Clearing Up The Lies: Taxes

Hard Numbers Show The Truth About Obama's And McCain's Tax Plans

The McCain campaign, the GOP and the Religious Right are making the claim that if Barack Obama is elected President EVERYONE will pay more in taxes - even lower income taxpayers. So what is the truth?

This is nothing but conservative campaign bullshit that aims to scare people into voting for McCain.

Here's how the average tax bill would change in 2009 if either McCain's or Barack Obama's tax proposals were fully in place.*

	MCCAIN	OBAMA
Income	Avg. tax bill	Avg. tax bill
Over $2.9MM	-$269,364	+$701,885
$603K and up	-$45,361	+$115,974
$227K-$603K	-$7,871	+$12
$161K-$227K	-$4,380	-$2,789
$112K-$161K	-$2,614	-$2,204
$66K-$112K	-$1,009	-$1,290
$38K-$66K	-$319	-$1,042
$19K-$38K	-$113	-$892
Under $19K	-$19	-$567

*Results of non-partisan study released by the Tax Policy Center on 6/11/08. Also, color coding was added to the chart to more easily distinguish between the upper, middle and lower classes.

Without any partisan bias or opinions, what observations can legitimately be drawn from these results?

First - Obama is raising taxes substantially on the upper class. He has been very forthright about this.
Second - McCain wants to cut taxes substantially for the upper class. This has not been one of his talking points.
Third - Both candidates plan to cut taxes for the middle class.
Fourth - McCain is cutting taxes least for the lowest income classes.

Hard Numbers Show The Truth About Obama's And McCain's Tax Plans

Without any partisan bias or opinions, what observations can legitimately be drawn from these results?

First - Obama is raising taxes substantially on the upper class. He has been very forthright about this.

Second - McCain wants to cut taxes substantially for the upper class. This has not been one of his talking points.

Third - Both candidates plan to cut taxes for the middle class.

Fourth - McCain is cutting taxes least for the lowest income classes.