Even before he decided to jump into the race to take down Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, Steve Novick regularly railed against Smith’s tax policies—specifically pointing out his sponsorship of a bill that gave tax breaks to multinational corporations.

And now, in the past two days, the New York Times has pounced on the same policy, calling it a failure.

First, some history: In 2004, Smith sponsored a provision in a tax bill (the ironically named American Jobs Creation Act) that would give multinationals a break on their taxes if they “repatriated” their profits—in other words, if they pulled their money out of offshore tax havens and brought them back into the country. Instead of the 35 percent tax rate they normally would have paid, Smith offered the low, low tax rate of 5.25 percent if they returned the money within a year.

In a chest-thumping press release sent out after the bill passed through Congress, Smith claimed that it would return $400 billion to the U.S. economy and create 660,000 jobs. At the time, critics—even in the Bush Administration—argued that the tax breaks were inappropriate:

“Treasury Secretary John W. Snow objected that the measure would unfairly benefit multinational corporations over domestic firms, while White House economists said it would produce no substantial economic benefit.” —Washington Post, August 19, 2005

And while it’s led to billions for tax-evading drug companies (Pfizer alone scored $11 billion from the policy—that’s a lot of Viagra), it’s failed to lead to any new jobs. On Tuesday, the Times’ Alex Berenson wrote a stunning piece on the failure of Smith’s tax holiday: “Drug makers were the biggest beneficiaries of the amnesty program, repatriating about $100 billion in foreign profits and paying only minimal taxes,” Berenson wrote. “But the companies did not create many jobs in return. Instead, since 2005 the American drug industry has laid off tens of thousands of workers in this country.”

The following day, the same paper ran a brutal editorial lambasting Smith’s provision, though neither piece connected the law back to Smith. Both articles pointed out an even more dangerous aspect of the policy: Now that the tax break has expired, multinationals are dumping even more money into offshore tax shelters in anticipation of the next tax holiday. Smith’s grand idea to bring money back from tax shelters has actually encouraged companies to hide even more money.

“Gordon Smith has supported many outrageous policies, but this particular tax break is absurd, maybe even criminal,” Novick says. “It’s throwing money to businesses who are stashing money overseas. It’s not available to stand-up companies who are doing the right thing, and it’s going largely to companies who are evading taxes.”

Smith has since become something of an offshore hero. Last year, he brought in $47,000 and a vacation from Virgin Island corporate interests—shortly thereafter, he came out against a law that would have cracked down on people who use the Islands as a tax haven.