Gargantuan Differences between Obama and McCain's Tax Plans

Barack Obama and John McCain differ in many areas in their campaigns, one big issue being taxes. McCain ironically ridiculed President Bush's trickle-down, class-warfare-style tax plan he talked of last election, but now McCain is anxious to do exactly what he didn't want to years before. In 2001 McCain said that he 'could not in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief', yet now, Bush's old tax plan is one that McCain is supporting and wanting to administer himself should he win the election. On the opposite end, Barack Obama is prepared to deliver for the middle and lower class families.

Even though each candidate offers a completely different outlook on taxes, both are similar in that they promise to cut taxes for the majority of Americans. Like I stated above, Obama is looking towards distributed the income to the middle and lower class households, while McCain is planning on giving the bulk of benefits to the wealthiest families in our country. Right now, it's mapped out on John McCain's side, as having families making an income between $66,354 and $111,645 would see their post-tax income increase by 0.7%. As we know, McCain is for the wealthy, so if you make more than $2.8 million a year, you'll see your post-tax income increase by a whopping 4.4%! Barack Obama on the other hand plans on decreasing the post-tax income of the $2.8 million a year incomes down 11.5%, and for those middle and lower class families, he will increase their post-tax incomes by 2.4%, or $1042. The Carpetbagger Report sarcastically says, “If you’re really rich and think that George Bush’s tax cuts for the rich didn’t go nearly far enough, John McCain is your man.” Though this statement is scornful towards John McCain it is completely true. McCain talks so much about making the middle and lower classes happy, yet when it comes to these taxes, Obama's plan is the one devised towards helping them out. Not only does it favor the middle and lower classes by a little, it favors them football fields over McCain's current plan.

I think that overall, though I favor him, John McCain must either admit to Americans that he was wrong in 2001 for criticizing Bush's tax plan, seeing that now it's the same way he'll be conducting taxes, or he needs to modify his tax plan to make it more about the middle and lower classes like the rest of his campaign is mainly centered around. If McCain doesn't do one of these two things, then I believe Americans will start to realize that Barack Obama's goals and views match up with their own. Besides, there are more middle and lower class families in the United States than wealthy households, so why would we even be voting for someone whose tax plan is not benefiting us in any way?