WisDems Chair Mike Tate Calls on Ron Johnson to
Release Corporate Tax Records and Schedules,
Provide a Full and Honest Accounting of All
Government Assistance He Has Received to Build His Business
MADISON— The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has released a new Web ad highlighting Republican Senate Candidate Ron Johnson’s latest political double talk and hypocrisy.
News reports have revealed that Johnson has taken a federal government grant to start his business and $4 million in government-subsidized bonds after the GOP candidate said he had never taken any government assistance.
Ron Johnson’s own Web sites says:
“Government doesn’t create jobs – the private sector creates jobs.”
[Ronjohnsonforsenate.com]
Johnson even told a TV station, “When you subsidize things, it doesn’t work through the free market system very well.” (WKOW, 8/20/10).
“Ron Johnson has been caught trying to mislead the voters. He says that government doesn’t create jobs, but if he really believes that, then why did his business take a $75,000 federal government grant for a rail spur, and why did he take $4 million in government loans with below market interest rates?” said Mike Tate, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “What other government assistance has Ron Johnson taken? Ron Johnson needs to release his corporate tax records and schedules and give an honest accounting of the tax credits and government subsidies he has taken.”
Johnson has tried to claim that government grants and loans for his business do not constitute “government subsidies, but as the Associated Press reported, Johnson’s government loans we’re subsidized at below market rate
An independent expert interviewed by the Associated Press concluded:
“Tax-free bonds allow a borrower to borrow at a lower rate,” said Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “That’s a subsidy from normal borrowing.” (Associated Press, 8/26/10)
View the Web video at: http://www.youtube.com/
Johnson opposes the American Recovery and reinvestment act, which provided tax cuts for 95 percent of working families; tax credits for small businesses; infrastructure funding for local governments; and unemployment benefits for people thrown out of work by the September 2008 economic collapse.
Johnson also has said, “We would have been far better off not spending any of the money and let the recovery happen as it was going to happen.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/15/10]
Johnson also opposes funding for emergency aid to the jobless and supports cutting off unemployment insurance for people still looking for work, saying:
“When you continue to extend unemployment benefits, people really don’t have the incentive to go take other jobs, you know, they’ll just wait the system out until their benefits run out. [Wisconsin Public Television Here and Now, 6/11/10]
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