During his press conference tonight, Obama made claims on taxes
and jobs that invite rebuttal:
Obama Claim:
"We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already saved or
created over 150,000 jobs and provided a tax cut to 95% of all
working families."
Rebuttal:
First, cutting taxes for "95% of all working families" is
mathematically impossible. Obama is referring to
the "Making Work Pay" refundable tax credit, which took effect on
April 1. According to IRS data, one-third of all income tax
filers don't have a federal income tax liability. About 15
percent of all working families don't even have a FICA tax
liability, and these numbers are before taking into effect all
the new refundable tax credits of the Obama budget. For
these "working families," all Obama's budget will do is cut them
the equivalent of a welfare check.
Second, there is no intellectually honest way to measure
"saved or created" jobs. As Senate Finance
Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.)
said on March 4 to Tim Geithner: "You
created a situation where you cannot be wrong. If the
economy loses 2 million jobs over the next few years, you can say
yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a
million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million
jobs," Baucus said. "You've given yourself complete
leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any
scenario and make yourself look correct."
