Republicans love to scare voters by making them think Democrats are going to tax the hell out of them. McCain wants us to elect him because he's going to keep Bush's tax cuts.In case anyone is buying that McCain's approach will help the average guy (though I kind of doubt anyone here is buying that) check this out, courtesy of an exceptionally informative and engaging article on Obama's economic policy/philosophy/thinking. (Yes, I said engaging! Seriously.) [Btw, apologies to Mr. Pony for stealing your lego icon.]
The Tax Policy Center, a research group run by the Brookings
Institution and the Urban Institute, has done the most detailed analysis of
the Obama and McCain tax plans, and it has published a series of fascinating tables. For the bottom 80 percent of the population — those households making $118,000 or less — McCain’s various tax cuts would mean a net savings of about $200 a year on average. Obama’s proposals would bring $900 a year in savings. So for most people, Obama is the tax cutter in this campaign. .....
He would then pay for the cuts, at least in part, by raising taxes on the
affluent to a point where they would eventually be slightly higher than they
were under Clinton. For these upper-income families, the Tax Policy Center’s
comparisons with McCain are even starker. McCain, by continuing the basic thrust of Bush’s tax policies and adding a few new wrinkles, would cut taxes for the top 0.1 percent of earners — those making an average of $9.1 million — by
another $190,000 a year, on top of the Bush reductions.
2 comments:
Hey, that was engaging. I hope he can sell it--I think even Obama might have trouble explaining how he can simultaneously raise and lower taxes, especially to the millions of poor bastards who voted for Bush and think the "Bush Tax Cuts" somehow apply to them.
The Washington Post has also published a simplified but human-readable summary of the two tax plans.
Kind of makes you wonder if Obama's not doing some psi-ops on McCain by threatening to tax the fuck out of him and his rich wife. That's how I'd be. I'd be all, John McCain, if I win, I'll structure my tax plan in such a way that you and your wife pay for the withdrawal from Iraq.
Gotta admit, though: McCain's $19 tax cut for people making minimum wage is a stroke of diabolical genius. He can say stuff like "across the board," now.
Love the chart. $19!
I hope Obama's camp figures out a way to get this story across.
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