Largest item on President-to-be Obama's budget

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

Is a tax cut for the middle class.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1218...n_commentaries

Tax revenue as % of GDP will fall to 18.2%, lower than Reagan levels.

Cap gains tax on small businesses and startups will be eliminated.

R&D tax credit will be made permanent.

Elimination of the estate tax for estates less than $7 million.

What an astute plan his economics dream team concocted.

Bill Clinton cut a massive hole in poverty, though he was unable to get the middle class going. Which is what President Obama has come to do.

Here's to 8 years of equitable prosperity beginning 2009. Cheers!

Perhaps you can explain to me how these alleged tax cuts will come up with the extra trillion spending he has planned?

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

Perhaps you can explain to me how these alleged tax cuts will come up with the extra trillion spending he has planned?

Il Pad, jsyk, McCain proposes nearly $6 trillion in increased deficit spending.

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by Archaea

He's limiting tax cuts to under 250K. Lot of help that'll do.

Hard to believe I know, but there are actually a few Americans who manage to squeak by on less than 250 a year. It's a wonder how they make ends meet. Maybe the tax break will help.

Originally Posted by Archaea

He is an abomination but I guess he's our abomination.

No. He's an Obamanation. Come on, Arch. Don't you watch Fox at all?

[ChinoCoug]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

Perhaps you can explain to me how these alleged tax cuts will come up with the extra trillion spending he has planned?

perhaps you should read the article and you might find your answer.

[ChinoCoug]

Originally Posted by ERCougar

This is MUCH better than his donut plan he has floated around before--which essentially would have amounted to an absolute (not relative) increase in the marginal tax rate of nearly 20% (to households over 250K).

I still have a problem with two issues:
1) the 2-4% increase on households over 250K in "Payroll tax". We all know that Social Security will be means-tested eventually and these households won't see a penny of this. Why not just call it what it is?
2) It's wrong to substantially increase benefits to a segment of the population without making them bear at least a small cost of those benefits. If we're adopting an expensive new health-care proposal, which will primarily benefit the middle class, they should not be getting tax cuts at the same time.

I'm certainly not excited about the new McCain, however, who seems to have completely ditched his old balanced budget philosophy (his chief redeeming quality, IMO).

2%-4% increase isn't that much, and he's not taking the cap off.

I can understand your concern about increasing benefits to the middle class without making them pay for it. But the middle class are the ones who need the coverage and can't afford it. The $250K+ group will undoubtedly continue to prosper under President Obama. The middle class, on the other hand, has been squeezed by the housing and credit crises, and are vulnerable to the winds of globalization and technological change.

Americans work harder than anyone else in the world, and it's time they are paid adequately for it. This is where Obama will lead us.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

perhaps you should read the article and you might find your answer.

I read the spin written by the Obama people who wrote the article.

Never mind explaining it to me, as I want to hear it from anyone who isn't an Obama supporter. Nor do I want to hear it from an Obama hater. I want an unbiased explanation.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

Il Pad, jsyk, McCain proposes nearly $6 trillion in increased deficit spending.

Link?

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by il Padrino Ute

Link?

McCain, 71, and Obama, 47, both bill themselves as fiscal disciplinarians. With the White House forecasting a record $482 billion budget deficit next year, analysts say neither candidate has a plan to control runaway federal spending.
McCain's tax cuts alone would increase the debt by $5 trillion by 2018, compared with $3.4 trillion for Obama, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group.

from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20...g/afi0ajthqc54


I should point out that the difficulty in estimating these numbers for either candidate is in trying to guess when the war spending will subside.