McCain = Bush: more of the same.

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The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee both claim that Obama has voted 94 times “for higher taxes.” We find that their count is padded.

After looking at every one of the 94 votes that the RNC includes in its tally, we find:

– Twenty-three were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all; they were against proposed tax cuts.

– Seven of the votes were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for many, while raising them on a relative few, either corporations or affluent individuals.

– Eleven votes the GOP is counting would have increased taxes on those making more than $1 million a year – in order to fund programs such as Head Start and school nutrition programs, or veterans’ health care.

– The GOP sometimes counted two, three and even four votes on the same measure. We found their tally included a total of 17 votes on seven measures, effectively padding their total by 10.

– The majority of the 94 votes – 53 of them, including some mentioned above – were on budget measures, not tax bills, and would not have resulted in any tax change. Four other votes were non-binding motions related to conference report negotiations.

It’s true that most of the votes the GOP counts would either have increased taxes for some, or set budget targets calling for such increases. But by repeating their inflated 94-vote figure, the McCain campaign and the GOP falsely imply that Obama has pushed indiscriminately to raise taxes for nearly everybody. A closer look reveals that he’s voted consistently to restore higher tax rates on upper-income taxpayers but not on middle- or low-income workers. That’s consistent with what he’s said he’d do as president, which is to raise taxes only on those making more than $250,000 a year.

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According to the 2008 tax code, the 25% bracket for single returns (and married filing separately returns) starts at $32,550; one assumes that this is where McCain is getting that number. But it’s a gross mischaracterization to say that an increase on that bracket “mean[s] a tax increase for those earning as little as $32,000,” for two reasons: the standard deduction, and the personal exemption. For the tax year 2008, the personal exemption is $3,500 for a single filer, and the standard deduction is $5,450. This means that the threshold for people who would be affected by the proposed tax hike isn’t $32,000, as McCain claims, but $41,500. By no means wealthy, but an individual with that income shouldn’t be struggling, either. And it’s a real income almost 30% higher than McCain’s figure, not far off of the median household income (including family households).

Consider a single person making $42,000 — $10,000 per year more than McCain’s advertised $32,000 figure. That taxpayer sees an increase in effective taxation of a whopping $15 per year (or about 0.04%). Yep, that tax hike sure would put middle-class taxpayers on the express train to the poor house, no doubt about it!

But hey… that is from a left-leaning blog, so yo umay discount that (although it does provide proof for the comments).

So…. how about this non-partisan piece?

Obama voted twice in favor of a budget resolution that would have raised marginal tax rates on the 25% bracket by three percentage points. Budget resolutions, though, set wide targets and don’t have the force of law. The same budget resolution called for middle class tax relief and AMT reform; it’s hard to sustain the charge that Obama actually “voted” for tax hikes because he wasn’t voting on a bill — he was voting to give Senate taxwriters a set of guidelines for them to maneuever. In general, though, the public conflates resolutions and bills and Congressional Democrats’ budget resolutions certainly speak to the priorities of the party. Domestic spending would increase, offset by the expiration of a good chunk of the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. As NBC’s Ken Strickland notes, if all the Bush tax cuts expire, folks who pay taxes in the 25% bracket could pay more than they do now.

Now — Obama has separately promised to keep those lower brackets at their Bush levels and let the reductions on higher tax brackets expire. And the Tax Policy Center has concluded that his plans would offer more relief to middle class taxpayers.

But the budget resolution that he voted for does not make that distinction. Instead, it extends the marriage penalty tax cut, the child tax credit, the 10% bracket and even death/estate tax relief.

The same resolution aspires to balance the budget by 2013, so with the logic used by the McCain campaign, Obama also twice “voted” for a balanced budget by the end of his first term.

That is from TheAtlantic.com