On taxes, the differences between Obama, McCain couldn’t be more obvious
Media efforts to minimize the differences notwithstanding, Barack Obama and John McCain couldn’t be much more different, especially on the issues of taxes.
The irony is, McCain, after his last presidential election, thought Bush’s trickle-down, class-warfare-style tax plan was ridiculous. “I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief,” McCain said in 2001.
Now, however, McCain is anxious to do precisely what he couldn’t in good conscience do before. Obama, meanwhile, is prepared to deliver for middle-class families and those at the lower end of the scale. The Washington-based Tax Policy Center crunched the numbers.
Both John McCain and Barack Obama promise to cut taxes for the majority of Americans. But an Obama administration would redistribute income toward lower- and middle-class households, while a McCain White House would steer the bulk of the benefits to the wealthiest families, according to a nonpartisan analysis of the still-evolving tax plans of the presidential candidates. […]
Under Sen. McCain, those in the middle — making between $66,354 and $111,645 — would see their after-tax income increase by 0.7%. The biggest benefit would flow to those in the top 0.1% — those with incomes above $2.8 million — who would see their after-tax income increase by 4.4%.
Sen. Obama skews his tax cuts toward the lower- and middle-end of the income scale. Those in the middle would see their after-tax income increase by 2.4% , or $1,042. Americans with incomes above $2.8 million would see their after-tax income decrease by 11.5%.
Kevin summarized the bottom line nicely: “If you’re really rich and think that George Bush’s tax cuts for the rich didn’t go nearly far enough, John McCain is your man.”
What’s striking is that for all of McCain’s talk about the middle class, it’s Obama’s tax plan that favors the middle, by a long shot.
This CNN clip, by way of TPM, was actually pretty good.
Of course, reality has a well-known liberal bias.
The Wonk Room today found that TPC comparison uses less outrageous descriptions of McCain’s policy than what ios found on his website.
http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/11/mccain-flip-on-taxes/
In other words, this comparison may be actually putting McCain in a EVEN LESS WORSE light than reality…
For God sakes, Democrats, if you can’t hit this one out of the park, what the hell can you do? Or have you all gotten so used to Bush’s tax cuts that you can’t give them up? Are you going to stonewall Obama on his plan if he’s elected, or are you going to serve the American people for the first time in decades?
Voting against one’s own interest. I’m sure I won’t say this in a way that makes sence, but I’ve always felt that americans arre so in awe of wealth that the middle class and the lower class often vote against their own interest even though they know its helping the wealthy because they are star-struck by the rich and the notion of being wealthy. Alot of people of modest means seem to think of the upper class as a national treasure. Or maybe its the notion that on day they could be wealthy, too. Whatever it is, alot of lower and middle class people seem more than happy to make sure the wealthy are well cared for.
John’s Sugar Mama Cindy Approves!
I hope that for once the Democrats are smart enough to point out the exact amount of money McCain stands to gain if he gets his way. For some reason the Dimocrats always forget that real numbers stick in people’s minds a lot better than percentages and unimaginable numbers (i.e. billions).
So how much money will the McCain family get from the McCain tax plan? This number should be repeated at every opportunity.
Why would anyone making anywhere near 2.8 million dollars get any tax relief whatsoever when the country’s books are what they are? They’re responsible for all this inequality. They shouldn’t be considered in any tax discussion but raising their taxes to pay for the shenanigans they’ve been up to since Reagan. Good lord this is bizarro world! Are we really this stupid?
Wolfie B just went over the numbers on CNN regarding the candidates proposed tax policies. He noted that someone making 2.9 mil/yr would be paying 700+k in additional taxes under the Obama plan. This was affirmed by the blond talking head. What they both failed to realize was that the 700+k was an average of what the top 0.1% would be paying… in other words someone making 2.9 mil would not be paying that much, while someone making 2.9 bil would probably be paying more. Saying directly that someone with income would be paying 2.7 mil was just flat out wrong – but’s that how it was told on CNN.
But it’s unfair to tax rich people. (typical Repubican’t whine).