Why is McCain lying about Obama’s records?

George Bush and John McCain

At a campaign stop in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Friday September 19, 2008, Sen. John McCain made the following statement about Sen. Barack Obama: "He said he won’t raise taxes for most people, but he’s voted 94 times in his short Senate career for tax increases and against tax cuts."

Sen. McCain have been making the case on his campaign stops by trying to convince the American people that Sen. Barack Obama would support higher taxes. Sen. McCain, his lying staff and the Republican National Committee have repeatedly cited 94 alleged votes by Obama to bolster their lies.

Factcheck.org, a non-partisan project of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, pieced through records to determine just what these 94 votes were. Key findings:

23 were against proposed tax cuts were "for measures that would have lowered taxes for many, while raising them on a relative few, either corporations or affluent individuals."

11 were to increase taxes on people making more than $1 million a year, to help fund programs such as Head Start, school nutrition, or veterans’ health care.

53 were votes on budget resolutions or amendments that "could not have resulted by themselves in raising taxes," though many "were clear statements of approval for increased taxes."

The total includes multiple votes on the same measures.

Factcheck.org says a close look at the record reveals that Obama has "voted consistently to restore higher tax rates on upper-income taxpayers but not on middle or low-income workers."

McCain and the Republican National Committee statements are not only misleading but they continue to repeat those lies with the hope that the American people will believe their lies.

McCain’s summary ignores the fact that some of the votes were for measures to lower taxes for many Americans, while increasing them for a much smaller number of taxpayers. A nonpartisan examination also finds that the 94 total includes multiple votes on the same measures and budget votes that would not directly lead to higher taxes.