I would say Barack Obama simply misunderstood reports but this type of thing, where he misrepresents or misstates actual facts, happens too often for it to simply be a misunderstanding or a mistake. When a president makes public statements, one would assume that as president, he would have the available resources to confirm the information he is speaking about.At Wednesday’s Twitter Town Hall, President Obama claimed: “We actually now have the lowest tax rates since the 1950s. Our tax rates are lower now than they were under Ronald Reagan. They’re lower than they were under George Bush — senior or George Bush, junior.” This statement is false.
According to The Tax Foundation’s Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History table, the top marginal tax rate is currently 35 percent. In 1992, under President George H.W. Bush the top marginal rate was 4 points lower than today’s rate at 31 percent. In 1988, under President Ronald Reagan the top marginal rate was 7 points lower than today’s rate at 28 percent.
Taxes collected as a percentage of the GDP are at historic lows, which is far different than tax rates and Obama is smart enough to know the difference.
He simply hopes the American public is not smart enough to know the difference.
Since he is in the middle of a very public battle with Republicans where Obama and liberal Democrats want to raise taxes and Republicans want to lower government spending to address our budget issues, this misrepresentation is obviously deliberate.
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