Hypocrisy Rampant in Latest Altmire Ad

With his newest television commercial, Congressman Jason Altmire has now moved from using deception to run from his record to pure hypocrisy. In the ad, Altmire claims, “As a lawyer, Rothfus represented a Wall Street bank that took taxpayer funded bailout money…”.

The hypocrisy is that Altmire has taken over $220,000 in campaign contributions from Wall Street special interests (according to www.opensecrets.org ). Even more outrageous is that Altmire has actually taken $10,000 from Bank of New York Mellon, the company Altmire criticizes Rothfus for representing (see http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00017558&cycle=2010 and http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00017558&cycle=2008 ).

“Now Congressman Altmire is running from his own record, attacking me”, said Rothfus. “To criticize me for doing legitimate work for a company that employs thousands of Pennsylvanians while he takes $10,000 from the same company is the height of hypocrisy”.

“Voters won’t let him have it both ways”, continued Rothfus. “If Congressman Altmire wants to salvage even a shred of credibility he should return the $220,000 from the Financial Services Industry, start telling the truth and begin explaining why he votes with Nancy Pelosi nearly 90% of the time”.

Here is a fact check on Altmire’s current commercial which uses false claims and misleading language:

Altmire Claim #1:

“His [Rothfus] attacks are just wrong” Claim false

Facts:

Claim #1 in Rothfus commercial...”[Altmire] votes with Pelosi nearly 90% of the time.”

- According to the Washington Post, Altmire has voted with his party 88.8% of the time (see http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/A000362/ .)
Rothfus claim confirmed

Claim #2 in Rothfus commercial…”Altmire supported Obama’s stimulus”

- Altmire voted in favor of H.R. 1 (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), CQ Vote #70, Feb. 13, 2009. Rothfus claim confirmed


Claim #3 in Rothfus commercial… “[Altmire supported] billions in earmarks”

- Altmire voted in favor of the $1.1 trillion FY 2010 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which contained over 5,000 earmarks (H.R. 3288, CQ Vote #949, Dec. 10, 2009). He also voted in favor of the $410 billion FY 2009 Omnibus bill, which contained 9,287 earmarks totaling $12.8 billion (H.R. 1105, CQ Vote #86, Feb. 25, 2009). Rothfus claim confirmed

Claim #4 in Rothfus commercial…”[Altmire supported] trillions of debt”

- According to treasurydirect.gov, the total national debt on January 2, 2007 (when Jason Altmire became a Congressman) was $8.678 trillion. On September 22, 2010 the total national debt was $13.471 trillion, an increase of $4.793 trillion. Also, Altmire voted to increase the national debt limit by $2.2 trillion (H.R. 4314, CQ Vote #988, Dec. 16, 2009 and H.J. Res. 45, CQ Vote #48, Feb. 4, 2010). Rothfus claim confirmed

Claim #5 in Rothfus commercial…”Meanwhile unemployment doubled with Altmire and Pelosi”

- According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in Pennsylvania in January of 2007 (when Altmire took office and Pelosi became Speaker) was 4.2%. In August of 2010, Pennsylvania unemployment stood at 9.2%. Rothfus claim confirmed

It should also be noted here that Altmire does not attempt to refute any of the above facts in his current commercial, he simply changes the subject.


Altmire Claim #2:

“As a lawyer, Rothfus represented a Wall Street bank that took taxpayer funded bailout money.” Claim misleading and hypocritical

Facts:

Rothfus negotiated supply and software agreements for a bank that employs thousands of people in Western Pennsylvania. This bank was forced into the TARP program by the Obama administration (see http://www.businessinsider.com/uncovered-tarp-docs-reveal-how-paulson-forced-banks-to-take-the-cash-2009-5 ). Rothfus’ law firm did work for this client both before and after the bank was forced to take TARP funding.

It should also be noted that Altmire voted against ending the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and using all TARP funds, including returned and unused funds to pay down the federal deficit and lower the national debt limit (H.R. 4173, CQ Vote #967, Dec. 11, 2009).


Altmire Claim #3:

“he [Rothfus] opposed reforms to crack down on Wall Street.” Claim nothing more than partisan rhetoric

Facts:

Rothfus supports common-sense regulation, not the over-the-top government intervention that Democrats passed earlier this year. Rothfus opposed the plan passed by Democrats because it did nothing more than continue to hurt job creators and keep unemployment at unacceptably high rates. It did nothing to regulate the entities at the heart of the financial meltdown – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.