Amidst Pitbull Palin’s snarky one-liners during her speech at the Republican National Convention, she threw in the standard accusation about how Democrats are all about “big government” and how Democrats are going to raise taxes if they get elected. As expected, all of the Republicans in the audience hissed and booed,. stomping their feet in mock horror for the cameras. McBush made the same accusation about Obama, saying: “I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them.”
Putting aside for a moment how the Republicans, with all the money they have spent on the military, training and providing arms to foreign governments, and invading Iraq during the last 8 years, could possibly be called anything but big government, let’s look for a moment at the tax reality.
According to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, cited in the New York Times:
McBush’s accusation ”drastically simplifies what the candidates’ tax plans would do. Mr. McCain would preserve all of the Bush tax cuts, while Mr. Obama would let them expire for those making more than $250,000 a year. Mr. McCain would also double the child tax exemption to $7,000 and reduce business taxes. Mr. Obama would reduce income taxes and provide credits for people earning less than $250,000 a year. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that Mr. Obama’s plan would amount to a tax cut for 81 percent of all households, or 95.5 percent of those with children. The center calculated that by 2012 the Obama plan would let middle-income taxpayers keep about 5 percent more income on average, or nearly $2,200 a year, while Mr. McCain would give them an average 3 percent break, or about $1,400. The richest 1 percent would pay an average $19,000 more in taxes each year under Mr. Obama’s plan but see a tax cut of more than $125,000 under Mr. McCain.
