FactCheck.org: Romney claims Obama “will raise taxes on the middle class by $4,000.” That’s nonsense
Mitt Romney falsely claims in a series of TV ads that President Obama “will raise taxes on the middle class by $4,000.” That’s nonsense. The ads cite a conservative group’s study, but even the group itself doesn’t say Obama will raise taxes on middle-income taxpayers. It says his budget could result in a “potentially higher tax burden” over the next 10 years.
In fact, the group’s study considered two other budget scenarios — current law (allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire as scheduled at the end of this year) and current policy (extending current policies into 2013, including extending the Bush-era tax cuts) — and determined that Obama’s budget “provides a middle ground between these two extremes.”
The American Enterprise Institute, which conducted the study, is described in one of Romney’s ads as “nonpartisan” and “independent.” In fact, it is a conservative, pro-business think tank whose leaders include former Vice President Dick Cheney and whose academic advisers include Romney’s chief economic adviser, R. Glenn Hubbard. Three of its board members — including its chairman — gave nearly $1.7 million in combined contributions to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future.
The ad is referring to Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget, which in fact calls for a tax increase on the upper-income taxpayers — not the middle class. Under the president’s budget, the Bush-era tax cuts would expire at the end of this year for individuals earning in excess of $200,000 and couples earning more than $250,000 — but remain in place for all other taxpayers. So, the middle class would continue to receive the Bush tax cuts.
http://factcheck.org/2012/10/romneys-4000-tax-tale/
And that's why romney's campaign "doesn't need no stinking fact-checkers".
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