Today at NRO, Mark Levin has a brief post that is designed to link to an American Thinker piece that contains all sorts of calculation errors about Obama's taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. proposals. Here's what Levin says:
We too often ignore the fact that Obama's policies would allow the Bush tax cuts to lapse, which would significantly increase taxes on individuals earning $25,000, $50,000, and $75,000 a year. And his plan to lift the cap on Social Security taxes will directly increase taxes on individuals earning far less than $250,000 a year. Moreover, Obama's tax increase on capital gains will ensnare many who are "middle class" income-earners. Obama intends to tax the heck out of everyone, including the "middle class." Here's a very good, common sense piece from the American Thinker.
Obama's income tax plan is relatively clear. There are only a few parts of the Bush tax cuts that are not extended under Obama. They include: reducing of the top two rates (33 goes to 36 and 35 to 39.6), PEP/Pease reinstated, lower rates on cap gains and dividends (Obama pushes them from 15 to 20), and the estate taxAn estate tax is imposed on the net value of an individual’s taxable estate, after any exclusions or credits, at the time of death. The tax is paid by the estate itself before assets are distributed to heirs. (Obama brings it back as does McCain albeit at a lower level than it is set to be in 2011). Except for the estate tax, McCain basically extends the Bush tax cuts 2010 law going forward.
Somebody earning $50,000 would not face a direct taxA direct tax is levied on individuals and organizations and cannot be shifted to another payer. Often with a direct tax, such as the personal income tax, tax rates increase as the taxpayer’s ability to pay increases, resulting in what’s called a progressive tax. hike under Obama's tax plan as stated by his advisers. They would likely receive a tax cut given Obama's proposed credits, although it's basically just a handout. (There are lots of tax cuts that are just handouts and really no different than government spending.) If you want to argue that the higher rates on those at the top will reduce investment and thereby have trickle-down effects on those in the middle, you can argue that. But it's still likely that Obama's plan would on net reduce the tax burden of a person making $50,000 when you balance the lower wages due to higher taxes on investment of those at the top and the tax cut/handout the person is receiving in the form of a tax creditA tax credit is a provision that reduces a taxpayer’s final tax bill, dollar-for-dollar. A tax credit differs from deductions and exemptions, which reduce taxable income, rather than the taxpayer’s tax bill directly. from Obama's plan.
I mean, isn't this "sharing the wealth" what the McCain campaign has been saying for the past three weeks? You can't deny that somebody is getting it.
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