- Feb 7, 2005
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http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com...008/06/10/1128752.aspx
From NBC's Mark Murray
Democrats are blasting McCain's economic speech today in DC on at least two different fronts. One, the Democratic National Committee is taking issue with the Arizona senator's claim that Obama would enact "the single largest tax increase since the Second World War" by citing this research from Annenberg's Factcheck.org:
"By the measure most economists prefer, McCain is wrong in his claim that Sens. Clinton and Obama want to implement 'the single largest tax increase since the Second World War;' it would be the fifth largest. At a more basic level, it's misleading to tag Clinton and Obama for something that was scheduled during the Bush administration -- the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, which by law will occur at the end of 2010.
Second, Democrats -- led by the left-leaning Huffington Post -- are pointing out that McCain seems to have flip-flopped on the estate tax. Here's McCain today: "The estate tax is one of the most unfair tax laws on the books, and the first step to reform is to keep it predictable and keep it low."
But here's McCain speaking on the Senate floor on June 8, 2006: "In his 1906 State of the Union Address, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed the creation of a Federal inheritance tax. Roosevelt explained: 'The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.' Additionally, in a 1907 speech he said: 'Most great civilized countries have an income tax and an inheritance tax. In my judgment both should be part of our system of federal taxation.' He noted, however, that such taxation should 'be aimed merely at the inheritance or transmission in their entirety of those fortunes swollen beyond all healthy limits.'"
McCain added, "I agree with President Roosevelt, and I remain opposed to full repeal of the estate tax. I have indicated, for several years now, that I am open to considering a reasonable compromise that addresses the concerns of those on both sides of this issue. What constituted a fortune 'swollen beyond all healthy limits' in 1907 is very different from the wealth we see today. I don't think it's unreasonable to raise the amount exempted from estate taxes in order to protect America's family farms and small businesses while maintaining the tax for huge fortunes."
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Issue 1: "biggest tax increase in history" was debunked by factcheck months ago.
Issue 2: Someone is going to pull the flip flop lever on this one. Changing positions over 20 years = learning from experience. Changing position and uttering hyped up rhetoric 2 years later for political expedience = pandering. And before we explode into a 10 page debate on the estate tax, a quick search will reveal such threads already exist. Not that that ever stops anyone anyway, but I said it, so I feel better.
From NBC's Mark Murray
Democrats are blasting McCain's economic speech today in DC on at least two different fronts. One, the Democratic National Committee is taking issue with the Arizona senator's claim that Obama would enact "the single largest tax increase since the Second World War" by citing this research from Annenberg's Factcheck.org:
"By the measure most economists prefer, McCain is wrong in his claim that Sens. Clinton and Obama want to implement 'the single largest tax increase since the Second World War;' it would be the fifth largest. At a more basic level, it's misleading to tag Clinton and Obama for something that was scheduled during the Bush administration -- the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, which by law will occur at the end of 2010.
Second, Democrats -- led by the left-leaning Huffington Post -- are pointing out that McCain seems to have flip-flopped on the estate tax. Here's McCain today: "The estate tax is one of the most unfair tax laws on the books, and the first step to reform is to keep it predictable and keep it low."
But here's McCain speaking on the Senate floor on June 8, 2006: "In his 1906 State of the Union Address, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed the creation of a Federal inheritance tax. Roosevelt explained: 'The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.' Additionally, in a 1907 speech he said: 'Most great civilized countries have an income tax and an inheritance tax. In my judgment both should be part of our system of federal taxation.' He noted, however, that such taxation should 'be aimed merely at the inheritance or transmission in their entirety of those fortunes swollen beyond all healthy limits.'"
McCain added, "I agree with President Roosevelt, and I remain opposed to full repeal of the estate tax. I have indicated, for several years now, that I am open to considering a reasonable compromise that addresses the concerns of those on both sides of this issue. What constituted a fortune 'swollen beyond all healthy limits' in 1907 is very different from the wealth we see today. I don't think it's unreasonable to raise the amount exempted from estate taxes in order to protect America's family farms and small businesses while maintaining the tax for huge fortunes."
****************
Issue 1: "biggest tax increase in history" was debunked by factcheck months ago.
Issue 2: Someone is going to pull the flip flop lever on this one. Changing positions over 20 years = learning from experience. Changing position and uttering hyped up rhetoric 2 years later for political expedience = pandering. And before we explode into a 10 page debate on the estate tax, a quick search will reveal such threads already exist. Not that that ever stops anyone anyway, but I said it, so I feel better.