Democrats tell half the story on 23 percent sales tax

By Robert Farley
Published on Friday, October 15th, 2010 at 6:05 p.m.

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"John Boozman is excited about putting a 23 percent national sales tax on everything you buy."

Blanche Lincoln, Monday, September 20th, 2010.

Ruling: Half-True | Details

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Sen. Blanche Lincoln campaign ad, "John Boozman: Excited About National Sales Tax."

In tight races around the country, a number of Democrats are going after Republican opponents who have had supported -- even tepidly -- proposals to replace federal income taxes with a tax on retail sales. Supporters of the idea call it "the Fair Tax."

One example is Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, the Democratic incumbent, who has aired several ads criticizing her Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. John Boozman, for supporting the Fair Tax, which Lincoln describes as a "dumb" idea.

We are fact-checking the latest ad, which begins with a clip from a debate on Sept. 8, 2010, in which Boozman said, "I'm excited about looking at the Fair Tax."

As is the case with many of the Democrats' ads regarding the "Fair Tax," the ad mentions the part about adding a 23 percent sales tax but conveniently omits the part about eliminating federal income taxes. So we rated it Half True.