Joe Biden repeated a gaffe in last night's debate that is so bad it alone disqualified him from consideration as a Vice President of the United States. Even the leftist Associated Press could not take this one last week--calling it "misleading", and providing concrete examples showing it was a compete lie. See my entries on Joe Biden this past Saturday, including the Flying, Fickle Finger of Fate award.
No. I am not talking about Joe Biden's interview with Katie Couric, where Biden said: "When the stock market crashed, FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) went on television and reassured the American people.." The problem, of course, is that the stock market crash occurred in 1929. FDR was not President until 1932. In fact, Democrats like Biden have been running against Herbert Hoover, who was President when the stock market crashed, ever since--including Joe Biden (whether he knows it or not). Then there is that little detail that television did not exist, in the real world, when Roosevelt was President. Movie "talkies" barely came into existence in 1929, and Roosevelt went on radio (itself pretty new in the 1930's). Katie Couric, of course, ignored this gaffe, which was worse than anything Palin said in her interview with Couric. The rest of the mainstream media also passed over the gaffe, with passing mentions, while replaying much less "embarrassing" moments in Sarah Palin's interview with Couric. But even Biden would not repeat a stupidity of this magnitude--which should have been featured on Saturday Night Live and Letterman for weeks.
No, the gaffe I am talking about is the one where Biden said that John McCain is proposing to "pay" for his health care program with the largest tax increase in American history. That was a lie (see Saturday's entry). Biden repeated the same lie in last night's debate, if not necessarily exactly in the same words, and it disqualifies him from consideration as a serious candidate for Vice President.
John McCain is proposing to double the tax deduction for children from something like $3500.00 to $7000.00. Imagine if Joe Biden said that John McCain was imposing the largest tax increase in American history by taking away the $3500.00, and replacing it with a deduction of $7000.00. In reality, that is exactly the lie Biden told, although it was with regard to McCain's health insurance tax cut instead of his doubling of the family per person deduction. Yes, I said "tax cut" (not a tax increase at all, despite the Biden lie).
McCain has proposed a tax credit of $5000.00 per family to buy your own health insurance, rather than the government providing its own version (at incredible expense and with mandates limiting your choices---surely in a thousand page bill that no one will truly understand except those making money off of it). In other, words, McCain's entire health insurance plan is basically a tax cut for you to be able to afford your own health insurance. Biden seems not to understand that a tax credit is considerably more beneficial to taxpayers than a tax deduction (which is essentially what taxpayers get now).
Contrary to the Biden lie, McCain did not propose to "pay for" the tax credit with a tax increase. He proposed to replace the present tax treatment of health insurance costs with a larger tax benefit, exactly like he is proposing to double the $3500.00 per child deduction to $7000.00. If you call this a "tax increase", you either have no understanding of the issue or you are lying--or both (my vote with Biden).
You don't have to believe me. As the Associated Press saind, two prominent. liberal "think tanks" examined McCain's plan and Obama's. They concluded that, over several years, the McCain plan would "cost" 1.3 trillion dollars, while JObama's health care plan would cost 1.6 trillion dollars (almost surely an underestimate, as has been true of estimates on Medicare and Medicaid, but these were liberal think tanks). The point is that the only "cost" to the government in McCain's plan is the tax cut being given to people buying health insurance. Those liberal think tanks found that total tax cut, over a period of years to be 1.3 trillion dollars. Somehow, for Biden, a "tax cut" is a "tax increase", just because you have replaced one tax benefit with a larger one.
Let us go to the concrete numbers, as the AP and those liberal think tanks did. I am going to use very round numbers to make the calculations easy. Assume a family has net taxable income of $5000.00. That puts the familyin a tax bracket of 15%, and they will pay a tax of $750 (ignoring other credits such as the earned income credit). Assume that family also receives health insurance benefits of another $5000.00 from their employer. Right now, those health insurance premium benefits are not taxed (the equivalent of a tax deduction). John McCain is proposing to make those health insurance benefits (the premium paid by the employer) taxable to the family (as reflecting income which they are using to pay health insurance, which is the real economic reality, whether the family realizes it or not) taxable, but replacing the former tax benefit with a greater benefit of a $5000.00 tax credit. In the example, this means that the taxable income of the family goes up to $10,000. This results in a doubling of tax liability to $1000.00, before figuring the tax credit McCain is giving to replace the former tax benefit. Then you apply the tax credit of $5000.00 to the $1000.00 tax liability, and the tax goes entirely away, with $40000.00 to spare (which the family may even get back--I am not too clear on the exact details). In other words, a family with a former net tax of $750.000 suddenly has the government owing the family money. This same calculation works for higher incomes throughout the 15% tax bracket. Say the family has taxable income of $40,000, and health insurance cost of $10,000. Under present law they would pay $6,000 tax on the $40,000. Under McCain's plan for an additional tax benefit, they would figure tax on income of $50,000, which would be $7500. But they would get a tax credit of $5000. That would reduce their net tax to $2500.00. That is a net tax reduction of $3500.00 (more than half).
Even for people in higher tax brackets, McCain's plan would still result in a tax reduction--just a lesser tax reduction (as McCain tries to be as much of a Democrat as possible, and make the "rich" pay more). A mere tax deduction, like the present law really allows, favors the "rich". If you have a deduction of $5,000, a person in a 40% bracket gets a benefit of $2000.00. A person in a 15% bracket only gets a benefit of $750.00. With a $5000.00 tax credit, they both get the exact same monetary benefit (amount off of their taxes), but the result is that the lower bracket person gets a greater percentage benefit (by far).
You really can't lie any worse than Biden has lied. He has tried to say that a tax cut is a tax increase. He is further trying to suggest that McCain is "paying" for government expenditures in a mythical health care plan with a tax increase, when McCain's entire plan (ignoring immaterial bells and whistles) is a tax cut to enable people (the poorer, "middle class" people getting the greater benefit) to pay for the health insurance they choose (rather than the government choosing). You just can't lie any worse than this. Biden is trying to say a tax cut is a tax increase, and at the same time suggest there is some complicated "plan" that McCain is paying for with a tax increase. McCain's entire plan is a tax reduction. Now how McCain is going to "pay for" that tax reduction is another issue (McCain would say spending cuts), but Obama faces that issue on even a larger scale (how to pay for actual government expenditures of 1.6 trillion, which are likely to be much higher than that).
Q.E.D. Joe Biden is a liar and an idiot. He is unqualified to be President of the United States, or even Vice President of the United States.
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