I noticed last night, in Obama's infomercial, that he promised tax relief to those Americans making less than $200,000 a year.
That figure was seemingly different than the $250,000 he's been using (and even used last night in Florida with Bill Clinton at his side) on the campaign trail.
These two figures are both different than the figure Joe Biden used last week. He mentioned $150,000 as the threshold for relief.
In googling around a bit, I see that blogs on the National Review, the Free Republic, and other sites have picked up the varying figures for the tax threshold, and that McCain mentioned it the other day in a speech.
They are merging discussion of Obama's figures of $250,000 and $200,000 with Biden's figure of $150,000 from the other day, which one surrogate on television dismissed as a misstatement.
The questioning on opposition blogs has been going on since Tuesday or so.
I think I've found the reason why Obama and his campaign are stating different figures ranging from $150-250,000 per year. I think they are stating reportable income BOTH BEFORE OR AFTER DEDUCTIONS.
From Paul Krugman's NY Times column, dated October 20, 2008:
What about the claim, based on Joe the Plumber’s complaint, that ordinary working Americans would face higher taxes under Mr. Obama? Well, Mr. Obama proposes raising rates on only the top two income tax brackets — and the second-highest bracket for a head of household starts at an income, after deductions, of $182,400 a year.
So perhaps Obama was mentioning total income, Biden adjusting for deductions and rounding down, and then Obama decided to adjust for deductions and he rounded up, thinking that more accurate.
I would like to see the campaign clarify this point before it becomes a talking point on the other side that claims that Obama is lowering his tax relief threshold and that this indicates he's not telling the truth to the Americans about his tax program.
UPDATE -
TheNew York Times ran a story today, Friday, October 31, on both candidate's tax plans.
Roberton Williams, principal research associate at the Tax Policy Center, said the analysis found that: "On the average, people with income below $100,000 would get more from Obama than from McCain. From $100,000 to $250,000, they’d be fairly even under Obama and McCain. For those over $250,000, Obama increases taxes."
Mr. McCain’s plan includes extending President Bush’s income-tax cuts and doubling exemptions for dependent children to $7,000 by 2016. He would also give a refundable tax credit to households that buy health insurance and would impose taxes on employer-provided coverage.
Mr. Obama opposes extending President Bush’s tax cuts. Instead, he proposes various tax breaks, including a $500 tax credit for each person in a household who works, a larger child care tax credit, a $4,000 tax credit each year for the first two years of college, and eliminating all income taxes for those over 65 with income less than $50,000 a year.