In a speech today, John McCain repeated the
misleading attack that “Senator Obama will raise
your taxes.”
In reality, Senator Obama’s plan will not raise
taxes and will provide a bigger break for middle
class Americans than McCain’s plan. As numerous
outside observers agree [see BACKGROUND], McCain’s
claims that Obama will raise taxes are “wrong,”
“false,” and “misleading.”
John McCain and his campaign will continue to
repeat these false claims, and we need you to be
vigilant about making sure people know the facts.
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BACKGROUND
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THE MISLEADING MCCAIN RHETORIC:
“We need to keep the IRS from taking more of your
income and making life harder for small business.
If you believe you should pay more taxes, I am the
wrong candidate for you. Senator Obama is your
man. The choice in this election is stark and
simple. Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I
won't. I will cut them where I can. Jobs are the
most important thing our economy creates. When you
raise taxes in a bad economy you eliminate jobs.
I'm not going to let that happen. Senator Obama's
tax increases will hurt the economy even more, and
destroy jobs across this country.” [McCain Speech,
7/7/08]
THE FACTS: OUTSIDE OBSERVERS AGREE THAT CLAIMS
THAT OBAMA WILL RAISE TAXES ARE “WRONG,” “FALSE,”
“MISLEADING”
Washington Post Fact Checker: McCain Campaign
Attacks on Obama Tax Plan “Overblown,” “Wrong,”
and “Greatly Exaggerated.” “The McCain camp is
attempting to persuade Americans that their taxes
will increase dramatically with Barack Obama as
president. The presumptive Republican nominee has
repeatedly said that Obama would enact ‘the
largest tax increase since the Second World War.’
A surrogate, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly
Fiorina, insists that Obama has not proposed ‘a
single tax cut’ and wants to ‘raise every tax in
the book.’ … The claim that Obama will ‘enact’
the largest tax increase since World War II is
also overblown. The Bush tax cuts will expire
automatically at the end of 2010, so it is hardly
a question of ‘enacting’ a new tax increase. ...
Carly Fiorina is wrong to claim that Obama has
proposed no tax cuts and wants to raise ‘every tax
in the book.’” [Washington Post, 6/11/08]
Politifact: McCain’s Statement That Obama’s Tax
Plan Would Raise Taxes Is “False.” Politifact
reported, “So calling it a tax increase might not
be considered fair. There's no disputing that
taxes will rise, but the question of who's
responsible for that tax increase is another
matter entirely. At PolitiFact, we've concluded,
as have others, that it's unfair to call Obama's
plan a tax increase merely because it doesn't
change existing tax law to keep rates low. We
think about it this way: The reason taxes will
increase is because of tax policy signed into law
not by Obama, but by somebody else… the more
recent data — combined with the fact that Obama's
proposal does not constitute a tax increase in the
traditional sense, since some taxes would be lower
under his plan than they would under current law —
persuades us to classify McCain's statement as
False.” [Politifact, 6/11/08]
FactCheck.Org: McCain's Largest Tax Increase
Charge Wrong and Misleading. According to the
Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Factcheck.org:
“By the measure most economists prefer, McCain is
wrong in his claim that Sens. Clinton and Obama
want to implement "the single largest tax increase
since the Second World War;"… At a more basic
level, it's misleading to tag Clinton and Obama
for something that was scheduled during the Bush
administration – the expiration of the 2001 and
2003 Bush tax cuts, which by law will occur at the
end of 2010.” [Factcheck.org, 5/14/2008]
THE FACTS: OBAMA’S TAX PLAN WILL PROVIDE A BIGGER
BREAK FOR MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES THAN MCCAIN’S
According to the non partisan Tax Policy Center’s
computations, “under Mr. Obama’s plan, the middle
of the middle class, or those earning $37,595 to
$66,354, would see taxes cut by $1,042 a year.
Under Mr. McCain’s plan, taxes for people in that
category would also fall, but by $319; the largest
chunk of the benefits would go to those making
$2.8 million a year or more.” [New York Times,
6/13/08]
For more background, visit:
http://ActionWire.BarackObama.com
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