Catapulting the Propaganda on Taxes

September 15th, 2008
By ELYAS BAKHTIARI

If there ever was a doubt that a lie repeated often enough can supplant the truth in people’s perceptions of reality, take a look at the two graphs below. The first is from the Tax Policy Center and compares the after-income effects of the McCain and Obama tax proposals.

Now, take a look at what Americans believe each candidate’s tax proposal will do:

Although only 1% of Americans will see an actual tax increase under Obama’s plan, 53% believe he will increase their taxes. I was a little curious why Republicans hammered Obama so hard on taxes during the convention when his policy actually benefits most Americans more than McCain’s. I guess they just thought they wouldn’t get called on it.

H/T to Hilzoy. Cross-posted at Ablogistan.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 1:15 pm and is filed under RNC St. Paul Convention, Newsweek Blogitics, Taxes, Barack Obama, 2008 Elections. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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superdestroyer 3 months ago 0 points
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Even though the Republicans have no credibility on fiscal matters, I believe it was Bill Clinton who killed the Democrats crediblity on taxes. It is clear that Senator Obama, after inaugurated, will say that the situaiton is more severe and will propose more and higher tax increase. Also, with the Democrats in full control of the government, they will not be able to resisit very high tax increases.

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-111 /people/superdestroyer/ /people/superdestroyer/following/

DLS 3 months ago 0 points
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Don't just stop at income taxes. I'll give Obama full credit for his plan. What about payroll, i.e., Social Security taxes? Obama's "doughnut" makes no sense except as directly designed pork for the affluent "progressives" that were his original fan base. What about any new consumption taxes, what about taxes on motor vehicle fuels, what about so-called "carbon taxes"? Note that his Social Security tax change will not save Social Security and logically, higher taxes for everyone (raising the percentage) is in order. (It's defective on moral grounds, but this payroll tax could be made progressive in nature rather than feature a single fixed rate.) Will Obama adjust the Social Security benefits upward for those who get hit with the new high taxes? If not, Obama is a thief. (The question of "replacement ratio" and a regressive benefit ratio scheme that decreases as benefits go upward, to most assist those at the bottom, is another tool that can be applied to place reasonable limits on benefits for those at the top.)

Noteworthy is that Obama is consistent and uses the same figure for "truly higher income" for both Social Security and income taxes. ($250,000 annually) This level in fact passes the real world sniff test (reality check). (Boundary between poor and middle class in the real world is the price of a typical automobile or somewhat above $20,000 annually; the $250,000 boundary Obama uses is good for the division among middle and high incomes. It's roughly ten times, something sought by left activists when considering a "maximum wage," but this is merely and interestingly coincidental.)

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-281 /people/DLS/ /people/DLS/following/

n8dogg 3 months ago 1 point
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Business and corporate taxes (which Obama supports) are nothing but smoke screens used by politicians to disguise taxes. That is why democrats will always raise the taxes on businesses and corporations, people won't notice the long term effect that has on their 401k or inflation in the economy. People aren't willing or capable of thinking ' where will the businesses get the money to pay those taxes'? The answer is most always from the individual consumer.

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Ricorun 3 months ago 2 points
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Even Alan Greenspan has issues with McCain's proposed tax policies. Specifically, he says the nation can't afford the $3.3 trillion in tax cuts McCain proposes without tying them to cuts in spending. "I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money."

Unfortunately, that's exactly what McCain's chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, is suggesting. He said, “I would like the next president not to talk about deficit reduction.”

Kinda sounds like more of the same to me.

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Jazz 3 months ago 1 point
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While it's a rare day, I have to say that I agree with Superdestroyer, at least to a degree. What we are promised by *any* candidate prior to their swearing in date rarely bears any more resemblance to to post election reality than the original model does to a Picasso painting. They can say all they want, but the old "situation has changed and things are worse than we thought" is a convenient whipping boy. I actually think it's possible that McCain will be forced to pull a Bush Senior if he wins and wind up increasing some "fees" someplace along the line.

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43 /people/Jazz/ /people/Jazz/following/ http://www.blogtalkradio.com/msr

pacatrue 3 months ago 2 points
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I think the comments answer your question, Elyas. A certain segment of the population is convinced Obama will raise taxes, no matter what the policy platform is in reality.

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Elyas 3 months ago 2 points
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n8dogg: Corporations can't pass on taxes to consumers without consequences. Even a relative necessity like oil is subject to a drop in demand when the price spikes. I agree that corporations will try to do whatever they can to pass on tax increases, but it's not so simple as just raising prices for consumers.

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jwest 3 months ago 0 points
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Want to stop “tax breaks for the rich”?

Here is the answer:

http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename...

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RememberNovember 3 months ago 1 point
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silly rabbit! People don't read tax charts! Taxin's for kids!

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CStanley 3 months ago 0 points
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As several people have noted here, promises during campaigns are never what they're cracked up to be. What's interesting is that if you read the report from which the chart is excerpted, almost every paragraph bears that caveat- that the projections are only based on their best estimates of what the candidates are saying they will do.

And perhaps voters are smart enough to note that the multitude of programs that Obama promises will cost a boatload of money, and also smart enough to know that you can't squeeze an infinite amount of money out of the 'wealthy'.

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Catapulting the Propaganda on Taxes

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