Cultural Cuisinart

The Washington Post has a great editorial on why the McCain ads about Obama's tax plan are flat out lies. This is an important article for you to read, no matter who you are. If you support McCain, think about the blatant lies being told by your candidate and evaluate whether or not he's worth supporting, based on that (and the fact that Obama's plan will do more to support the poor and middle class, while cutting breaks for the rich). If you're for Obama, get educated, so that the next time someone wants to bring up the "he's an elitist and doesn't care about us" or wants to make some claim that McCain's tax plan is better for the common man, you can throw the cold, hard facts back in their face.

The facts? The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that the Obama plan would give households in the bottom fifth of the income distribution an average tax cut of 5.5 percent of income ($567) in 2009, while those in the middle fifth would get an average cut of 2.6 percent of income ($1,118). "Your taxes" would go up, yes -- but not if you're someone who is sweating higher gas prices. By contrast, Mr. McCain's tax plan would give those in the bottom fifth of income an average tax cut of $21 in 2009. The middle fifth would get $325 -- less than a third of the Obama cut. The wealthiest taxpayers make out terrifically.

The country can't afford the tax cuts either man is promising, although Mr. McCain's approach is by far the more costly. We don't expect either side to admit that. But neither side should get to outright lie about its opponent's positions, either.