Obama and McCain Tax Proposals

So McCain has been hammering Obama on tax policy. Typical Republicans vs. Democrats, right? A recent television commercial from the McCain campaign goes like this: "Celebrities don't have to worry about family budgets, but we sure do. We're paying more for food and gas, making it harder to save for college, retirement. Obama's solution? Higher taxes, called a recipe for economic disaster. He's ready to raise your taxes, but not ready to lead." Here's the commercial:



Unfortunately, it's not true. Under Obama's plan the average tax increase for anyone making less than $600,000 per year is ... a tax cut.

"According to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are both proposing tax plans that would result in cuts for most American families. Obama's plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy. For the approximately 147,000 families that make up the top 0.1 percent of the income scale, the difference between the two plans is stark. While McCain offers a $269,364 tax cut, Obama would raise their taxes, on average, by $701,885 - a difference of nearly $1 million." Obama and McCain Tax Proposals - washingtonpost.com



From Forbes:

"The best-kept secret in this presidential campaign is Barack Obama's substantial package of middle class tax cuts--most political junkies can't even tell you what's in it and most working-class swing voters don't even know it exists. Indeed, those voters would be shocked to discover that, according to independent analyses, Obama is offering 80% of Americans four times as much in tax relief as McCain on average." The Low-Tax Left - Forbes.com