A few days ago, I heard Sean Hannity shout down a caller with the claim that Barack Obama was going to raise taxes on everyone by allowing all of President Bush’s tax cuts to expire. Thankfully, Media Matters got the transcript:
HANNITY: You’ve raised a lot of good points here, Katie. Dallas, is there, is there anything that you could point to where he’s going to lower gas prices? Do you support his economic plan of raising taxes?
CALLER 1: Well that — that —
HANNITY: Do you support his — do you support his earlier position of a pull out of Iraq in 16 months? Do you support that?
CALLER 1: OK, well, first, that’s actually not accurate —
HANNITY: What’s not accurate?
CALLER 1: He’s not going to raise taxes for everybody. Some people —
HANNITY: Well no, actually he is. He’s raising —
CALLER 1: People like — people like myself and in the middle class, our taxes won’t be raised.
HANNITY: Sir —
CALLER 1: And that’s factual.
HANNITY: — sir, for — no, that’s not factual, because the Bush tax cuts are going to expire, and when they expire, families of four that make $50,000 a year are going to be paying another $2,000 in taxes a year. So by letting those tax cuts expire, that’s a tax increase by any definition.
CALLER 1: That’s — that’s — that’s a misnomer. You’re not representing his position properly.
HANNITY: All right, listen, I can’t — I can’t argue — listen –
CALLER 1: He’s going to raise taxes for the —
HANNITY: Dallas, I’m not going to argue with you. It is a fact. He is for rescinding the Bush tax cuts —
CALLER 1: That’s not true. You’re lying — you’re not being —
HANNITY: — and letting them expire. All right, well, anyway, thanks for the call. Katie, thank you, appreciate it, appreciate you being with us, 800-941-SEAN is our toll-free telephone number.
This is a blatant falsehood. Obama’s plan would raise taxes on high-income Americans but he would actually reduce income taxes for Americans earning less than $75,000 per year.