Barack Obama portrays himself as a fiscally responsible tax cutter who will retrieve the government from the edge of economic abyss - but critics and independent watchdogs say otherwise.
"Here is what I can tell the American people: 95 percent of you will get a tax cut," Obama said during last week's debate.
Again, how is this possible when about 40% or so don't even pay income tax? Well, here is the skinny:
But an analysis by outside critics and independent analysts who have studied Obama's economic policies say it's not that simple.
Obama's definition of a "tax cut," for instance, is less than precise.
Many of the "cuts" for lower-income people are actually "refundable tax credits."
Rather, they are checks from the government handed to people who don't pay income taxes. This spending, of course, is paid for by other taxpayers.
Also, according to the nonpartisan PolitiFact.com, fewer Americans will enjoy tax cuts under Obama's plans than the 95 percent he claims.
PolitiFact scored the claim as "half-true," however, because the portion of "working families" - defined as a working couple with kids - who would get such tax cuts is 95 percent, a point the campaign quickly highlighted.
OK, so we go from 95% of you, the American people, to...OK, well, it really is just 95% of "working families." Then, if he becomes President, he pulls a Clinton and raises taxes anyway.
One of the most heated battles between Obama and John McCain stems from McCain's claim that Obama would raise taxes on people earning as little as $42,000.
While Obama has suggested no such tax hike, he in fact did vote in favor of a nonbinding budget resolution establishing a framework that would have raised taxes on people making as little as $42,000.
"Budget resolutions don't have a whole lot of specifics in them," explained Ben Harris, an economist with the Brookings Institute who has studied both candidates' tax plans.
"But they're general plans for how lawmakers want to tax and spend."
But wait, Obama is lying about something else....how is programs will be paid for:
Obama also would raise Social Security taxes, unlike McCain, applying the tax to income $250,000 and above.
Obama also says all his new programs will be paid for and reduce the deficit.
The Tax Policy Center, using researchers from the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, found that Obama's tax plan would actually add to the national debt by some $3.5 trillion by 2018.
More government spending on things we don't need....is that really the change we need? I don't think so. In a time when rampant spending like drunken sailors and ignoring the debts of individuals are so important, government needs to cut spending to set the example for the American people. But, Obama is playing to fears and wants of being protected, and so leading us on the road to womb to tomb socialism. This is not change we need.
What it is, it is the same type of nonsense, no responsibility B.S. that has been pulled by Fannie and Freddie, and by Dodd and Frank, and the type of stuff you would expect from someone WHO GETS HIS ECONOMIC ADVICE FROM FAN/FRED CEOS who exploited the system and got their golden parachutes: Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, among others.
