Still undecided on who to vote for?

SIMPLE MATH:

2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE COMPARISON TALKING POINTS

ISSUE JOHN McCAIN vs BARACK OBAMA

Favors new drilling offshore US
JM: Yes
BO: No

Will appoint judges who interpret the law not make it
JM: Yes
BO: No

Served in the US Armed Forces
JM: Yes
BO: No

Amount of time served in the US Senate
JM: 22 YEARS
BO: 173 DAYS

Will institute a socialized national health care plan
JM: No
BO: Yes

Supports abortion throughout the pregnancy
JM: No
BO: Yes

Would pull troops out of Iraq immediately
JM: No
BO: Yes

Supports gun ownership rights
JM: Yes
BO: No

Supports homosexual marriage
JM: No it should be up to the invididual state
BO: Yes

Proposed programs will mean a huge tax increase
JM: No
BO: Yes

Voted against making English the official language
JM: No
BO: Yes

Voted to give Social Security benefits to illegals
JM: No
BO: Yes

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

MCCAIN 0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax.

OBAMA 28% on profit from ALL home sales. (How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.)

DIVIDEND TAX

MCCAIN 15% (no change)

OBAMA 39.6% - (How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that 'Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.')

INCOME TAX

MCCAIN (no changes)
Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $31,250

OBAMA (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)
Single making 30K - tax $8,400
Single making 50K - tax $14,000
Single making 75K - tax $23,250
Married making 60K - tax $16,800
Married making 75K - tax $21,000
Married making 125K - tax $38,750
Under Obama, your taxes could almost double!

INHERITANCE TAX

MCCAIN - 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)

OBAMA - Restore the inheritance tax. Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes.

NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA

New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet. New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already) New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity) New taxes on retirement accounts, and last but not least....New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!

Well you asked were I got that with Obama taxes will be doubled and there it is, plain and simple, as I said. As for the military, I rather us spend money on our military to protect our country and our soliders then spend money on plans that we don't even know if they will work or amount to anything, as Obama wants to do.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-...ding-plan.html

Obama's Trillion-Dollar Spending Plan

What does "change" cost? About a quarter of a trillion bucks a year, according to Barack Obama.

But first, this: "I wish Obama would go further than that, but it's a start," was the reaction of one DailyKos poster to Barack Obama's economic plan unveiled yesterday in a campaign appearance in Janesville, Wis. Some hard-core liberals may be underwhelmed by the scope of Obama's agenda—after all, there's no single-payer healthcare plan or Scandinavian-style "flexicurity" worker benefits program in the mix—but my guess is that the average person would find it all pretty aggressive.

Here are the priciest parts:

A $65 billion-a-year health plan
$15 billion in green energy spending
$85 billion in tax cuts and credits
A $25 billion-a-year increase in foreign aid
$18 billion a year in education spending
$3.5 billion for a national service plan

Put it all together, and we are talking about a $200 billon plan, $800 billion over four years. And that does not even include fixing the alternative minimum tax, a $50 billion-a-year item that will assuredly get passed.

A few thoughts:

1) Let's put aside for a moment whether the Obama plan will actually increase our standard of living, enhance productivity, or encourage innovation. As a matter of accounting, I don't get how Obama will pay for his plan. Now, he claims he's paid "for every element of this economic agenda—by ending a war that's costing us billions, closing tax loopholes for corporations, putting a price on carbon pollution, and ending George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans."

But I don't think that adds up. Take, for instance, eliminating those Bush tax cuts on top earners. That might gain $50 billion a year, assuming no negative economic effect. But Congressional Budget Office estimates already assume that the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2010. So Obama gains nothing beyond, perhaps, a one-year bump in 2010 if he repeals the tax cuts a year earlier.

2) Obama clearly advocates jacking up payroll taxes as a way of creating long-term solvency for Social Security. Check out this chunk from his campaign press release:

Obama will be honest with the American people about the long-term solvency of Social Security and the ways we can address the shortfall. Obama will protect Social Security benefits for current and future beneficiaries alike. And he does not believe it is necessary or fair to hardworking seniors to raise the retirement age. Obama is strongly opposed to privatizing Social Security. Currently, the Social Security payroll tax applies to only the first $97,500 a worker makes. Obama has consistently said that we may want to include a "doughnut hole" to ensure that lifting the payroll tax cap does not ensnare any middle-class Americans. Obama supports increasing the maximum amount of earnings covered by Social Security, and he will work with Congress and the American people to choose a payroll tax reform package that will keep Social Security solvent for at least the next half century.

Taken at face value, Obama is proposing no benefit cuts at all. None. He won't cut future benefit increases by linking them to the inflation rate rather than wages, nor will he extend the retirement age even as life expectancy increases. Retirement accounts, a way to make Social Security a better deal for younger workers but not a way to directly deal with the solvency issue, are also out of the question. I will update all this after I chat with Team Obama about its candidate's ideas.