Republicans have issued a press release claiming the "Democrat budget" released last Wednesday proposes the largest tax increase in U.S. history—$392.5 billion over five years. The document should probably be taken with a grain (or block) of salt, as it comes from the Republican Party rather than a government office and goes to great lengths to portray Democrats as tax-hiking villains:

"It is noteworthy that the last time Democrats held a majority in Congress – 1993-94 – they passed what was then the largest tax increase in history, about $240 billion over 5 years. Now, in only the third month of their new majority, they have already passed an even larger tax increase."

As far as I know, the press release's claims about the tax hike haven't hit the mainstream media yet, but Matt Drudge has linked to it, as have a few other bloggers.

On the other hand, some are accusing President Bush of being the "tax hiker." TaxProf Blog links to a report by the Joint Committee on Taxation and suggests that "the President's proposed standard deduction for health insurance, coupled with repeal of the exclusion for employer-paid health insurance, self-employed health insurance deduction, and itemized medical deductions, would result in a $333 billion tax increase over 10 years."

This comes from a more reputable source—the Joint Committee on Taxation is an actual government body consisting of Representatives and Senators—but again, this hasn't hit the mainstream media yet and may be taken out of context.

So which is it? Who's raising taxes? Does it even matter, or are these going to be more important for partisan mudslingers than for the average taxpayer?