Sometimes, the truth hurts. In the case of an article published yesterday at 4:04 p.m. Eastern, it appears that Reuters editors were afraid writer Terri Cullen’s adventure into truthful journalism might hurt their news agency’s relationship with President Barack Obama — so they yanked it.
Published under the headline “Backdoor taxes hit middle class,” the article opened by describing the Obama Administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade as relying “heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.” Four hours and three minutes after it hit the wire, the story was “withdrawn” with a promise that “a] replacement story will run later in the week.”
“…effectively a tax hike by stealth.”
“middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.”Perhaps the largest contributing factor to the article being yanked is a list of tax break provisions popular among middle-class families that Obama might allow to expire:
* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes.
* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies.
* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses.
* Individuals who don’t itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid.
* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.
The last line of the story was, perhaps, the proverbial “nail in the coffin” for the Reuter’s piece:* Trickle-down-taxation.
Hat Tip: Many thanks to the folks at the Dump The Democrats blog for managing to snag the text of the article and publish it in a post this morning before it vanished from the web.
Big Journalism
