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| Obama calls McCain tax plans ‘outrageous’ |
| 2008-06-10 |
| Barack Obama on Monday described John McCain’s proposed tax cuts as “outrageous” and said they would amount to $5,700bn over the next decade – more than double the cost of George W. Bush’s tax cuts. Mr Obama, whose speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, kicked off a 17-day economic tour of the key general election battleground states, also mocked Mr McCain’s policy of cutting back on earmarks – specific spending items inserted by legislators for their districts – to help pay for the tax cuts. Earmarks typically amount to between $20bn (€12.7bn, £10bn) and $40bn a year, which is just a fraction of the overall federal budget. “His suggestion that the earmark reforms . . . will somehow make up for his enormous tax giveaway indicates that John McCain was right when he said that he doesn’t understand the economy as well as he should,” said Mr Obama. “Either that or he’s hoping you just won’t notice.” The Democratic nominee, whose largest proposed spending items are a $1,000 tax giveaway for households earning below $150,000 and a $60bn to $70bn plan to create universal health insurance, reiterated his commitment to the “pay-go” system, where tax cuts or spending increases are paid for by concomitant spending cuts or tax increases. Mr McCain, whose tax proposals including a reduction in the US corporate tax rate to 25 per cent and steps to make Mr Bush’s tax cuts permanent, has portrayed Mr Obama as a traditional “tax and spend liberal”. On Monday, Mr Obama’s campaign sought to turn that around by stating that his opponent had not provided the back-up numbers to show how he would pay for his tax cuts. “John McCain takes great pride in saying that he’s a fiscal conservative,” said Mr Obama. “For all his talk of independence, the centrepiece of his economic plan amounts to a full-throated endorsement of George Bush’s policies.” Monday’s speech marked an aggressive opening to Mr Obama’s general election campaign in which the declining US economy looks likely to play a central role. Mr Obama also called for a new $50bn stimulus on top of the $170bn tax rebate pushed through Congress earlier this year given last Friday’s 49,000 jump in unemployment. Obama officials said 58 per cent of Mr McCain’s tax cuts would go to the top 1 per cent of US taxpayers against 31 per cent of the proceeds from Mr Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Jason Furman, who on Monday started as the Obama campaign’s director of economic policy, said: “People like to say that John McCain would represent a third Bush term but that might be unfair to Mr Bush . . . John McCain’s tax policies are far more radical [than those of Mr Bush].” A spokesman for Mr McCain’s campaign disputed Mr Obama’s calculations of the costs of the tax cuts and said the Republican nominee’s fiscal proposals would bring the US budget to balance by the end of his first term in 2013. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #8 TOPIX > STARS-N-STRIPES OP-ED > CONTRARY TO RHETORIC, OBAMA'S ECONOMIC PLAN IS MORE STATUS QUO, NOT CHANGE??? Also from TOPIX > MARXISTS, SOCIALISTS, AND COMMUNISTS SUPPORT BARACK OBAMA. * Lest we fergit, POST 9-11 NET > WOT > FASCISM VERSUS COMMUNISM > for ANTI-US US-WORLD LEFTS, can be interpreted as LIMITED COMMUNISM VERSUS TOTAL COMMUNISM + LIMITED BIG GOVT VERSUS TOTALITARIAN BIG GOVT. + LIMITED GOVTISM VERSUS TOTAL GOVTISM + ...............@etc. related., as per America = Amwerika, USA = USSA/UNITED SOCIALIST REPUBLICS OF AMERICA ala OIL STORM. MCCAIN on CNN + CNBC-MSNBC > alleges Obama's economic plan comes down to BIG GOVERNMENT + TAX INCREASES FOR THE SAKE OF BIG GOVERNMENT, NOT LIMITED GOVERNMENT, LOWER TAXATION, and HELPING SMALL BUSINESS??? OTOH, CNN > NANCY PELOSI + BABS BOXER - WOMEN AND MINORITIES [BOXER - State of CA]HAVE A BIG STAKE IN BARACK OBAMA + DEMOCRATS WINNING IN NOVEMBER. D *** NG IT, looks like OSAMA's fav MTV Babe WHITNEY HUSTON is getting the comeuppance on MADONNA > Of course you know this means JIHAD *TOPIX > THE END OF THE CLINTONS? SILLY MORIARITY, to draw from JOHN PAUL JONES OSAMA BIN LADEN HASN'T EVEN BEGUN TO FIGHT = WAGE [NUCLEAR] JIHAD. IMO Ditto beginning for BILLARY. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-10 23:25 |
| #7 Doubt I'll see any of this one either but I will certainly enjoyed paying back China (with interest) for lending the dough to our gummit. I can't wait to hear Obama announce a huge pay increase for the military |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-06-10 20:54 |
| #6 So Obama's plan is to tax the $hit out of everyone and everything. That hasn't worked out too well in the past has it? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-06-10 17:00 |
| #5 How dare you plebs try and keep some of your own money! Don't you people know we have earmark projects to fund? |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-06-10 10:27 |
| #4 Yes, the only thing outrageous here is that the Dems would nominate a non-entity for the job of leader of the free (or semi-free) world. |
| Posted by: Uneagum McCoy7470 2008-06-10 07:56 |
| #3 The O'man's Marxism is outrageous. What we produce by our skills and sweat is ours. It is not the presumptive property of the state or self appointed ruling class to determine its use. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-06-10 07:40 |
| #2 My response here Spam rules here do not permit mention of the word health, apparently... |
| Posted by: badanov 2008-06-10 07:37 |
| #1 more than double the cost of George W. BushÂ’s tax cuts. Interesting logic---very revealing of the inner man. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-06-10 06:55 |