Earlier today, I highlighted an error-plagued New York Post article, complete with an error-plagued infographic, which claimed that House Democrats’ health care bill would result in an astronomical tax increase for wealthy Americans. The author–seemingly unaware that Democrats were proposing an increase in marginal tax rates–reported that high-income earners would be on the hook for thousands, or tens-of thousands of dollars per year if Democrats get their way, when the the reality is much less extreme.
One of the author’s sources for the piece was the anti-tax group The Tax Foundation–but now The Tax Foundation is disavowing the article. In an email, Tax Foundation economist Gerald Prante notes, “the Tax Foundation did not produce the results for the NY Post graphic. The only thing in that graphic that was from Tax Foundation was the 58.68 top rate for New York. We refused to do the calculations.”
The NY Post interpreted that 58.68% as being an average rate, and we were explicit in our paper: http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/24863.html that it was an effective marginal tax rate.
A call to the Post this morning went unanswered, but clearly responsibility for the misinformation in the piece–which was spotlighted on The Drudge Report–falls to the paper itself.
