Yesterday morning Joe Scarborough was providing us with his infinite wisdom by declaring that Americans are mad because their taxes have gone up so much under Obama. Imagine how shocked I am to find out Scarborough is wrong about the tax issue:
According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, the vast majority of Americans do not perceive that they have received a tax cut from President Obama. Asked if the President “has already raised taxes this past year,” 53 percent of those polled said that the President has “kept taxes the same,” and 24 percent think that the President has “raised taxes.” A mere 12 percent believe that the President has cut their taxes.
This is an astonishing level of misunderstanding. The truth is that the major tax cuts enacted in the 2009 economic stimulus bill actually reduced federal income taxes for tax year 2009 for 98 percent of all working families and individuals. These tax cuts saved working families and individuals an average of $1,158 on the tax returns they will file by April 15. (The median tax cut was approximately $600.) [emphasis in original]
First off only 24% of Americans actually thought their taxes went up. Kind of hard to declare that as all Americans – isn’t it Joe? But more importantly is the fact that 98% of Americans have seen their tax burden reduced. So does that mean that Joe Scarborough only considers the top 2% all Americans, or is he just simply trying to repeat failed GOP/Tea Party lies? Let me know what you think.