FactCheck Nails McCain on Taxes

Non-partisan web-site FactCheck.org cites the McCain campaign for false statements about Barack Obama's tax policies.

The McCain campaign claims that Obama voted to raise income taxes on individuals who earn as little as $32,000 per year. That's wrong.

The resolution Obama voted for would not have increased taxes on any single taxpayer making less than $41,500 per year in total income, or any couple making less than $83,000. The $32,000 figure is approximately the taxable income of a single person making $41,500 per year, after all deductions and exclusions.

Obama's vote (for a non-binding budget bill) does not change the fact that his own tax plan would provide a tax cut of $502 for a non-married taxpayer earning $35,000.

TSC's running tally of false statements according to FactCheck in the 2008 general election campaign now stands at McCain 9, Obama 4. It is uncertain whether the recent surge in citations of the McCain campaign for false or misleading rhetoric is due to the influx of proteges of Karl Rove. However, the McCain campaign is beginning to resemble the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign run by Rove that also relied on consistently false statements about its own policies and those of the Kerry-Edwards campaign.