Ira Stoll on Obama's Fact-Challenged Tax Claim

On CBS News's "60 Minutes" Sunday night, President Obama said, "Taxes are lower on families than they've been probably in the last 50 years. So I haven't raised taxes." As of Monday morning, neither the Washington Post's Pinocchio-awarding Fact-Checker, nor the Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org, nor the Tampa Bay Times' Pulitzer-Prize-winning Politifact.com had risen to this opportunity, writes Ira Stoll, "so let us take a stab." 

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Comments

[pagoda]

stab

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

I'm waiting....

[Tulpa Doom]

They realized they just had an anti-Obama article a couple of hours ago and need to insert an anti-Romney one to keep balanced.

[db]

No, you don't get it. There is no balance between statist/non-statist here. Why do you assume that "balance" means only on the Dem/Rep axis?

[R C Dean]

As good a summary as I have seen of the impending fiscal and economic catastrophe. Very straightforward:

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....93610.html

[Pro Libertate]

Ye gods. I knew most of that, but to read it all together. . .very distressing.

What's particularly irksome is the continued growth of government during a prolonged economic downturn.

[Joe M]

Not just growth, but explosive new heights of growth during the worst economy in at least thirty, if not eighty, years.

[Pro Libertate]

We should have a measure of government growth, like we measure GDP. Say, WTF: Weighted Treasury Foolishness.

[Joe M]

I'm sure it would be pretty easy to calculate the percentage of GDP that comes from government spending and is therefore worthless.

[Joe M]

Very nice. I'll be sharing that one.

[Paul.]

It must frequently refinance this debt which, when added to the current deficit, means Treasury must raise $4 trillion this year alone. So the debt burden will explode when interest rates go up.

A government budget isn't like a household budget... except when it is, or something.

[Pro Libertate]

It's a huge problem in many areas, this idea that government is somehow different in kind than its citizens: Government has powers and rights that no individual could ever have. Government accounting is somehow superior than that for everyone else. And so on.

If people would drop this set of delusions, we'd do a whole lot better.

[Tulpa Doom]

Well, that statement is quite true, since government can absorb a lot more debt than a household and has the power of taxation. If fedgov were a household it would have gone broke and become a trailerparkhold in 1960.

Of course, now we're bumping up against the limits of what even the fedgov can borrow.

[juris imprudent]

Unlike you, the fedgov can pull out a pistol and extract whatever "income" it decides it 'needs'.

[Tulpa Doom]

There are limits even to that. Fedgov could seize 100% of the real assets of every US citizen and it would only barely pay off the debt right now, forget it in a few years.

[Tulpa Doom]

I picked the wrong week to quit bath salts.

Maybe we could use a Consultant-In-Chief, as Suderman mocks MR for being.

[Ryan60657]

Is there more to this post?

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

Is that all there is
My friend?
Then let's keep dancing...

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Charles Hugh Smith took a good shot at it earlier this summer:

http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.....e7-12.html

Of course, we have no way of knowing just what Obama was referring to here--it's a throwaway line we typically see from people like Tony here on the boards, with no real reference to back it up, and vaguely based on the question-begging notion that high taxes in general are the default position of government.

[Tulpa Doom]

I bet they don't include the employer-paid part of the payroll tax.

[Gilbert Martin]

Since Reason apparently too busy to provide a link to the article the post is supposed to be about, here it is:

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfro...../id/457361

[OldMexican]

Gilbert,

Thank you!

[hotsy totsy]

Hmmm, if 47% that didn't pay federal income tax in 2008 STILL don't pay income tax in 2012, I suppose you could say he didn't raise their taxes.

[WigFow]

lol dude you gotta love them bought and paid for politciains.

http://www.AnonPlanet.tk

[Tulpa Doom]

Uhhhhhhh....come again?

Paul Ryan: 'Do you want Barack Obama to be re-elected? Then don't vote for Ron Paul.'

[juris imprudent]

I promise baby, I won't hit you again.