For Immediate Release
September 30, 2008

 

Even if he really did want to provide the tax relief he is promising, would a Democratic Congress let Senator Obama make good on most of his promises that he will provide middle-class tax relief? Also, would a Democratic Congress fight attempts by Senator McCain to enact the tax relief proposals that he has made?

 

 

Similar promises to those made by Senator Obama were made by Candidate Clinton in 1992. Candidate Clinton said that taxes wouldn’t be raised on people making under $200,000. However, President Clinton then raised taxes on everyone making $20,000 and over in 1993.

 

 

Perhaps Senator Obama would be able to provide some of the tax relief that he’s been promising, but only to those Americans falling within his narrow version of the middle class, stopping at individuals making $66,000 or less, that he’s been using in the campaign ads stating that he will provide 3 times more tax breaks than Senator McCain. Senator Obama has changed his definition of the middle class from $250,000 and below in his public statements to those making $66,000 and below in his campaign ads and on his campaign website.

 

 

This is definitely change, but if you make more than $66,000, I wouldn’t think this is change you’d ever want to believe in. One man’s change is another man’s flip-flop.

 

 

Considering the history when the Democratic party has been in control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, are you confident that the Democrats won’t raise taxes on you if you make $67,000, which is above the middle class according to one of Senator Obama’s two inconsistent definitions of the middle class? As history has shown us, the largest tax increases come when the Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.

 

 

We need to carefully scrutinize Senator Obama’s claim that Senator McCain wouldn’t provide any tax relief at all for 100 million Americans, citing the IRS’s statistics of income tax stats.

 

 

Moreover, Senator Obama has criticized Senator McCain’s tax relief plan by saying that Senator McCain’s plan would not provide any direct tax cut other than increasing the dependant exemption. Even the nominally non-partisan Tax Policy Center states that Senator McCain would provide tax cuts for all Americans, as did the 2001 and 2003 bipartisan tax cuts.

 

 

I yield the floor.

 

 

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Senate Democrats’ Wall of Built-in Tax Increases for Single Mother

Obama and McCain Tax Plans Under Current Law