Kerry has to get the word out better on his tax plans–it seems that Bush is being successful in smearing him on the issue. A CNN/Gallup poll had 58 percent saying that Kerry would raise their taxes (as opposed to 29 percent saying “no”). I seriously doubt that 58% of all Americans make over $200,000 a year, which is why Kerry should make the point more clear. From his web site:

John Kerry has a plan to cut taxes for middle class families and repeal the Bush tax cuts for families making over $200,000 to invest in health care and education. …

Specifically, he wants to protect the increases in the child tax credit, the reduced marriage penalty and the new tax bracket that helps people save $350 on their first level of income. He strongly disagrees with Democrats who want to repeal these tax cuts because it would cost a typical middle-class family with two children an additional $2,000. These families are often already struggling with higher health care costs and higher state and local taxes. In fact, John Kerry wants to give more tax breaks to the middle class with new tax credits on health care and college tuition.

Not being able to attack Kerry for that, Bush is–amazingly–going after Kerry on gas taxes. This coming from the “Enron President” who has overseen the biggest hike in gas prices in recent memory. Remember when people were wondering in Bush and Cheney’s strong oil ties would be used for the industry or to make the industry more reasonable? No more mystery there; Halliburton is bloated with your tax dollars, and while you’re being charged usurious prices at the pump, Ken Lay still hasn’t been charged with a single crime.

And yet Kerry will make gas prices higher? Bush’s claim is based on the fact that Kerry voiced support for a gas tax hike. Wow! Sounds like a dangerous tax-hiker, right? Except that Kerry voiced that support ten years ago, when prices were almost half of what they are now. And the support was fleeting, just a few mentions of it in the context of cutting the deficits at the time. And he never actually voted for it in the end. Well. Doesn’t sound like such a rabid tax-hiker, after all, does he? Factcheck.org does a great job of laying out the story.

But here’s a surprising kicker: far more recently, Bush’s chief economic advisor, much more vociferously proposed exactly the same tax! The advisor is Gregory Mankiw (remember, the guy who wanted to call fast food jobs “manufacturing”?), and in 1999 he suggested raising gas taxes by 50 cents a gallon as a way to offset other taxes. So if Kerry’s a gas-taxer, then how is Bush not? Both claims would be equally tenuous.

But when Bush attacks Kerry on taxes, he bends every perception to the breaking point. For example, Kerry not wanting to extend the massive tax cuts for wealthy Americans beyond its expiration date is a “tax hike.” Once Kerry voted to keep the tax on cigarettes the same, instead of cutting it in half. That’s another one of his famous “tax hikes.” Again, Factcheck.org fries Bush on the matter.

The fact is, the only people who are making more and paying less these days are millionaires and billionaires; the paltry three hundred bucks that some in the middle got has long been shot on higher prices at the pump, not to mention lower wages at work, if you’re lucky enough to have a job.

And yet still, the perception is that Bush is better on the issue. Well, start talking, people. Get the word out!