Comparison of Taxes: McCain vs. Obama

I did my daily check of the articles summarized on the home page at RealClearPolitics.com and found an article in the Wall Street Journal about the differences in the proposed tax plans of Barack Obama and John McCain. It is interesting to see how the two candidates "spin" their statements on taxes, especially Obama. I quote three portions:

Mr. Obama claims no "working families" earning less than $250,000 would pay more in taxes, but that's because he defines income more broadly than the taxable income line on the IRS form. If you're an individual with taxable income of $164,550, you will pay more taxes.

Now, I am fiscally nowhere near the $160K or $250K tax bracket, and it seems that right now I may benefit more from Obama's plan. More highlights:

As for Mr. McCain, the central plank of his personal income-tax proposals is to make permanent almost all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. This would leave the top marginal rate at 35%. The one exception is the death or estate tax, which expires for one year in 2010. Mr. McCain wants a 15% death tax on estates larger than $5 million. Mr. Obama wants a 45% rate on estates larger than $3.5 million.

Mr. McCain would also increase the dependent exemption by two-thirds -- to $6,000 per dependent from $3,500.

Summary:

In sum, Mr. Obama is proposing to use the tax code to substantially redistribute income -- raising tax rates on a minority of taxpayers to finance tax credits and direct income supplements to millions of others. How much revenue his higher rates would raise depends on how much less those high-earners would work, or how much they would change their practices to shelter their income from those higher rates.

By contrast, Mr. McCain is proposing some kind of tax reduction for most Americans who pay taxes. He says he would finance those cuts by reducing the rate of growth in federal spending.

The one thing I like about both is that they're both going after the oil profits. Obama's plan is much less friendly to small businesses and for well-to-do families hoping to pass on their estates to heirs. Obama has many little perks for people like me, students, and lower-income families, thus his comments that 95% of all Americans would get a tax break or cut under his plan. In the same breath many of those same people would also be paying more taxes elsewhere. Obama also wants the wealthier portion of America to be the primary financiers of the Social Security program, using it to "redistribute wealth." McCain's is aimed more towards reducing government spending and promoting growth in the economy by taxing businesses less.

Remember to vote!

America's Most Wanted Couple: Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac

Here they are- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

Okay- seriously, Fannie Mae is really the "Federal National Mortgage Association" and Freddie Mac is the "Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation." They are two financial institutions, not grandparents, that share great responsibility in the recent financial meltdown. Sure, many individuals were allowed to get in over their heads, and they are to blame as well, but they were merely following the example of the federal government and are living beyond their means. See the National Debt clock here. And here's a recent article on the clock. Apparently it ran out of digits because of the recent financial intervention of the government. Would it hurt to just let these organizations and businesses drown on their own? I am sure that it would hurt, but maybe it would send a strong message and help us and others make more sound investments. If the government were to be compared to a business, I would never invest in it in the fiscal sense. It needs a infusion of new blood, though- a MAJOR blood transfusion. I wish a candidate would balance the budget and create a plan to pay off the national debt.

My brother send me an e-mail about a week ago citing one of the origins of the current financial meltdown. I will quote Kimball from his e-mail:

The New York Times link below explains the hand the government had in creating the current mortgage crisis. The article was written in 1999, and occurred within Clinton's administration. This article was sent to me by my politically savvy friend, Mike Taylor.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260

Today I ran across another article today on DeseretNews.com as well that cited a Republican-sponsored bill that was never voted on in the Senate, possibly in part due to a group paid large sums of money by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lobby against the bill. Glad to know that a lot of Republicans in the Senate could see this financial meltdown coming:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705256560,00.html

Isn't it nice to know that we can live life based on sound principles? I found it interesting that it was primarily Democrats in Congress that were primarily voting for the economic bailout proposed by President Bush and that it was a crew of Republicans that did not like the looks of the bailout package initially.

