Sept 23), both Republican super PACs are using outdated Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates to falsely claim in TV ads that Democrats voted to raise taxes on lower and middle income families. These false claims are based on a preliminary CBO estimate associated with the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act. That legislation, passed by congressional Democrats without a single Republican vote, invests hundreds of billions of dollars in energy and climate change infrastructure, extends Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies by three years, and caps prescription drug costs. It’s paid for by new minimum tax rates for large corporations and a crackdown on wealthy tax cheats. The Act also provided the IRS with nearly $80 billion over 10 years to improve technology, customer service, and enforcement efforts to collect unpaid taxes. In a July 31 editorial, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) misleadingly cited a preliminary CBO estimate of the Act’s tax impacts. (The WSJ is owned by billionaire Republican donor Robert Murdoch’s News Corp; Murdock has already contributed $2M to the Senate Leadership Fund.)

In fact, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directed the IRS Commissioner on August 10 to not use this new funding in the Act to target increased audits to any families or small businesses with less than $400,000 in income. On Aug. 25, CBO produced a revised estimate that took into account the Treasury secretary’s directive. Ergo, there is no $3B tax increase on families making less than $75K – it’s a Republican lie.

Independent fact-checkers from an array of outlets have called out these false Republican lawmakers’ claims in many ‘battleground states’, including NH. But even after being corrected by numerous outlets, Republican campaign groups have continued to lie about the legislation. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen during the Trump era, Republicans lie with impunity, and we can expect more of the same as we approach voting day on Nov. 8.

So, don’t be misled by Republican lies – vote Democratic on November 8 – the only party that is actually doing something to improve lower and middle class families’ lives.