Election 08: Tax Policy

From David Kurtz at TPM:

The Tax Policy Center has released a report comparing the Obama and McCain tax plans. You can read the report, "A Preliminary Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans," here (.pdf). A sampling:

If enacted, the Obama and McCain tax plans would have radically different effects on the distribution of tax burdens in the United States. The Obama tax plan would make the tax system significantly more progressive by providing large tax breaks to those at the bottom of the income scale and raising taxes significantly on upper-income earners. The McCain tax plan would make the tax system more regressive, even compared with a system in which the 2001-06 tax cuts are made permanent. It would do so by providing relatively little tax relief to those at the bottom of the income scale while providing huge tax cuts to households at the very top of the income distribution.

At his TaxProf Blog, Paul L. Caron hits the highlights of the report and rounds up early reaction, some of which centers on the fact that both plans would dramatically increase the national debt.

There is also a video from CNN at the TPM link.

12 June 2008