Laura Meckler reports from Hershey, Pa., on the presidential race.
The McCain campaign is pouncing on a statement by Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden that people making under $150,000 would qualify for a tax cut when the Obama campaign is actually pledging a tax cut for families making less than $200,000.
John McCain and Sarah Palin react to the crowd at a rally at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa., Tuesday. (AP)
“You getting a little idea of what’s on their mind, heh?” McCain said at a rally in Hershey, Pa. “It’s interesting how their definition of rich has a way of creeping down.”
The Obama campaign has long said that families earning more than $250,000 a year would see their taxes rise and most others would see a tax cut. In a recent TV ad, the campaign says that families earning under $200,000 would see a tax break.
But in an interview Monday with a Scranton television station, WNEP, Biden was explaining how the Obama tax policy would no longer give tax breaks to the “very very wealthy” and appeared to set the bar lower.
“What we’re saying is that $87 billion tax break doesn’t need to go to people making an average of $1.4 million. It should go like it used to. It should go to middle class people — people making under $150,000 a year,” he said.
Those comments fit into the Republican narrative aimed at voters who, are promised a tax break under the Obama plan. They argue that in order to pay for his spending initiatives, he’ll wind up taxing a lot more people than he says, a charge the Obama campaign disputes.
The McCain campaign has pounded the tax argument for weeks now, relentlessly charging that Obama wants to “spread the wealth around” through higher taxes. Yet this month’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that, for the first time, voters now trust Obama more when it comes to the issue of taxes.
Asked about today’s statement, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said that Biden was not announcing new policy for the campaign. “He was just throwing out a number,” Vietor said, noting that a tax calculator on the Obama Web site allows voters to compute the impact of his tax plan for themselves.
“Nothing has changed,” Vietor said. “This is the most disingenuous attack…This is crass distortion.” He added that there would be little political benefit for the campaign to suddenly change its policy and lower the threshold for people getting tax cuts.