Tax facts

Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, purports to set the record straight on taxes with this post at the Economix blog, but instead simply reveals how woefully misinformed she is. She writes:

Voters’ perceptions are not primarily driven by facts. A February CBS poll showed that only 12 percent of voters recognize that the Obama administration has cut taxes. About 24 percent of voters (and about 64 percent of Tea Party supporters) said they believed it had raised taxes.

I still have yet to discover a tax rate which the Obama administration has cut. Instead their tax changes have consisted almost entirely of various tax credits, which are best understood as government spending via another means.

The Tea Partiers, meanwhile, are better informed than Folbre, as taxes have in fact been increased. Furthermore, in a move which should have come as a surprise to no one, taxes have been raised as part of the Obamacare package.