Politico's Smith, Martin reported McCain campaign's claim that Obama would raise taxes on 21 million small businesses without noting it's false
In a July 7 Politico article, senior political writers Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin reported an assertion by Tucker Bounds, campaign spokesman for John McCain, that "Barack Obama wants more taxes from 21 million small businesses," without noting that the claim is false. Bounds' claim echoed McCain's false suggestion during a June 10 speech at the National Small Business Summit that Obama plans to raise taxes on 21.6 million sole proprietorships that file taxes under the individual income tax. In fact, Obama has proposed rolling back President Bush's tax cuts only on "people who are making 250,000 dollars a year or more," and according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center's table of 2007 tax returns that reported small-business income, 481,000 of those returns are in the top two income tax brackets -- which include all filers with taxable incomes of more than $250,000 -- not 21.6 million.
