..a picture of the last nail in Obama's coffin...
I wonder how the lower energy prices will playout with this debate. Wasn’t McCain supporting Cap and Trade bill?
The Heritage Foundation recently published an evaluation of the candidates’ tax plans. This analysis assumed the tax reductions of 2001 and 2003 expired on schedule, or at the end of 2010, and that each tax plan reacted to what would be a very large tax increase if Congress and the president do nothing. John McCain’s tax plan, which makes all of the tax reductions permanent (among other things), produces more than twice as much economic activity as Barack Obama’s plan, which makes those tax reductions permanent only for taxpayers with incomes below $250,000.
The current law baseline that we used in this recently published analysis is not the only baseline that analysts employ to study the effects of policy change. Many, including other members of Heritage’s budget team (see JD Foster’s work here and here) and analysts on the Obama campaign staff, sometimes use a “current policy” baseline. That baseline assumes that current policies, like the Bush tax reductions, continue forward. Obama assumes “current policy” on spending and “current law” on tax policy.
Specifically, what would be the likely economic effects of Obama’s tax plan if one assumed the current policy baseline, or that the Bush tax reductions were made permanent, say this year?
For McCain, that alternative assumption means the principal remaining change to tax policy is his massive reduction in the corporate profits tax, from the current level of 35% to 25%. That tax reduction alone raises employment by an annual average of 182,000 and economic output by an average of $35 billion. However, the rest of his tax plan is, in fact, making the Bush tax cuts permanent, which the alternative scenario assumes that Congress already has done.
For Obama, however, the effects are quite different. Some of his current plan is covered under the alternative assumption: most of the Bush tax reductions are made permanent for taxpayers under $250,000. However, Obama raises ordinary income tax rates for taxpayers above $250,000 and also raises the tax rates on dividend and capital gains income as well as federal death taxes. In addition, he creates a number of new and expanded credits and deductions for taxpayers below that income level that are not contained in the Bush tax program. SNIP
60% of Americans would pay in federal income taxes under Obama's tax plan while the 5% of Americans who already pay 60% of the total tax bill would be squeezed hard to pay even more.
During Reagan's tenure, income tax rates of the top personal tax bracket dropped from 70% to 28% in 7 years,[9] while payroll taxes increased as well as the effective tax rates on the lower two income quintiles.[10][11] Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recovered strongly after the 1982 recession and grew during Reagan's remaining years in office at an annual rate of 3.4% per year,[12] slightly lower than the post-World War II average of 3.6%.[13] Unemployment peaked at over 10.7% percent in 1982 then dropped during the rest of Reagan's terms, and inflation significantly decreased.[14] A net job increase of about 16 million also occurred (about the rate of population growth).
I saw Fox for just a moment this morning, but the hosts were talking about something BO said about coal companies and the word “bankruptcy.” What was the gist of that? Has BO said he’s going to put the coal companies out of business?
Snip...Obama, an Illinois senator who is battling New York Senator Hillary Clinton to become their party's presidential nominee, said he would start developing the U.S. position on a pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol before the general election in November.
Snip..."The moment I secure the nomination, I want to bring together experts in this area to start putting together the U.S. position ... what we're going to be doing internally, what we can agree to with other countries," he said.
Of which we've heard not a peep.
Snip..."I know that my climate change plan is stronger than John McCain's," Obama said, citing his intention to make industrial polluters pay for the right to emit greenhouse gases.
Snip... Obama said his plan was superior to McCain's because it required companies to buy all of those permits up front -- a process known as auctioning.
"I've been very specific about proposing 100 percent auctioning, which makes an enormous difference in terms of how effective it's going to be," Obama said.
Is it going to bankrupt anybody wanting to build clean coal plants.
Lawrence Eagleburger was on again this morning—WOW! I wish his words could be made into a commercial and played across the country. He blasted Barry calling him a charlatan, someone who is buying the election with dirty funds and using ACORN for voter fraud. Yesterday he said—God help this country if he is elected.
Make sure your local talk radio host are well informed on the issue.
..a picture of the last nail in Obama's coffin...