I think that a lot more time should have been spent in analyzing the problem, or that smaller bills should have been passed, incrementally, each with a specific target on what it was intended to do, not a one-size-fits-all mega-bill.

I can remember somewhere in the mid/late-1990's when I was sitting next to a guy in choir practice who was asking what I thought about the national debt. I told him that I thought it would come back to bite us one day and that the government and nation would fall on its face financially if it did not do something to pay the debt. One loses credibility with so much debt. We reap what we sow, right?

What would I do about it?
Turn Mitt Romney loose on the problem. He'd probably help for free.

Be sure to get out and VOTE!

Here is a great video found at CatholicVote.com:

We do need to make sure that we are taking part. Well made, well said, and true, true, true...

Stocks on sale! Also homes.

Isn't life all about perspective? And there is always more than one way to view the current economic status of our nation. If you're one that has savings, a great credit rating, and have been waiting to get into the stock market or a house, this may be your big chance!

When the prices of stocks, or homes, generally plunge like they have recently. It's like having a sign saying:

BIG SALE!
Lowest prices in 10 years!
Wahoo!

This is not intended as investment advice, but nearly as an alternative perspective in an economic downturn that anybody knew was coming. Watching house prices inflate the last few years has been ridiculous. My house's estimated value has risen over $100,000 in the last 3-4 years (that's not healthy growth, or normal). On my property tax forms the county listed it as being worth $9,000 more each year in the first 3 years and then in the last year increasing in value about $75,000. And this was at a time when home prices across the nation were dropping, and just as they started to slow and drop here in Utah.

Record vs. Rhetoric

Here is a great article from RealClearPolitics.com that talks about the current candidates and their VP picks. It discusses experience, or record, as opposed to rhetoric. I thought it very insightful:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/record_vs_rhetoric.html

It's a good, short read.

Flip/Flop?

Hmmm...



What shall we believe when a candidate speaks? Who knows what McCain will say or do next.

I wonder if it's too late to convince Colin Powell to run for office.

"One for the ages," from Terry Moran

Someone e-mailed me this and I had to share it:

Saturdays

Here's what's happened today, and what might be a normal Saturday for me lately...
1. Sleep in until 8 or so (normally I do like to get up a little earlier).
2. Read (currently John Groberg's, "In the Eye of the Storm")
3. Run (4 mile loop- haven't gone that far in a while).
4. Vacuum
5. Breakfast (2 bowls of cereal and about an hour later, 2 awesome breakfast burritos made by yours truly).
6. Watch the rest of the Texas Longhorns game with roommate as they beat the currently #1-ranked Oklahoma Sooners.
7. Help roommate clean up kitchen because I feel guilty that much of the mess is mine.
8. Load 1,960 lbs. of junk in the old orange flatbed dumptruck (cement chunks, old beams, wood, pipe, and other miscellany). Added a new driveway a few weeks ago and the cement guy did his "cleanout" right in front of the leftover cement. Gratefully there was not too much.
9. Visit the dump as a very light rain turns so snow (that makes 3 weeks in a row). Last week's trip was almost 3 tons and great fun in the rain. The landfill was a muddy, stinky mess and after I dumped my load I felt like I was in one of those events you might see at a truck pull. I was peeling out and flipping mud everywhere. It was pretty fun. Good thing I had "duallies" in back or I may not have made it. :)
10. Hurry and answer a few e-mails that have been sitting in my inbox.
11. Check friends' blogs. Feel guilty about not posting anything. Create this post.
12. Get a little to eat (leftovers from Saturday breakfast last week [blueberry pancakes] and today).
13. Hope to work on finishing a few small rough framing things in the basement "studio" room I am finishing.
14. Get cleaned up.
15. Go dancing with friends at the Murray Arts Center (M.A.C.). Possibly visit IKEA beforehand to check on flooring that is $0.49 a square foot (probably pretty cheap stuff).
16. Bed.

What would I change? A few things- three, in fact. Love Saturdays. Next week I have a 4-day weekend. Awesome.