Small Business Tax Hoax

In fact, according to the Tax Policy Center's table of 2007 tax returns that reported small-business income, 481,000 of those returns—about 2 percent—are in the top two income tax brackets, which include all filers with taxable incomes that would be affected by Obama's proposals to let portions of the Bush tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers expire and to reduce the tax rate at which families making more than $250,000 could take itemized deductions.

Even though only two percent of people who are classified as small-business owners would see a tax increase under President Obama's policies, Media Matters reports that many media figures and outlets—including CNBC host Joe Kernen, CNBC host Maria Bartiromo, ABC News' Jake Tapper, CNN's Dana Bash, Fox News' Sean Hannity, CNN's David Gergen, Politico, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and The New York Times—have advanced, uncritically repeated, or failed to challenge the debunked Republican falsehood that Obama's income tax proposals would increase taxes on a large percentage of small businesses. For example, Kernen didn't challenge Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., on the March 26 edition of CNBC's Squawk Box after Gregg referred to Obama's proposal as a "tax policy that basically is focused on raising taxes on small businesses especially."