{"id":756,"date":"2008-10-13T10:18:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-13T14:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=756"},"modified":"2008-10-13T10:18:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-13T14:18:00","slug":"95-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/13\/95-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"95% Illusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wall Street Journal has a great analysis of Barack Obama’s “tax cut” proposals today. The Journal’s analysis should come as a surprise to anyone… In short Obama “tax cuts” are 95% illusion.<\/p>\n

One of Barack Obama’s most potent campaign claims is that he’ll cut taxes for no less than 95% of “working families.” He’s even promising to cut taxes enough that the government’s tax share of GDP will be no more than 18.2% — which is lower than it is today.<\/p>\n

It’s a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he’s also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income taxes at all? There are several sleights of hand, but the most creative is to redefine the meaning of “tax cut.”<\/p>\n

For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase “tax credit.” Mr. Obama is proposing to create or expand no fewer than seven such credits for individuals:<\/p>\n

Read the rest…<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As an aside take a look at the Tax Policy Center’s report on Effective Marginal Tax Rates<\/a> under each of the candidates plans… It’s a rather dry read but the bottom line is:<\/p>\n

Overall, because it would extend all of the individual income tax components of the 2001\u201306 cuts and increase the dependent exemption, the McCain plan would lower the average EMTR for all households slightly relative to a tax cuts extended baseline and significantly compared with current law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wall Street Journal has a great analysis of Barack Obama’s “tax cut” proposals today. The Journal’s analysis should come as a surprise to anyone… In short Obama “tax cuts” are 95% illusion. One of Barack Obama’s most potent campaign claims is that he’ll cut taxes for no less than 95% of “working families.” He’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,34],"tags":[57,40,230],"class_list":["post-756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","category-taxes","tag-barack-obama","tag-john-mccain","tag-tax-cuts","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-cc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1583,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/26\/barack-obamas-2-illusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":756,"position":0},"title":"Barack Obama’s 2% Illusion","author":"Jeff","date":"February 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From the Wall Street Journal: President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end \"tax breaks for the wealthiest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1039,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/22\/newt-lets-have-a-real-middle-class-tax-cut\/","url_meta":{"origin":756,"position":1},"title":"Newt: Let’s Have a Real Middle-Class Tax Cut","author":"Jeff","date":"November 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been a little out of pocket over the last couple of days so guess you could say I'm playing a bit of catchup with this post. I suspect most of you read Newt Gingrich's Wall Street Journal Op Ed on middle class tax cuts: Let's Have a Real Middle-Class\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2103,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/01\/obamas-tax-cut-may-include-a-rude-surprise-for-some-taxpayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":756,"position":2},"title":"Obama’s Tax Cut May Include a Rude Surprise for Some Taxpayers","author":"Jeff","date":"May 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Millions of taxpayers could be in for a rude surprise next spring thanks to Pres. Obama's \"Making Work Pay\" tax credit: WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Millions of Americans enjoying their small windfall from President Barack Obama's \"Making Work Pay\" tax credit are in for an unpleasant surprise next spring. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1617,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/06\/is-obama-intentionally-destroying-our-economy\/","url_meta":{"origin":756,"position":3},"title":"Is Obama Intentionally Destroying Our Economy???","author":"Jeff","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Never assume malice where incompetence will suffice. Over the last few days I've been hearing various theories that essentially say... The Obama administration is deliberately damaging the economy and gutting the stock market on the theory that doing so will make it easier for them to argue \"the free market\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":725,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/08\/100-economists-warn-that-barck-obamas-tax-proposals-could-throw-the-us-economy-into-recession\/","url_meta":{"origin":756,"position":4},"title":"100 Economists Warn That Barack Obama’s Tax Proposals Could Throw the US Economy into Recession","author":"Jeff","date":"October 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been debating whether to post this all day... Yes, it's from the McCain campaign but ultimately I think it would be foolish to dismiss the opinion of a group of experienced economists out of hand. Economists Statement On Barack Obama's Risky Economic Proposals 100 ECONOMISTS WARN THAT WITH CURRENT\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1451,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/02\/daschles-tax-evasion\/","url_meta":{"origin":756,"position":5},"title":"Daschle’s Tax Evasion","author":"Jeff","date":"February 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"By now you've all heard about Health and Human Services secretary nominee Tom Daschle's tax shenanigans. Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama's choice for secretary of Health and Human Services, paid about $140,000 in back taxes and interest after questions surfaced during the vetting of his nomination, according to documents being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}