Fact Check Accuses McCain of Misrepresenting Obama’s Tax Proposals, Again

A couple of weeks ago I showed how Factcheck.org and other sources were demonstrating that John McCain was distorting Obama’s record and position on taxes. Factcheck.org reports that McCain is at it again. From their summary:

McCain released three new ads with multiple false and misleading claims about Obama’s tax proposals.

  • A TV spot claims Obama once voted for a tax increase “on people making just $42,000 a year.” That’s true for a single taxpayer, who would have seen a tax increase of $15 for the year – if the measure had been enacted. But the ad shows a woman with two children, and as a single mother, she would not have been affected unless she made more than $62,150. The increase that Obama once supported as part of a Democratic budget bill is not part of his current tax plan anyway.
  • A Spanish-language radio ad claims the measure Obama supported would have raised taxes on “families” making $42,000, which is simply false. Even a single mother with one child would have been able to make $58,650 without being affected. A family of four with income up to $90,000 would not have been affected.
  • The TV ad claims in a graphic that Obama would “raise taxes on middle class.” In fact, Obama’s plan promises cuts for middle-income taxpayers and would increase rates only for persons with family incomes above $250,000 or with individual incomes above $200,000.
  • The radio ad claims Obama would increase taxes “on the sale of your home.” In fact, home-sale profits of up to $500,000 per couple would continue to be exempt from capital gains taxes. Very few sales would see an increase under Obama’s proposal to raise the capital gains rate.
  • A second radio ad, in English, says, “Obama has a history of raising taxes” on middle-class Americans. But that’s false. It refers to a vote that did not actually result in a tax increase and could not have done so.
These ads continue what’s become a pattern of misrepresentation by the McCain campaign about his opponent’s tax proposals.

The full article gives further detail on these distortions as well as repeating previous distortions from McCain. The article concludes by noting, “These ads continue his long-running pattern of deception on taxes.”

4 Comments

  1. 1
    Nathan says:

    In all fairness, FactCheck has been noting some Obama inaccuracies as well.

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    True, but the inaccuracies they have been reporting from Obama have been trivial compared to those from McCain.

  3. 3
    Jerry says:

    I know this suggestion might be a “nanny state” idea, but why can’t we have a law that keeps politicians from outright lies on their commercials?  The problem is that a high percentage will see these ads and a low percentage will ever see or hear about factcheck’s appraisal of them.  Worse still, it seems that the more someone lies the less people want to hear about it.  It’s negative, so they tune it out and then they only hear what the lier says.
    My solution is simplistic, I know.  But sometimes fairness needs to be.

  4. 4
    Tom Flannigan says:

    Simplicity is beauty, you know.
    The problem with a law banning lies is that there are too many special interests in DC, too many lobbyists preventing the truth to be published and allowing lies to be circulated. Just look at the news in recent years–especially in the case of Fox News (who’s really just looking for the “shocker” angle) there have been allegations that Obama is Muslim (false), that the fist-pound he gave his wife was a “terrorist fist-jab,” and a slew of others. The fact is, 30 years ago, this bull would have never been published–or would have, with equal distribution among candidates.
    The most we can do is tell everyone we know the truth. A pain, yes, but if they tell everyone they know, and everyone they know, and so on, the facts will become visible exponentially.

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