It must be rather frustrating for the McCain campaign to have so few honest arguments to make. I can sympathize — if I worked for McCain, I’m not sure what I’d do to sell this clunker of a campaign to the public, either.
Looking at the McCain gang’s latest ad, it’s painfully obvious that this team has decided the only way to win is to deceive as many voters as possible.
The voice-over tells the viewer, “Celebrity? Yes. Ready to lead? No. Obama’s new taxes could break your family budget. The press warns the ‘taxman cometh.’ Obama’s taxes mean ‘higher prices at the pump.’ Obama’s taxes a ‘recipe for economic disaster.’ Higher taxes. Higher gas prices. Economic disaster. That’s the real Obama.”
It’s a shame there are still 81 days until the election; I’m running out of adjectives to describe the McCain’s offensive dishonesty.
In this case
, McCain is clinging to the ol’ GOP standard — “Eek! The Democrat wants to raise your taxes!” — like an electoral life preserver. It is, of course, completely wrong.
Just yesterday, in a Wall Street Journal piece, Jason Furman and Austan Goolsbee, economic policy advisors for Obama, wrote about Obama’s tax policy in some detail.
Both candidates for president have proposed tax plans. But they are starkly different in their approaches and their economic impact. Sen. Obama is focused on cutting taxes for middle-class families and small businesses, and investing in key areas like health, innovation and education. He would do this while cutting unnecessary spending, paying for his proposals and bringing down the budget deficit.
In contrast, John McCain offers what would essentially be a third Bush term, with his economic speeches outlining $3.4 trillion of tax cuts over 10 years beyond what President Bush has already proposed and geared even more to high-income earners. The McCain plan would lead to deficits the likes of which we have never seen in this country. It would take money from the middle class and from future generations so that the wealthy can live better today.
Sen. Obama believes a focus on the middle class is appropriate in the wake of the first economic expansion on record where the typical family’s income fell by almost $1,000. The Obama plan would cut taxes for 95% of workers and their families with a tax cut of $500 for workers or $1,000 for working couples. In addition, Sen. Obama is proposing tax cuts for low- and middle-income seniors, homeowners, the uninsured, and families sending a child to college or looking to save and accumulate wealth.
The Obama plan would dramatically simplify taxes by consolidating existing tax credits, eliminating the need for millions of senior citizens to file tax forms, and enabling as many as 40 million middle-class filers to do their own taxes in less than five minutes and not have to hire an accountant.
Sen. Obama also recognizes that small businesses are the engine of job growth in the economy. That is why he is proposing additional tax cuts, including a tax credit for small businesses that provide health care, and the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups. The vast majority of small businesses would face lower taxes under the Obama plan than under the McCain plan. In addition, Sen. Obama supports reforming corporate taxes in a manner that would help create jobs in America and simplify the tax code by eliminating distortions and special preferences.
Sen. Obama believes that responsible candidates must put forward specific ideas of how they would pay for their proposals. That is why he would repeal a portion of the tax cuts passed in the last eight years for families making over $250,000. But to be clear: He would leave their tax rates at or below where they were in the 1990s. […]
Sen. Obama believes that one of the principal problems facing the economy today is the lack of discretionary income for middle-class wage earners. That’s why his plan would not raise any taxes on couples making less than $250,000 a year, nor on any single person with income under $200,000 — not income taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend or payroll taxes.
In contrast, Sen. McCain’s tax plan largely leaves the middle class behind. His one and only middle-class tax cut — a slow phase-in of a bigger dependent exemption — would provide no benefit whatsoever to 101 million families who do not have children or other dependents, or who have a low income.
But Sen. McCain’s plan does include one new proposal that would result in higher taxes on the middle class. As even Sen. McCain’s advisers have acknowledged, his health-care plan would impose a $3.6 trillion tax increase over 10 years on workers. Sen. McCain’s plan will count the health care you get from your employer as if it were taxable cash income. Even after accounting for Sen. McCain’s proposed health-care tax credits, this plan would eventually leave tens of millions of middle-class families paying higher taxes. In addition, as the Congressional Budget Office has shown, this kind of plan would push people into higher tax brackets and increase the taxes people pay as their compensation rises, raising marginal tax rates by even more than if we let the entire Bush tax-cut plan expire tomorrow.
The McCain plan represents Bush economics on steroids. It has $3.4 trillion more in tax cuts than President Bush is proposing, largely directed at corporations and the most affluent. Sen. McCain would implement these cuts without proposing any meaningful steps to simplify taxes or eliminate distortions and loopholes. In addition, Sen. McCain has floated over $1 trillion in new spending increases but barely any specific spending cuts.
Of course, McCain is desperately counting on the notion that voters are idiots, and won’t care about the facts. McCain could engage Obama in an honest debate about tax policy, but he can’t — he knows he’d lose.
So, we get garbage like his latest TV ad. Something digby recently said continues to ring true, “I am really starting to hate this unctuous, double-talking creep.”