Friday, August 22, 2008

It's All about the Economy

Well, it isn't, obviously, but it certainly is an issue that is important.

Obama has been criticized as planning to raise your taxes while McCain will cut them... the LA Times the other day published this chart, showing how your taxes would be affected if either candidate's tax policies were completely adopted.



Unless you're in the top 20% of incomes, you get a larger break with Obama. Now, if you're in the top 1%, then McCain is definitely the man fr your pocketbook.

And speaking of the top 1%... you've no doubt heard McCain's comment that he didn't know how many houses he owns. Here's a video to help him out...

5 comments:

Michael J Mahoney said...

I saw you posted this over on CMF. As usual, the LA Times only tells part of the story .

I posted (partially) in reply:

I'll be the first to admit that the Obama plan is not bad on it's face. He's trying to close a lot of tax loopholes, and his treatment of the corporate tax structure could favor compensation for productivity over compensation for tax efficiency. On the other hand, corporations are very creative in tax-avoidance strategies.

What worries me about it is the vastly disproportionate burden placed on the upper incomes. (Not because I'm there - this plan will benefit me tremendously, short term.) But those folks, like it or not, are the ones who stimulate the economy. We want them buying bigger houses and bigger cars. We want them taking capital gains. Taking away the incentives to invest could very well stifle the economy at the time we need it most, and leave a disaster for our children to fix.


And of course, either's plan supposes that they can actualy get it to pass.

Anonymous said...

Exactly! Instead of being so jealous of how many homes McCain owns (who cares!), we need to really think about the deeper implications that heavily taxing the rich could lead to. People get all frothy about the idea of saving at the most a couple thousand dollars. In the long run, that amount is peanuts compared to the problems the strategy could cause.

roy said...

OK Jeff, this time I'll bite.

These dire predictions of economic disaster if we tax the rich are just stupid. The top tax rate has been all over the place and from what I can see has had virtually no correlation to economic growth or health at all. The highest tax rate that I could see was in 1950-63 when it was 91% and 92%! In '44-45, during the war, it was 94%. (I guess the nation felt we should pay as we go at that point.) In 91-92, it was 31%, one of the lowest rates... not a great time for the economy was it?

Besides that, it is just silly to think that wealthy people will either stop making money or stop investing if their taxes go up. What will they do with their money? Stick it in a mattress? And even if their investments do go down more than the tax increase, how will the lowering of the national debt affect the overall health of the economy?

Sorry Jeff, your predictions of economic disaster if we raise taxes a minimal amount on the very wealthy hold no water at all.

Does it matter how many houses McCain has? No... but the fact that he didn't even know how many he has shows how far out of touch he is with real life.

Anonymous said...

He may be out of touch with reality, but what politician isn't? You're dreaming if you think Obama is in touch with reality. He acts like he is "one of us" but let's not kid ourselves...he is a RICH politician and will be even richer if he is somehow elected. He's downplaying his egotistical, elitist mentality. But don't listen to me- according to him, I will just go on clinging to my guns and my religion.

The only thing that is going to keep him from getting beat by a landslide is the fact that he is African American and it is an exciting thing to think about a possible first for our nation.

He has the most liberal voting record in all of the Senate...there is no way in hell he is going to win. But you can continue trying to make him look better than he is if you want to.

roy said...

No question Jeff that Obama is a rich man and will get richer no matter what happens in this election. Still, given his background and his upbringing, I trust him to understand the realities most American's face a lot better than McCain.

As for his liberal voting record... I can't speak to that, but listening to his policies and plans, he is not my deal candidate either. I'd like him a lot further to the left.