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Posted on 07/23/2008 6:50:31 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
WASHINGTON -- The competing tax plans laid out by Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain would both add trillions of dollars to the national debt and could add to the tax system's complexity, a nonpartisan tax research group concluded Wednesday in a newly released report.
Both campaigns have asserted that their plans to continue many Bush-era tax cuts and offer new reductions would aid the economy without requiring massive new spending. But the Washington-based Tax Policy Center warned that under either candidate, "the debt would likely continue to rise as it has over the past eight years."
Obama's plan -- a combination of cuts targeted to middle- and low-income Americans and increases for the wealthy -- would increase the national debt by an estimated $3.4 trillion over the next decade, the center reported. Under a similar analysis, McCain's tax proposals -- largely a continuation of the Bush tax reductions -- would add $5 trillion. The national deficit now stands at $9.5 trillion.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
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What they failed to look at is who would spend less since that is the real key to the deficit.
McCain was in favor of a (potentially expensive) Fannie/Freddie bailout while Obama was smart enough (that's debatable) to keep his mouth shut on the issue.
One analyst a few weeks ago compared Obama and McCain’s tax proposals terms of weeks a person has to work to pay their taxes.
He concluded that there was only about one week’s worth of difference between the costs of both tax plans. McCain scored the week less than Obama.
McCain is for LESS government. These projections are based on if spending continues to increase at the present rate and no doubt a statist view of future tax receipts as well. In fact McCain has called for a one year freeze on all non-defense spending in order to have a thorough spending review and cutbacks and elimnations of programs that aren’t working or are duplicates.
What do you expect from a couple of U. S. Senators?
They’ll probably show up for their first televised debate wearing identical power ties.
Same goes if Hillary displaces Obama.
That's a rather bold statement to make, considering McCain's well-documented support for carbon credit trading, amnesty for foreign nationals who break our immigration and other laws, and corporate bailouts.
You’ve yet to rebut the point I made.
I haven't heard about this. One of his advisers (I believe it was Lindsey Graham) was, however, quoted on Wolf Blitzer's show on CNN a while back as suggesting that DoD was not immune to cutbacks. Care to enlighten me as to McCain's proposed freeze and review?
Located about 2/3rds down the page under the title “Reforming Washington”: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/4dbd2cc7-890e-47f1-882f-b8fc4cfecc78.htm
I hope you’ll read it with an open mind. There is a lot of good stuff on that page.
Of course. I just hope McCain and the GOP actually deliver, however.
One item to note. On the topic of AMT, McCain's Web site says:
John McCain will permanently repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) – a tax that will be paid nearly exclusively by 25 million middle class families. Repealing this onerous tax will save middle class families nearly $60 billion in a single year.
On the other hand, the LAT's article (quote from Leonard Burman at the Tax Policy Center) says:
Both Obama and McCain would continue the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, long criticized for adding to the tax bite and complexity for middle-class and many upper-middle-class taxpayers. McCain would allow taxpayers to circumvent the AMT with an "optional alternative tax system" that could cause new chaos.
In other words, the LAT says McCain will continue the AMT but add an additional layer of complexity through yet another "alternative tax system" while McCain's own Web site says that he will repeal the AMT. Either the LAT is full of feces, or McCain has flip-flopped.
I sincerely hope that McCain actually gets out there and pounds the Democrats on taxes, though at the same time his own support of carbon credits is worrisome. And, instead of adding all sorts of programs to "help" people, why not just conduct an outright simplification of the entire tax code? In 2004, before Bush's re-election, rumor had it that the GOP was going to conduct a total reform of the tax code, but that never came to fruition.
Ok, see, this is where you let McCain hatred get in the way of common sense.
No. 1 - It’s the LA times.
No. 2 - Who is paying the bills for this Tax Policy Center? And are they really even doing their homework then reagrdless?
Here is an interview with Charlie Rose where McCain talks about a commission to review and "reform" government.
"I'd ask Warren Buffett to come back and run a commission to reform the institutions of government."Hold on to your wallet.
It's a joint venture of Brookings and the Urban Institute. One was founded by LBJ (what a shock) and the other is oft referred to as centrist to liberal.
I post what I see that's interesting and let Freepers dissect it.
Norman,
It has nothing to do with hate.
McCain changed his position on AMT last month.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/13/news/economy/mccain_amt_phaseout/index.htm?postversion=2008061413
Not quite. I did some more research on McCain's stance on the AMT. It seems that, while his Web site refers to a "repeal" of the AMT, he gave a speech at the NFIB and eBay 2008 Nat'l Small Business Summit in Washington on 10 June 2008 proposing a phase-out (not a repeal) of the AMT, as well as an "alternative tax system" (what the hell):
"I will also propose as well a middle-class tax cut — a phase-out of the Alternative Minimum Tax to save more than 25 million middle-class families as much as 2,000 dollars in a single year."
—John McCain, 10 June 2008, at the NFIB and eBay 2008 Nat'l Small Business Summit
Note that the transcript of the speech is directly from McCain's Web site and is in addition to the tax and economy proposals page you passed to me, also on his Web site.
Does this mean that McCain supports an immediate phase-out of the AMT (i.e., a repeal of the AMT) or a gradual phase-out? Because, if he supports the latter, it appears that the folks at the Tax Policy Center and the LAT may be right, in which case this is some sort of double talk on McCain's part...a worrisome thing, given McCain's backpedaling on the Bush tax cuts.
He definitely changed his policy in June. All one has to do is google it and not rely entirely on the info posted at the McCain Snake Oil Sales website.
BTW, how much is it gonna cost for him to DOUBLE the child tax exemption for all of “God’s children”?
A LOT!
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