Obama & McCain on Taxes: Pretty Simple Really

I read an interesting piece this morning from "Business Week" by Chris Farrell- in which he discusses the difference between the two tax plans.

The article is worth a read. However, it all boils down to this:

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Senator McCain's tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes,[emphasis mine] almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their aftertax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. Many fewer households at the bottom of the income distribution would get tax cuts, and those whose taxes fall would, on average, see their aftertax income rise much less.

-- In marked contrast, Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers [emphasis mine] and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers. The largest tax cuts, as a share of income, would go to those at the bottom of the distribution, while taxpayers with the highest income would see their taxes rise.

That is the most important thing for most people to remember. There are, however, to be fair, some interesting twists to Obama's plan. TazVox, the Tax Policy Center blog, lays out some interesting quirks of Obama's plan...particularly when it comes to Senior Citizens on a fixed income.

While very poor single seniors see a drop under Obama's plan, those with more moderately comfortable incomes see a rise, and, in another, more disturbing quirk, poor MARRIED seniors also see a rise-

On the whole, of course, Obama's plan is really the ONLY sane choice for this country...we've been trying Reagan's trickle down economics for over a quarter century...the gap between rich and poor is growing, the nation's treasure is spent and the debt is still rising, and each day sees the rolling back of middle class gains made in the years following Franklin Roosevelt's presidency...this, in turn, sees our nation grow weaker.

John McCain: Oil in his Eyes

McCain Supports Bush Call for More Off Shore Drilling

According the AP, John McCain has joined George W. Bush in a call for offshore Drilling in American coastal waters.

The American working class needs relief from high gas prices that eat into weekly pay checks, but common sense says that offshore drilling is not the way to go about providing that relief.

As Barack Obama said in his speech on the subject: "The politics may have changed but the facts haven't."

Only One Winner

There is only one group of people who would win from a change in the off shore oil drilling rules: BIG OIL.

American Drivers wouldn't even SEE this oil for years...so there are much better ways to help working Americans make ends meet.

And, when the oil finally DOES arrive, there is no guarantee that prices will go down. In fact, Americans watched for years as OPEC worked very well to keep Oil Prices UP by intentionally limiting the amount of oil they took out of the ground...if supply goes up, prices come down- if you want to keep prices up, you limit the amount of supply. After these boom times, anyone who thinks that the Oil Business is looking for ways to lower prices and profits is a complete sucker.

The Rest of us Lose

Who looses?
Most of Us.

None of us see lower Gas prices anytime soon...if ever.

Fisherman, already waiting on empty boats for fish populations to bounce back, loose most hopes of returning to their jobs.

Working People in Coastal States who rely on Tourism loose when their beaches become blotted with oil bubbles, slicks and spills.

The alternative energy industry, which could help keep this country strong, is forced to wait again while people put off breaking their oil addiction.

We all loose as we continue to damage the planet's atmosphere through fossil fuel consumption.

Americans must resist economic panic. We need to look deeply at this issue and reject the short-sighted, crony capitalism as offered by Oil Man Bush and his would-be successor, John McCain.

When it comes to Oil...just say NO!

McCain Confused or Worse

If you are on Howard Dean's mass mailing list for the Democratic Party, then you got this message too. Still, I think it is worth repeating and thinking about. John McCain has repeated the same gaffe several times.

The Democrats wrote:

Today, as he was questioning Gen. David Petraeus, he again confused the difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

At least five times as a candidate John McCain has stated that Iran (a Shiite nation) is supporting Al-Qaeda (a Sunni group) in Iraq. This is not some minor mistake, but a significant gaffe. He clearly does not understand the sensitive political dynamics in that region of the world.

The website Media Matters has been tracking McCain's habit of misstatement, going back to the Middle Eastern Trip he took with Joe Lieberman in March.

Much of the mainstream media has been ignoring McCain's linking of Shiite Iran with Sunni Al Qaeda, treating it as a simple gaffe- but the fact is that McCain has made this mistake more than once.

In the face of McCain's repetitions, it is impossible for us not to remember the post 9/11 rhetoric of the Bush Administration, in which they cited Bin Ladin and Saddam in the same breath so many times that, for the American public, the two became linked, despite the overwhelming lack of evidence to support any conjecture that they acted together.

Is McCain displaying a severe case of absent mindedness? If so, we should think twice about his ability to act as commander in chief.

But if McCain is resorting to the same kind of rhetorical duplicity that got us into 9/11 in the first place, and set us back so far in the fight against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, then there is no need to think twice...he is unfit and unworthy to serve.

And if McCain is truly unable to see a difference, then he is guilty of the same tendency that Americans have often displayed in their world view: to see only a monolithic conspiracy, where there are, in fact, cracks and divisions to be exploited.

It was this tendency to treat the Communist Block as a monolith that brought America to grief in Vietnam, and it was the genius of Nixon and Kissinger to recognize that the seeming monolith of Communism actually masked a network of fissures and fault-lines which could be used against the enemy.

It has been America's tragedy (and Iraq's as well, perhaps) that the Bush Administration has fallen into the trap (out of mendacity or stupidity or a nefarious combination of both) of the Monolithic Block.

America will need, as her next President, a person who knows EXACTLY what the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni is....and how to exploit it to bring stability back to the world.

John McCain doesn't seem up to the job.