September 30, 2008 05:22 PM UTC

Udall Gaffes One Of His Own

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• by: Colorado Pols

We made a little hay out of this a few days ago, so we’re obligated to note what the Rocky Mountain News reports:

Mark Udall blasted U.S. Senate race opponent Bob Schaffer for supporting tax breaks for overseas companies but failed to mention that he voted for a bill containing such breaks in 2004.

Schaffer told the Rocky last week that in addition to buying financial institutions’ bad assets, he believes Congress needs to stimulate the economy with tax breaks in any bailout measure it might pass. The former congressman from Fort Collins, a Republican, specifically advocated reduction of the repatriation tax, a tax on U.S. companies that bring overseas holdings back into this country.

Udall, a Democratic congressman from Eldorado Springs, later criticized the repatriation tax cut proposal as a failed policy of the past that only benefited big companies.

But Udall voted for the American Jobs Creation Act, a 2004 economic-stimulus package. Included in that was a one-year reduction of the repatriation tax from 35 percent to 5.25 percent, a break that brought $362 billion back into the country and contributed to a 10 percent growth in U.S. business investments that year, Schaffer said…

Deservedly, we know. It was a good thing to throw back in Udall’s face after the fresh Abramoff charges that made Schaffer’s day kind of rough. And you’ve got to look at these things carefully before you run to the press with them, as Schaffer pointedly learned a week ago.