Distributional Differences Between McCain’s v. Obama’s Tax Proposals: Charles Barkley is a Lot Smarter than Wolf Blitzer

ThinkProgress shows the Wolf interviewing Charles Barkley:

In an interview with former NBA star Charles Barkley today, CNN host Wolf Blitzer discussed the respective tax plans being offered by Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain. This is the on-screen graphic that CNN displayed during the interview, which the network represented as the “average tax bill change”

CNN graphic shows that if you make more than $160,000 a year, the McCain tax proposal gives you a lower tax bill than Obama’s proposal. For the other 95% of the US population, one has to turn to the analysis provided by ThinkProgress. While Charles Barkley was a great basketball player, I have no clue why CNN thought he was some sort of expert on this issue. But even he knew CNN’s graphic was addressing only the impact on the very rich:

Well, I think that if you’re rich — I thank God I’ve been very successful — if you’re rich, you’re always going to be rich. If we pay more in taxes, I got no problem with that. If you’re making that kind of money, a couple hundred thousand dollars here or there are not going to change your life. Let’s be realistic. I’ve been very fortunate and blessed. I did a great job of saving my money. But I got no problem if I’m making that type of money, paying more in taxes to be honest with you.

I think this is where Brad DeLong would plea for a better press corps. Maybe CNN should fire the Wolf and hire Charles Barkley.