McCain's Small-Business Bunk
An Echo of Bush
McCain's claim struck us as wildly improbable the first time we heard it because we debunked a much less expansive claim that President Bush made about John Kerry in 2004. Bush ran a TV ad saying that Kerry's proposal to raise taxes on persons making more than $200,000 a year would affect 900,000 small-business owners. We found Bush's number to be far too high. We noted that Bush was counting as a "small-business owner" anyone who reported even $1 of business or partnership income, regardless of how the taxpayer made their living. At that time, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center estimated that a total of 471,000 small-business employers could be affected.
Republished with permission from factcheck.org.
Sources
John McCain 2008. "Remarks By John McCain On His Jobs For America Economic Plan," 7 July 2008.
CQ Transcripts. "McCain Addresses the League of United Latin American Citizens." washingtonpost.com, 8 July 2008.
John McCain 2008. "Remarks by John McCain at his Ohio Town Hall Meeting," 9 July 2008.
John McCain 2008. "John McCain's Weekly Radio Address," 12 July 2008.
U.S. Census Bureau. "Statistics about Business Size (including Small Business) from the U.S. Census Bureau," Web site accessed 14 July 2008.
Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration. "Frequently Asked Questions; How many small businesses are there?" Web site accessed 14 July 2008.
Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration. "Private Firms, Establishments, Employment, Annual Payroll and Receipts by Firm Size, 1988-2005," accessed 14 July 2008.
U.C. Census Bureau. "Nonemployer statistics: Coverage and Methodology," accessed 14 July 2008.
Claudia Parsons. "Obama proposes small business tax credits for health." Reuters, 14 July 2008.
Table T08-0164 "Distribution of Tax Units with Business Income by Statutory Marginal Tax Rate, Assuming Extension and Indexation of the 2007 AMT Patch, 2009" Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, 20 May 2008.
"Kerry tax plan and small business." Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, 14 Sept. 2004.
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Member Comments
Posted By: pearsoncrz @ 07/16/2008 6:43:33 PM
Comment: Newsweek still isn't taking the AMT into consideration
Posted By: jnakhoul @ 07/16/2008 5:37:51 PM
Comment: wow to bad most of the public will never hear these facts. They'll just remain some deep under my skin only to boil up every time i see his wrinkly face. Why doesn't our news media confront candidates who make openly deceiving claims. thanks factcheck i needed another reason to dispise john mccain
Posted By: JRichter @ 07/16/2008 11:14:03 AM
Comment: Carly Fiorina keeps lying about Obama and McCain;s record:
- She claims McCain voted for birth control to be treated same as Viagra leaving him squirming out of his body.
- She recently claimed he is open to some taxes on the wealthy.
- She claims Barack voted for tax increases on those making income over 35,000
All in the effort ot deceive Clinton voters. Meanwile she is a multimillionaire ex-CEO for which the McCain-Bush policies favor to the detriment of the country for the past 8 years.