When asked about taxes last night McCain said the following:
"Lets give families a $7000 tax credit for every child they have, and lets give a $5000 tax credit to help them pay for health insurance."
Sounds pretty good, huh?
Yes, except that he is not actually proposing either of these "credits"
More below the fold
$7000 tax credit
I predict that this will become the latest of McCain's infamous "misstatements". You heard it here first
And just like the Iran-Al-Qaeda flub, it was clearly intentional.
You see, McCain is not proposing a $7000 tax credit per child, he is proposing raising the DEDUCTION from $3500 to $7000. If he was an honest man, he would have said "lets give every family a $3500 deduction, or about $1000 in real tax savings."
$5000 Health care credit
This is the whopper IMHO!! What McCain didn't (and to my knowledge never has) publicly stated is how he proposes to pay for this wonderful $5000 gift. He proposes to pay for it by eliminating the health care deduction currently used by most working families!!!!!!!!!!!
For example, lets say your employer pays $15,000 for your health coverage. Under McCain's plan, you will now pay taxes on that money, wiping out about $3800 of the $5000 credit for families, and equalling a tax increase for single workers who only receive a $2500 credit.
Even worse, the Health Care tax credit is indexed to overall inflation of 2-3% per year, while health insurance premiums rise at approximately 7% per year. The take home point is that by 2013, this "credit" turns into a substantial middle class tax increase!! Classic Republican bait and switch.
We need to get this information out ASAP!!
Here is a link to a more in-depth analysis: thinkprogress