Fact Check - Joe's Taxes
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Fact Check - Joe's Taxes
| Fri, 10-17-2008 - 6:52am |
From CNN:
Complete Coverage Special Report Election 2008: The candidates and your money
Fact check: Plumber Joe's taxes
McCain has entrepreneurs spooked about tax hikes, but fewer than 2% of small business owners would pay more under Obama's plan.
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By Stacy Cowley
Last Updated: October 16, 2008: 12:30 PM ET

Plumber Joe Wurzelbacher heard his name invoked more than two dozen times in the final presidential debate.

This is the money quote from that article - though all of it is good. I've heard this referred to far less frequently than it should have been, so far in all this discussion of "tax hikes," etc. People - OK, right-wingers, LOL - seem very, VERY concerned that "Obama will raise their taxes," claiming again and again that they're worried about the small business owners that they know, etc.... Only thing is: most small businesses don't earn anywhere near $250,000. By factcheck's estimate, it's less than 2%.
BUT REGARDLESS OF THE PERCENTAGE OF BUSINESSES AFFECTED, THEY WILL ONLY HAVE THAT PORTION OF THEIR INCOME WHICH IS ABOVE THE $250,000 CUTOFF BE SUBJECTED TO THE NEW, HIGHER RATE.
Even using Joe Wurzelbacher's (now known to be false) figures of "between $250,000 and $280,000," and using the most generous end of that scale - $280,000, Joe and his now-nonexistent plumbing business would be subjected to the higher tax rate for only $30,000 of that income. He would see an additional 3% tax.....on $30,000. I doubt seriously whether that would even be enough for a new set of tools for just himself, let alone the difference between hiring another worker and NOT hiring them....or providing health insurance and NOT providing it.
And I've begun to come to the opinion that anyone who doesn't know these facts are not reading these kind of posts.