Obama's Tax Threshold Slips, Again

Speaking for the Obama campaign today on KOA-AM in New Mexico, former presidential candidate and Obama surrogate Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM) said that people making under $120,000 could expect a tax cut under Sen. Obama's tax plan. This is the fourth number to come out of the Obama campaign just this week, each one successively lower, pegging the income level at which Americans can expect to see tax cuts under a potential Obama administration.

Sen. Obama has been pledging that no one making under $250,000 a year would have their taxes increased under his plan. But the campaign released an advertisement early in the week that said the level for tax cuts was $200,000. Then vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden told a Scranton, PA television station that the income threshold for tax cuts was $150,000. Now comes Gov. Richardson lowering the magic income level even further.

"What Obama wants to do is he is basically looking at $120,000 and under among those that are in the middle class, and there is a tax cut for those."

The McCain campaign pounced on Richardson's comment. Vice-presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin ridiculed Obama's tax plan at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. "So now we're down to less than half of the original income level," she said. "We can't let this happen."

Sen. Obama's tax plan has been coming under withering criticism in the final weeks of the campaign, ever since he had an impromptu encounter with Joe Wurzelbacher, aka "Joe the Plumber," prior to the third presidential debate. Obama told Wurzelbacher that his tax plan was designed to, "spread the wealth around." Sen. McCain seized on the remark, addressing Wurzelbacher by name over a dozen times in the debate and turning the remark into something of a rallying cry. As the days until Election Day grow short, the Obama campaign cannot afford any more gaffes like Biden and Richardson's. Voters are already wondering whether America can afford to vote for Sen. Obama.