Competing Biden-Ryan Claims Spotlight GOP's Typical Deception

Alan: In the following passage from AP's post Biden-Ryan debate "fact check," notice that Ryan's comment is technically true, but substantively deceptive.

The point that Obama-Biden stress is that wealthy people should pay more taxes.

While technically speaking the truth, Ryan deliberately makes it appear that more than half of small business owners will be taxed more heavily.

FACT: 97% of America's small business owners will NOT experience a tax hike under the Obama-Biden plan.

The fact that Paul Ryan (and Mitt Romney) are determined to twist this "upfront" fact into something it's not speaks volumes!

RYAN: "This one tax would actually tax about 53 percent of small-business income."

BIDEN: "Ninety-seven percent of the small businesses in America pay less — make less than $250,000."

THE FACTS: Both are correct, but incomplete, when sizing up the effect on small business of raising taxes for individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000, as Obama wants to do. Republicans say that would hit small-business owners who report business income on their individual income tax; Democrats say the overwhelming majority of small businesses would not be affected.

According to a 2010 report by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper for Congress, about 3 percent of people who report business income would face a tax increase under Obama's plan. That support's Biden's point.

The same report says those business owners account for about half of all business income. That supports Ryan.