Conservative think tank says Clinton plan will hike taxes by nearly $500B

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- A conservative think tank says Democratic contender Hillary Clinton is proposing to hike taxes by $500 billion if she's elected president this year.

The group released an analysis Tuesday that claims the former Secretary of State's tax plan "would raise tax revenue by $498 billion over the next decade on a static basis," if she is elected president.

The Tax Foundation also alleges Clinton's plan would reduce income by 0.7 percent for the nation's top 10 percent of earners and 1.7 percent for the nation's top 1 percent. After all is said and done, the group claims, taxpayers would lose nearly 1 percent of their income after taxes.

"Their analysis of Hillary Clinton's plan is both misleading and does not even attempt to take into account her tax relief for businesses and individuals, and investments that would promote growth," Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, told Politico. "And, they do not follow evidence that modest increases in top tax rates have no impact on growth."

Clinton's plan rests on proposals such as enacting the "Buffett Rule," a cap on itemized deductions, and changes the ways that capital gains are taxed. Warren Buffett, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman for whom the rule is named, supports Clinton's plan and endorsed it at a rally last month.

The Tax Foundation, though, came under fire at times in the past regarding the accuracy of their forecasts.

The think tank often feuds with its counterparts on the left, The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and Citizens for Tax Justice, "http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2008/08/tax_foundation_state_rankings.php" target="_blank"}. Economist Paul Krugman, a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University and a self-avowed liberal, published a brief op-ed on the The New York Times website in 2008 with the headline "{link:The Tax Foundation is not a reliable source."