Obama camp defends tax plan

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones and NBC's Alex Wall The Obama campaign held a conference call today to draw attention the Illinois senator’s tax plan and to “set the record straight” regarding what it called false, misleading, and inaccurate representations about his proposals by his rival. Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, economic policy director Jason Furman, and senior economic adviser Austan Goolsbee (who sparked controversy last spring, when reports surfaced that he had downplayed Obama’s plans to renegotiate NAFTA), took part in the roughly half hour call, which revealed new details on capital gains and dividend tax rates for the wealthy. Furman and Goolsbee published an op-ed on Obama’s plan in today’s Wall Street Journal , which sought to communicate a message the campaign has repeated over and over again -- that Obama’s plan is better for middle-class families, while McCain’s favors big corporations and the wealthy. The campaign launched a new Web site today with details ... (link)