Obama claims that his plan would only hurt 3% of small businesses. But this is highly deceptive. He isn’t lying, but the reports that he cites mean something very specific. They do not mean that 97% of small businesses won’t see higher taxes under Obama’s plan than they see today. Nor do they mean that these businesses would not see higher taxes under Obama’s plan than under McCain’s plan. All the statistic means when is that most businesses would not see higher taxes under Obama’s plan than they would see …
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin received an “A” from Cato. (Newscom) The Cato Institute released its ninth biennial fiscal report card on the nation’s governors yesterday, and topping the list with “A” grade were Charlie Crist of Florida, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Cato grades the governors based on data from their taxing and spending records. Republican governors, on average, received slightly higher grades than Democratic governors. More importantly, there has been a disappointing lack of major spending reforms among governors of both parties …
(Newscom) Barack Obama has claimed he would lower taxes on 95% of workers — even though more than 40% of tax filers don’t even pay taxes. What he says is true, but what it really means is that he is reintroducing a massive increase in the welfare state, costing about $30 billion per year. According to the Center for Data Analysis’ microsimulation modeling, Obama would increase the number of tax filers who receive a check from government without paying any taxes, including payroll taxes — people filing just to receive …
Over the course of three presidential debates, John McCain and Barack Obama have tackled many policy issues — but often in the form of sound bites without much context or detail. Enter a project called VoterWatch. By making it easy to annotate video with its interactive media player, VoterWatch allows users to add their own commentary to the screen itself as the candidates are talking. Several organizations and pundits agreeed to use VoterWatch during the presidential debates, including Heritage. With so many familiar topics playing a major role in Wednesday’s …
Courtesy of William Warren, Americans for Limited Government Americans for Tax Reform has run the numbers for Joe Wurzelbacher. Under the tax plan offered by Barack Obama, the country’s most famous plumber would pay $10,000 more in taxes. Here’s the breakdown: Current Law: Under current law, Joe faces a self-employment tax of $20,768 and an income tax of $49,908 for a total tax liability of $70,676 Obama Tax Hike: Joe’s self-employment tax his risen to $24,488 since he’s paying the full rate after $250,000 of SE tax. His income tax …
During last night’s presidential debate in Hempstead, N.Y., Barack Obama said, “I think tax policy is a major difference between Senator McCain and myself. And we both want to cut taxes, the difference is who we want to cut taxes for.” Obama is half right here. As Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee admitted this summer, Obama and McCain both want to preserve the vast majority of President Bush’s tax cuts. The difference between Obama and McCain on taxes is that where the two do propose minor changes, Obama wants to use …
The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis has just released a study of Barack Obama and John McCain’s tax plans. Using tax models and tax information from other sources as inputs into Global Insight’s U.S. Macroeconomic Model, the study estimates the side-by-side economic effects of the two plans. The study concludes: “Each presidential candidate achieves his stated goal,with Senator McCain generating the most new jobs, growth, and additional income for individuals. Senator Obama’s plan drives up the tax rate for individuals with annual incomes above $250,000 and redistributes money to …
A round-up of Op-Eds from The Heritage Foundation Job Jitters – James Sherk America has faced much more serious problems in the past. If you have a job today that isn’t directly affected by housing markets or energy prices, you have little to fear from reports of rising unemployment.[...] Mr. Smith Didn’t Do This – Michael Franc Beginning in the 1990s, this narrative goes, free market, Republican extremists told government regulators to take a hike so the barons of high finance could indulge in an economic free-for-all, thus producing our …
Heritage’s Rea Hederman discusses three problems with the proposed Economic Stimulus Bill currently before Congress. In July, the Bill was projected to cost $25 billion dollars. Since then, the projected cost has doubled due to spending projects that should have been taken care of with the Budget process. The Bill will also increase the already large national deficit. The most expensive items are proven failures. Hederman also points out sensible measures that Congress can do to help the economy, lower gas prices, as well as lower the cost of food …
In the video below, Barack Obama tells an audience in Norfolk, Va., that there are analysts at The Heritage Foundation “who are acknowledging that my tax plan provides more relief to the average American than John McCain’s does.” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahHpaFKoQDo[/youtube] Here is the actual quote from the New York Sun: Mr. Hederman said the middle class would likely pay less under Mr. Obama’s plan than Mr. McCain’s but that the Democrat was excessively reliant on complicated tax breaks that would make the tax code more confusing. “Instead of a grab bag …
