McCain Screws The Pooch

Hey all. This one is about a week old. I'm sorry for the delay; I've been busy watching this over and over again on an infinite loop in hopes that it will cause me irreversible brain damage, at which point I might be able to score a handicapped placard for my car. It hasn't worked so far, but I did happen to stop the loop long enough to find another string of nonsense spewing forth from the smirking mouth of John McCain's campaign.

SUMMARY: McCain's campaign has released ads that state or imply that Obama will raise taxes on people making as little as $42,000 a year, and that he has a history of doing so. In actuality, Obama has no plans whatsoever to do this; he will raise taxes only on individuals making more than $200,000 a year, and families making more than $250,000 a year.

Furthermore, Obama does not have a "history" of voting for these increases; he has never once voted yes on or supported any such legislation. He once voted yes on a non-binding resolution that, if followed, would have resulted in a fifteen-dollar tax increase for individuals making $42,000 a year. However, that portion of the resolution was not followed, and that increase in taxes never occurred.

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McCain released three ads recently; all with a common theme, and all with a different version of a false claim regarding Obama's tax plan for the middle class. Let's give a quick rundown of them all.

1. This TV ad plays up Obama's "celebrity" status, and features the following narration:

"Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000."

It is accompanied by a clip of a mother with her child, and a block of text that reads "Obama: Raise taxes on middle class."

2. This ad, which also uses the "celebrity" angle, contained the following quote:

"You've seen in him London, Paris, and Berlin. Now, you too can join The One's fan club right here in America. The perks are amazing - like a tax increase for everyone earning more than $42,000 a year."

It is accompanied by the text: "Obama voted to raise taxes on everyone making $42,000 a year."

3. This radio ad states:

"Official records document Barack Obama has a history of raising taxes, even on middle class Americans making just $42,000 a year."

These ads are all different, but they all communicate the same message: Obama will raise taxes on people who make as little as $42,000 a year. I will say right off the bat: This is not true. Barack Obama will only raise taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 a year, and families making $250,000 a year.

Where did McCain get the $42,000 number? In March 2008, Obama voted yes on a non-binding budget resolution. Under this resolution, individuals making $42,000 a year would see a tax increase.

However, consider the following:

It was a non-binding resolution. This means it was a general guideline for the congressional tax-writing committees to observe, not a piece of legislation that, if passed, would necessarily be implemented.

The resolution didn't contain any provisions that would raise taxes; it simply assumed that the 2003 tax cuts would expire, as they're set to, in 2011, which would result in the aforementioned tax increase.

The resolution didn't actually result in any tax increases (because, as I stated, the non-binding resolution was simply a suggestion, not a piece of actual legislation).

The actual amount of the tax increase for Americans making $42,000 a year under the resolution would have been $15. That's fight - fifteen bucks. That's the same price as the bagel and lox platter I had at Jerry's Deli back in July (admittedly, Jerry's Deli is absurdly overpriced).

Most importantly, this tax increase is not contained in any of the tax plans Obama has proposed for his presidency..

With all this in mind, let's re-assess McCain's claims. Is he lying, or simply being misleading? The answer, I think, is both. Statements like "Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000" are somewhat open to interpretation. If the phrase "voted to raise taxes" refers to casting a "yes" vote on anything with the potential to raise taxes, then yes, he did. But if the phrase refers to voting yes on something that, if passed, would guarantee an increase in taxes, then the claim is false. The statement is misleading, but not patently false.

Then there's stuff like, "You can join [Obama's] fan club right here in America. The perks are amazing - like a tax increase for everyone earning more than $42,000 a year." Again, this doesn't actually contain the words, "Obama will raise taxes on people making $42,000 a year" (which would be false), but it implies that with such force that I, personally, would say it qualifies as a false statement. That's admittedly debatable, but it's a semantic debate on what qualifies as false - no one could argue that it's not a statement constructed with the intent to mislead.

But then we have, "Official records document Barack Obama has a history of raising taxes, even on middle class Americans making just $42,000 a year." That is completely, 100% untrue, and this is the kind of stuff McCain shouldn't be getting away with. Obama does not have a history of raising taxes on people making $42,000 a year. No vote he's ever cast, no legislation he's ever supported has had this effect. As I said earlier, the resolution in question did not actually result in a tax increase, indirectly or directly, for anybody making $42,000 a year. It was a proposed guideline, but supporting a proposed guideline is not the same as having a "history of increasing taxes."

Once again, just for the record: The only individuals who will see a tax increase under Obama's plan are those who make more than $200,000 a year. Families must make more than $250,000 in order to see this increase.

More info: FactCheck.org

The McCain campaign released another ad today. It's viciously anti-Obama, as one might expect, but interestingly enough, nothing is said of McCain during the entire ad.

Narrator: He's the biggest celebrity in the world. Is he ready to lead?

With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says "no offshore drilling," and says he'll raise taxes on electricity.

High taxes, more foreign oil. That's the real Barack Obama.

John McCain: I'm John McCain, and I approve this message

Notice how the ad focuses entirely on Obama; nothing is said of how McCain will deal with those issues (and there's reason for that, as you'll soon see). McCain is mentioned once: when he identifies himself, to let us know that he approves of this message. That's all. The message isn't "McCain is the best choice for America;" rather, it's, "Obama is a bad choice for America, so you might as well go with the other guy."

This ad uses similar tactics as his last ad against Obama. Let's address these claims once more.

With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says "no offshore drilling"

I addressed this earlier, but the fact of the matter is that increasing offshore drilling would not have any effect on domestic gas prices until 2030, according to the EIA. Linking Obama's opposition to offshore drilling to rising gas prices is an intentionally misleading move on McCain's part (that, or he doesn't understand that offshore drilling takes as long as it does to bring down gas prices, which is equally worrying).

He says he'll raise taxes on electricity

It's unclear exactly what this is in reference to. It could be referring to Obama's plan for a cap-and-trade system, in which gas and oil companies must pay a tax for every ton of pollution that they emit in efforts to bring down pollution levels. This tax on the companies would likely be passed down to the consumer as well via the gas companies raising prices, and in that sense, could be seen as "raising taxes on electricity."

However, if this is indeed what McCain's talking about, then he's guilty of the same thing. In fact, McCain authored cap-and-trade legislation in 2003, alongside Senator Joe Lieberman. If this is what he's now criticizing Obama for, then McCain is guilty of outright hypocrisy once again.

In a town hall speech he gave in Virginia, McCain claimed that Barack Obama's proposed tax plan would "increase taxes on 23 million small business owners." He stated that Obama's plan includes a required health-care tax on small businesses. This tax, he claims, would increase their costs of business, resulting, ultimately, in layoffs.

Unfortunately for McCain, this is an extremely flawed argument. The U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy estimates that, in 2006, there were 26.8 million business in the US, with 99.9% of them being "small" businesses (that is, those with fewer than 500 employees). That sounds kosher. The problem here is that the SBA considers everyone who reports $1,000 or more in business receipts as a "small business owner." That includes many people who don't own a business, but simply make a small bit of side income from freelance work. Many of these people, of course, do not operate a business at all, and don't have any employees that they could lay off (even if they wanted to).

Let's get the fact straight: As this radio ad released by Obama's campaign clarifies, Obama's plan only calls for increases in taxes on couples who make more than $250,000 a year in income, or singles making more than $200,000.

More info: FactCheck.org article.