Word: taxing
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...takes some serious work to figure out what they are actually getting at. Neither candidate has laid out an actual plan, with specific numbers, to bring America's fiscal house into order. They do, however, offer plans that differ strikingly from each other. McCain's tax plan benefits mostly those in higher income brackets, while Obama's plan benefits mostly those in lower- and middle-income tax brackets. McCain wants a tax cut for corporate profits, while Obama has proposed a whole host of tax cuts that will benefit those in the middle-income brackets. Both candidates have new spending...
...what is a concerned voter to do? One good way to measure the fiscal responsibility of a candidate's plan is to compare the total amount of government revenue from taxes they plan to raise against the gross domestic product, which is the sum total of the nation's economic activity. According to congressional accountants, the Federal Government spent about 20% of the GDP in 2007, while taking in 18.8% of the GDP in taxes. The difference between spending and tax receipts - about $162 billion - was the budget deficit...
...According to the Tax Policy Center, neither Obama nor McCain has laid out plans to close the budget deficit over the next 10 years under current spending regimes. Not counting health proposals, the McCain plan would collect about 17.9% of GDP through taxes. The Obama plan would collect about 18.4%. For comparison, congressional accountants predict that, under current law, the Federal Government is projected to spend about 19.7% of GDP in the same time period, meaning both McCain and Obama would run deficits - 1.8% and 1.3% of GDP, respectively - without significant cuts in federal spending or surprising growth...
...sound bites, not actual numbers. The McCain campaign's hypothetical spending cuts would only be achievable, they say, by a President who did not have to negotiate with a historically big-spending Congress. "King McCain might be able to do it," says Len Burman, another author of the Tax Policy Center report. "But President McCain will have a very difficult time...
...road. And the American voters, if they are interested, must sort through the literature seeking numbers that were never really meant to add up. "In the real world, this gives you a sense of what the candidates would want to do," says Williams, of the analysis of the candidates' tax plans, "but not really a sense of what would happen if they were elected...