It has been a while since I did a rant and with the election coming up I figured it was time to start doing them again.  Just so you know where I am coming from, I think that the current Bush administration is the worst thing that has happened to the United States of America in recent history and one of the worst administrations in all the history of the United States (but this is the subject of another rant).

LIARS!!!  That is the only way to describe the McCain campaign when they say that Barack Obama is going to raise the taxes for ALL Americans.

John McCain’s campaign is constantly saying how Barack Obama is going to raise everybody’s taxes, I just saw another commercial or sound bite today where McCain said Obama was going to raise everybody’s taxes.  This is an outright LIE, yet they keep saying it.

I guess they are following the Bush administrations playbook of “if you say something enough the American public will believe it.”  President Bush and his administration repeatedly said that Iraq was responsible for the attacks on September 11th, 2001.  Yet there has been NO PROOF that Iraq had anything to do with it and the 9-11 Commission said that Iraq had NOTHING to do with the September 11th attack. Yet the President and his administration say that Iraq was involved in 9-11 to justify his “war of choice.”  A surprising number of American’s believe that Iraq was responsible because they were constantly fed misinformation and lies.

The McCain Plan:

• Make all of the 2001 & 2003 tax cuts permanent
• Double exemption for dependents
• Lower corporate tax rate
• Make expensing rules more generous for small businesses
• Less the estate tax
• Lessen the Alternative Minimum tax bite

McCain Results:

• Nearly one quarter of the benefits going to the top 0.1% of the tax payers, those that are making over $2.8 million a year.
• Lowest income groups would see their after tax income rise by less then 1% (between $19 and $319 a year).
• Highest incomes (at least $603,000 / year) would see after tax income rise by 3.4% (more then $40,000 / year).
• Increase the national debt by as much as $4.5 trillion dollars

McCain Summary:

Everybody gets their taxes cut but the rich benefit more then anybody else, and  the Rich get Richer!!.

The Obama Plan:

• Keep the 2001 & 2003 tax cuts except for those making more then $250,00 / yr
• Increase the capital gains tax
• New tax breaks for lower and middle income groups
• $500 tax credit on the 1st $8,100 for those making less then $150,000 / yr
• 50% Federal match on the first $1000 of savings for those making less then $75,000 / yr
• Exempting Seniors from having to pay taxes if they make less then $50,000 / yr
• Lessen the estate tax but not as much as McCain
• Lessen the Alternative Minimum tax bite but not as much as McCain

Obama Results:

• Lowest income groups would see the biggest benefits and after tax income for them would rise between 2.4% and 5.5% (between $567 and $1,042 a year).
• Middle income groups ($66,000 to $161,000 / yr) would see tax savings that are a little more then the McCain plan on the low end and a little less then the McCain plan on the upper end.
• Highest incomes (at least $603,000 / year the Richest 1%) would see a decline in their after tax income of about 8.7% (about $116,000)
• Increase the national debt by as much as $3.3 trillion dollars much less then McCains plan

Obama Summary:

The lower and middle class families get tax cuts that are 3X larger the the McCain plan.

So other then the McCain campaign LYING about Barack Obama raising taxes.  Then Obama plan would actually give bigger tax cuts to Lower and Middle income families then the McCain plan.  The McCain tax plan gives less of a tax break to the lower income groups while giving huge tax cuts to the rich.

Obama - Help out more lower & middle  income Americans!!

McCain - The Rich get Richer!!

Inntrepid

September 9, 2008

Sources:

• CNN Money.com “What they’ll do to your tax bill”  June11, 2008
• http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/11/news/economy/candidates_taxproposals_tpc/index.htm?postversion=2008061115
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• Tax Policy Center
• http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/listdocs.cfm?topic3id=89&topic2id=40&DocTypeID=2
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• Wikipedia “Household income in the United States”
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
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• The Elkhart truth Newspaper “Make less than $600,000 a year? Read this before voting”
• http://www.etruth.com/Know/News/Story.aspx?ID=461310