FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 1, 2010CONTACT: Pennsylvania Democratic Party Press Office, 717-920-8476
Say What? Toomey Again Tries to Hide Record
Yesterday, Wall Street derivatives trader Pat Toomey was caught again trying to mislead Pennsylvania voters on his record of fighting corporate special interests. In his latest attempt to mislead Pennsylvanians, Pat Toomey’s campaign claimed his words in a CNBC interview where he advocated for the “elimination of corporate taxes altogether” were taken out of context.
Furthermore, in a response to the video provided to WGAL, his campaign claimed, “this is probably the only clip you’ll find of Pat saying this.” [WGAL, August 31, 2010]
“Wall Street derivatives trader Pat Toomey has spent his entire career fighting for corporate special interests and Wall Street banks,'” said Mark Nicastre, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. “But now Wall Street derivatives trader Pat Toomey is trying to mislead voters about his record. If Wall Street derivatives trader Pat Toomey believes his words were taken out of context, it’s time for him to come clean and tell Pennsylvania voters  what he really meant when he said he wanted to ‘eliminate corporate taxes altogether.'”
“Pennsylvanians expect honesty from their candidates, and they are clearly not getting the honesty they deserve from Wall Street derivatives trader Pat Toomey. Whether it is his lie that he never fought to privatize Social Security or his claim that his ‘let’s not tax corporations’ remark was taken out of context, Pat Toomey is trying to mislead voters and he needs to stop.”
The full exchange shows that the remarks were not only in context, but Toomey explicitly said:
“Let’s have a transparent system. Let’s not tax corporations. Let’s allow them to compete most aggressively on the global economy. It’s better for our workers. It’s better for our economy. It would attract more capital. I think the solution is to eliminate corporate taxes altogether.” [CNBC, July 20, 2007]
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “In the clip, Toomey clearly supports the elimination of corporate taxes, with no ambiguity: ‘Let’s have a transparent system. Let’s not tax corporations. Let’s allow them to compete most aggressively on the global economy. It’s better for our workers. It’s better for our economy. It would attract more capital. I think the solution is to eliminate corporate taxes altogether.'”
And despite his campaign’s claims that the CNBC interview is “probably the only clip you’ll find of Pat saying this,” Toomey has a history of advocating for the elimination of corporate taxes. In his 2009 book, The Road to Prosperity, Toomey wrote:
“For little more in lost revenue than was spent in that single bill, Congress could have eliminated all corporate income taxes for nearly three full years. America would have become by far the most tax-advantaged country in the world. We would have attracted a flood of new capital investment, new start-up ventures, and expansions of existing businesses.” [The Road to Prosperity, p. 206]
This comes just one week after Wall Street derivatives trader Pat Toomey was caught in another lie. That time he claimed that he never fought to privatize Social Security, even though he was one of the chief advocates of the Bush Administration efforts to privatize Social Security that puts seniors’ retirement savings in the hands of reckless Wall Street bankers. A quick search found 36 instance of Toomey advocating for Social Security privatization.