July 4th, 2008 by Eye Doc

Let’s see now. The GOP says Barack Obama voted for  tax increases 94 times.  FactCheck.org looked at this claim and found that Obama only voted for tax increases 54 times. 

Cataloging some of these votes isn’t cut-and-dried, and the exercise underscores how easily a campaign can spin the opponent’s record. In the end, we listed votes on 54 measures under the "for higher taxes" category (and another seven votes in favor of lowering some taxes and increasing others); but even if the RNC used that figure in its claim, we’d have plenty to say about it. As we mentioned, most of those were measures to tax the rich or corporations; many aimed to fund government programs; and most didn’t actually raise taxes in and of themselves.

The standard we use is fairly generous to the GOP. Twelve votes by Obama in the RNC’s list favored extending tax cuts that were slated to expire. We counted those as votes for increasing taxes, since taxpayers would see their rates increase as a result of failing to pass the legislation. Many Democrats argue that such a vote would not raise taxes above what current law provides, and therefore should not be counted as a vote for a tax increase. However, taxpayers aren’t privy to such philosophical legislative discussions and would indeed see their taxes increase if the cuts aren’t extended.

While the GOP and FactCheck.org obviously  calculated  tax increases differently, the bottom line is clear. Barack Obama is a big time tax raiser, and voting for 54 tax increases in a couple of years in the Senate is petty damn impressive.