Smith campaign: Merkley's gas plan is stolen

U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith's (R-Pendleton) campaign is accusing Oregon House Speaker and U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) of plagiarizing part of his plan to reduce fuel costs from a May 2008 policy memo published by the Center for American Progess.

“It’s a word for word lifting of their plan,” Smith campaign spokeswoman Lindsay Gilbride said.

Matt Canter, spokesman for the Merkley campaign said his side was looking into the situation.

“This is a think tank that puts forward policy proposals,” Canter said. “Unlike Gordon Smith, Jeff Merkley doesn’t get all of his policy ideas from George W. Bush.”

The controversy centers around two parts in Merkley’s plan released on Tuesday to lower gas prices in Oregon. One part of the plan is to offer a tax credit for small business truckers overwhelmed by fuel prices. The Smith campaign says Merkley ripped this tax credit policy right off of the Center for American Progress website from a memo written by Sam Davis and Daniel J. Weiss on May 1.

“There are over 306,000 self-employed truck drivers who spend on average over $110,000 annually on fuel, driving an average of 130,000 plus miles per year,” the duo wrote. “Each independent truck driver would get $4000, which is five percent of the difference between the annual 2001 fuel expenditure and an estimate of his/her fuel bill in 2008.”

The other part centers on offering relief for families struggling to make ends meet due to high gas prices.

“The fuel price relief bate would reimburse 100 percent of the higher cost of gasoline since 2001—or $450— and… would provide some reprieve to 80 percent of all households and cost $22 billion,” they wrote.

The plan Merkley released on Tuesday sounds eerily familiar to that policy.

“There are over 300,000 self-employed truck drivers who spend on average over $110,000 annually on fuel, driving an average of 130,000 plus miles per year,” the Tuesday release said. “Each independent truck driver would get $4000, which is five percent of the difference between the average cost of fuel in 2001 and 2008…Merkley's proposal will provide relief checks of up to $450 to 80% of families.” 

According to The Center for American Progress spokesman John Neurohr, the Center for American Progress publishes its policy proposals and makes them available online for the public’s consumption.

Regarding whether The Center for American Progress allows politicians or political candidates to adopt their policies as their own, Neurohr would not comment.