This 527 ad has been running all morning here in Pennsylvania. The claim is that the Obama tax plan would actually hurt the middle class -- if taxes go up for the wealthest five percent, jobs will be lost and salaries will go down as corporations try to make up for the increased tax burden.
Oh yeah? Two words: The 1990s. Senator Obama wants to restore the tax rate for the upper five percent back to its 1990s level. And what did the '90s look like?
Unemployment rate in 2000: 4.0 and falling.
Unemployment rate in 2008: 6.1 and rising.
Jobs created under Clinton: 22.7 million.
Jobs created under Bush: 4.8 million (his first term showed zero job growth).
To quote James Carville: "What didn't you like about the Clinton years? The peace or the prosperity?"