Kerry, with the aid of the economically stupid media, grossly distorts the just released Congressional Budget Office study of Effective Federal Tax Rates Under Current Law, 2001 to 2014.  Kerry declared on Friday that the CBO study shows that as a result of the Bush tax cuts,

"Over the last four years, the burden of taxes has shifted from the wealthy to the middle class.  The middle class is paying more taxes." 

This is patently false and about the sixth outright lie by Kerry in the last three days.  He is taking advantage of the fact that the average voter, or reporter, does not have the time or inclination to sort through complex information. He repeatedly misleads voters by making whatever claim suits his purposes, regardless of the facts.  This guy has absolutely no integrity and does not even deserve to be in the Senate, let alone in the White House.

The briefing by the Heritage Foundation  points out the distortion in the media reporting of this study, and suggests the reader go to Table 4 of the CBO report to see for themselves.

First of all, it is absolutely clear that nobody's tax burden rose. The Bush tax cuts were just that, tax cuts. There were no increases in anybody's taxes as a result of the Bush tax cuts.  So it's quite simple and clear that Kerry's statement that the tax burden on the middle class increased due to the Bush tax cuts is just plain false.

But let's give Kerry the benefit of the doubt and assume he really meant to say that the middle class paid a higher percentage of total taxes than the wealthy, but he just wasn't articulate enough to properly express his highly nuanced assessment of the report.  Well, Table 4 of the CBO report (which happens to be the difference between the share of taxes projected to be paid by different income groups under the current tax law and the share projected to be paid under the 2000 law) clearly shows that Kerry has distorted the report's findings.  It is only in 2004 that the middle class (middle quintile) is projected to be responsible for a slightly (0.2 percentage points) higher share of total federal taxes. 

But the report projects that in each subsequent year from 2005 through 2014, the middle quintile is projected to pay either the same or a smaller percentage of total federal taxes than would have been paid without the Bush tax cut.  The CBO projections show the same results if you define the middle class as the three middle quintiles.  Furthermore, in the 2005 to 2014 years, it is only the fourth and highest income quintiles whose share of federal taxes increase (though again very slightly) as a result of the Bush tax cuts.  The lowest and second quintiles join the middle quintile in paying a smaller share of total federal taxes in 2005 — 2014.

I've not bothered to discuss the multitude of assumptions and estimates upon which the CBO's findings are based that raise questions about its findings.  But it certainly did not give any support for Kerry's assertions that the Bush tax cuts hurt working middle class Americans.

Posted by Mike Nadler