The Wonk Room

CBS ‘Fact-Check’ On McCain’s Health Care Tax Contains Two Factual Errors

CBS recently ran a “fact-check” on the claim that John McCain would raise taxes on workers’ health insurance. Watch it here:

Though we disagree with the conclusions of the piece (and will be addressing these disagreements in a future post), we first want to point out two factual errors.

–First: Thirty seconds in, the chyron reads “FACT: Employer health benefits for 16 million Americans will be taxed.” This, we believe, is a typo. There are around 160 million Americans who currently receive their health benefits through work, and, under McCain, all of them will pay taxes on their health benefits.

–Second: The announcer, at around forty-five seconds in, says that “McCain does want to tax the health insurance benefits that 60 million Americans now buy through their employer.” Again, the correct number is 160 million.

Check back soon for a more thorough critique of CBS’s conclusion.