On his radio program, Sean Hannity falsely claimed that Sen. Barack Obama's proposal "for rescinding the Bush tax cuts" would result in "families of four that make $50,000 a year ... paying another $2,000 in taxes a year." In fact, Obama has proposed cutting taxes for middle-class families and rolling back President Bush's tax cuts only on people who are making $250,000 a year or more.

On the July 9 broadcast of his radio program, Sean Hannity falsely claimed that Sen. Barack Obama's proposal "for rescinding the Bush tax cuts" would result in "families of four that make $50,000 a year ... paying another $2,000 in taxes a year." In fact, Obama has proposed rolling back President Bush's tax cuts only on "people who are making 250,000 dollars a year or more," and cutting taxes for families at the middle-class income level Hannity described.

Hannity asked a caller, who claimed to be an Obama supporter: "Do you support his [Obama's] economic plan of raising taxes?" When the caller stated that for "people like myself and in the middle class, our taxes won't be raised," Hannity responded: "[S]ir, 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." After the caller responded, "that's a misnomer. You're not representing his position properly," Hannity replied: "I'm not going to argue with you. It is a fact. He is for rescinding the Bush tax cuts and letting them expire." When the caller again tried to respond, Hannity abruptly ended the call.

However, as Media Matters for America has noted, an analysis of the candidates' tax plans by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center (TPC) found that "Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers" than Sen. John McCain. According to Obama's Tax Fairness Plan, he "will provide $80-85 billion in tax relief to America's workers, seniors, and homeowners." Obama's proposed tax cuts include "a new 'Making Work Pay' tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family," a "universal mortgage credit" which "will provide the average recipient with approximately $500 per year in tax savings," and the "eliminat[ion]" of "all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year."

According to the TPC analysis, under Obama's tax proposals, tax filers in the middle quintile -- those earning between $37,595-$66,354 annually -- would receive an average tax cut of $1,042 in 2009 and an average tax cut of $2,136 in 2012. TPC further noted that those figures represent "an average cut equal to 2.4 percent of income" in 2009 and "an average tax cut equal to 4.6 percent of income" in 2012. From the Tax Policy Center analysis:

From the July 9 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show: