A Bush-Cheney ad says Kerry would raise taxes for 900,000 "small businesses" and "hurt jobs." It's a big exaggeration.
September 23, 2004 Modified: October 1, 2004
Summary
A Bush-Cheney '04 ad claims Kerry would raise taxes on 900,000 small businesses and "hurt jobs." But it counts every high-salaried person who has even $1 of outside business income as a "small business owner" -- a definition so broad that even Bush and Cheney have qualified while in office. In fact, hundreds of thousands of those "small businesses" have no jobs to offer.
Furthermore, by the Bush definition 32 million "small businesses" would see no tax increase. The ad doesn't mention that, of course. Nor does it mention Kerry's proposals for some tax cuts specifically targeted for small businesses.
(Update, Oct. 1: After this article was posted, the Tax Policy Center issued a new estimate that the number of small employers is 471,000 -- barely half the number the Bush ad claims.)
Analysis
A Bush ad released Sept. 17 claims that under Kerry's tax plan, "900,000 small business owners would pay higher tax rates than most multinational corporations" and that would "hurt jobs."
Actually, Kerry proposes no specific tax increase on small businesses at all, and in fact is proposing some targeted tax cuts for small businesses. What the Bush ad refers to is Kerry's proposal to raise taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 per year.
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Thanks Dick, I have been going to FactCheck.org and I find you and Bush are liars. |
