Newspaper: Obama tax cut is welfare in disguise

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review takes a close look at Barack Obama's "tax cut for 95 percent of Americans" plan and concludes that it's a welfare program that could end up costing American taxpayers $1 trillion.

From the newspaper's editorial pages:

The "tax-cut plan" of Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama is anything but. In fact, it's nothing more than another liberaled-up wealth-transference program that, in the "old days," was known as welfare.

Sen. Obama's economics plan centers on his claim that he'll cut taxes for 95 percent of American workers. Left unsaid is that to accomplish this, he'll have to levy a massive tax increase against the other 5 percent who already pay nearly 60 percent of all taxes.

Just as troubling, however, is this little factoid: Even the one-third of all American working families who pay no income taxes now will receive a government check under the Obama plan. And that number could rise to about 44 percent under Obama's proposal.

Read the full editorial, "Obama's tax cut: New Welfare Deal," at the newspaper's Web site.