McCain and Obama tax plans are criticized

[WhiskeyGirl]

McCain and Obama tax plans are criticized

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says that both candidates' proposals would increase the national debt by trillions and may make the system more complex.

By Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 24, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The competing tax plans laid out by Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain would both add trillions of dollars to the national debt and could add to the tax system's complexity, a nonpartisan tax research group concluded Wednesday in a newly released report.

Both campaigns assert that their plans to continue many Bush-era tax cuts and offer new reductions would aid the economy without massive new spending. But the Washington-based Tax Policy Center warned that under either candidate, "the debt would likely continue to rise as it has over the past eight years."

Obama's plan -- cuts targeted to middle- and low-income Americans and increases for the wealthy -- would increase the national debt by an estimated $3.4 trillion in the next decade, the center said. Under a similar analysis, McCain's plan -- largely a continuation of Bush's tax reductions -- would add $5 trillion. The deficit is now $9.5 trillion.

Both candidates would maintain the Bush tax cuts for the working poor and middle-income taxpayers. But they differ drastically on how to target the richest Americans.

The report estimated that under McCain's plan, Americans who make between $38,000 and $66,000 a year would see average tax cuts of as much as $1,400 in 2012. But the Arizona Republican would aid the wealthiest 1% -- those who make more than $603,000 per year -- with annual tax reductions averaging $127,000.

Under Obama's plan, the tax center said, middle-income taxpayers would have tax cuts averaging $2,100 in 2012. But the top 1% of taxpayers would see steep increases -- $38,000 a year, on average -- under the Illinois Democrat's plan.

Leonard E. Burman, a Tax Policy Center senior fellow who was on the team that reviewed the candidates' plans, said in an interview that important portions of both plans had yet to be fleshed out.

Both proposals are filled with "soft numbers" and sometimes play "fast and loose with their figures," Burman added.

read more here -
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-taxes24-2008jul24,0,217480.story

Does anyone have some ideas about chipping away at the debt?  Making the US debt-free?