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A New Stitch in a Bad Pattern

A McCain ad wrongly claims Obama plans "painful tax increases" for working families. And who's talking about deficits?

 
 
 

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Summary
McCain's new ad puts another stitch in what we've called his pattern of deceit on Obama's tax plan. This one claims Obama and congressional Democrats plan to push forward "painful tax increases on working American families" and that they will bring about "years of deficits," "no balanced budgets" and "billions in new government spending." 

The ad is plain wrong about higher taxes on working families. In fact, Obama's economic plan would produce a tax cut for the majority of American households, with middle-income earners benefiting most. As for "years of deficits," exactly the same claim could be made about McCain's program. It's unlikely either Obama or McCain would balance the budget, and both are projected to increase the debt by trillions.

Analysis
We've already reported on at least three other ads, in both Spanish and English, from Sen. John McCain's campaign that distort his rival's tax policy. The ads claim that, for example, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama would raise taxes "on the sale of your home" and that he has a "history of raising taxes" and that he wanted to raise taxes on "families" making just $42,000 a year.

Claims like these have led us to say that McCain's campaign is engaging in a "pattern of deceit" when it comes to describing Obama's tax plan. This most recent ad fits right into the template.

Tax Counter-Spin
The ad says Obama and "out of touch Congressional leaders" plan to implement "painful tax increases on working American families," and it shows an image of a family presumably upset about an impending tax increase. But, as we've reported numerous times, Obama proposes a tax cut for the vast majority of households.

John McCain 2008 Ad:
"Expensive Plans" 

Crowd: Obama, Obama…
Announcer: Take away the crowds, the chants. All that's left are costly words. Barack Obama and out of touch congressional leaders have expensive plans. Billions in government spending, years of deficits, no balanced budgets, and painful tax increases on working American families. They're ready to tax, ready to spend, but not ready to lead.

We spoke with Len Berman, director of the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, which has produced one of the most authoritative analyses of the two candidates' tax plans. When we asked him if Obama's claim that he would "cut taxes for 95 percent of all working families" was true, Berman told FactCheck.org that it was "consistent with our estimates." Overall, the TPC found that Obama's plan would produce a tax cut for 81.3 percent of all households, and a cut for 95.5 percent of all households with children.

Under Obama's plan, the TPC estimates that people (or couples) making between $37,595 and $66,354 a year would see an average savings of  $1,118 on their taxes. 

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: njcbasketball @ 10/14/2008 2:08:29 PM

    fair: everyone pays the same tax amount
    fair with compassion: we use a tax rate so the people with more money pay proportionate to their income
    Fair with a TON of compassion: we use a PROGRESSIVE tax RATE so the rich pay EVEN MORE of the taxes
    STUPID and bad for the U.S.A: a more progressive rate than we have now. we don't want to be socialistic

  • Posted By: Indy Pat @ 09/11/2008 11:13:27 PM

    Is it my imagination or is Mr. Gregory leaning toward the McCain/.Palin team?

  • Posted By: eric olson @ 09/09/2008 8:11:06 PM

    Sorry, has this worked???
    Eric Olson
    eolson589@hotmail.com

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