I watched part of President Bush’s State of the Union speech last night on CNN and Anderson Cooper’s interview of Senators Romney, McCain and Obama which followed after.
It got me to thinking more about the election coming up next week, Super Tuesday, as it is called.
BankRate.com has a breakdown of the candidates’ proposals on Healthcare, Taxes, Social Security, Subprime, Education and Employment which I can informative.
1) TAXES
What I want: Lower taxes, of course.
Romney:
- Make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent.
- Lower the corporate tax rate and income tax rates.
- Repeal the estate tax.
- Make all health care expenses tax deductible.
- Remove taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for anyone making an Adjusted Gross Income under $200,000. Romney says this will help the middle class save money.
- Signed the Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge not to raise taxes.
McCain:
- Make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent.
- Permanently repeal the alternative minimum tax.
- Require a “super-majority,” three-fifths vote for Congress to raise taxes.
- Reform the estate tax to exempt estates worth up to $10 million and cut the tax rate to 15 percent.
- Keep current income tax rates on dividends and capital gains.
- Permanently ban Internet taxes and new cell phone taxes.
- Reform and make permanent the research and development (R&D) tax credit.
Notes: McCain voted “NO” to Increasing tax deductions for college tuition in May 2001
Clinton:
- Return to the income tax rates for upper-income Americans that existed in the 1990s.
- Discontinue portions of the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000.
- Level the playing field when it comes to taxing the income earned in investment partnerships. Right now, some Wall Street investment managers making $50 million a year could pay just 15 percent on their earned income — while someone making $50,000 a year pay 25 percent.
- Extend middle-class tax cuts including the child tax credit and marriage penalty relief
- Offer new tax cuts for health care, college and retirement, and reforming the AMT to ensure people don’t face stealth tax increases.
- Overhaul the Health Coverage Tax Credit, or HCTC, to ensure that it is making health care affordable for laid-off workers. Increase the tax credit to 90% of premiums from the current 65%.
- Close tax loopholes and stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas. Stop outsourcing American jobs using taxpayer dollars.
Notes: Clinton voted “NO” to Repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax in March 2007, Raising estate tax exemption to $5 million in March 2007, Supporting permanence of estate tax cuts in August 2006 and Permanently repealing the estate tax in June 2006.
Clinton voted “YES” to Retaining reduced taxes on capital gains and dividends in Feb. 2006, Extending the tax cuts on capital gains and dividends in Nov. 2005, Reducing the marriage penalty instead of cutting top tax rates in May 2001 and Increasing tax deductions for college tuition in May 2001
Obama
- Create a new “Making Work Pay” tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. This tax credit will supposedly completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans
- Create a universal mortgage credit - a 10 percent credit that homeowners could use even if they don’t itemize. Obama says the current mortgage interest deduction excludes nearly two-thirds of Americans who don’t itemize their taxes. Obama claims that the credit would provide the average recipient with approximately $500 per year in tax savings.
- Eliminate income taxes for seniors making less that $50,000.
Obama says this will provide immediate relief to 22 million American seniors who will not need to file an income tax return, and will eliminate any income taxes for nearly seven million seniors at a savings of roughly $1,400 each year.
- Simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in five minutes.
- Eliminate the capital gains taxation of start-up businesses to encourage innovation and job creation.
- Eliminate special interest loopholes and deductions, such as those for the oil and gas industry, and limit the ability of large multi-national corporations to use tax havens to hide income overseas.
- Crack down on offshore tax havens engaged in shielding tax evaders from justice by refusing to share tax information with us the way other nations do. Obama would create an international tax evasion watch list to monitor these countries and would use economic pressure to make them comply.
Notes: Obama voted “NO” Repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax in March 2007, Raising estate tax exemption to $5 million in March 2007, Supporting permanence of estate tax cuts in Aug. 2006 , Permanently repealing the estate tax in June 2006, Retaining reduced taxes on capital gains and dividends in Feb. 2006 and Extending the tax cuts on capital gains and dividends in Nov. 2006.
Obama voted “YES” to $47 billion for military by repealing capital gains tax cut in Feb. 2006
Based on these proposals, I would rank the candidates as follow in the order of preference as to how their proposals would affect me:
1) McCain
2) Romney
3) Clinton
4) Obama
McCain’s tax proposals would be pretty much what we have now but no more AMT to worry about. I just can’t help but wonder why he voted No to increasing tax deductions for college tuition.
Obama’s proposals would do nothing but probably increase taxes since he does not want to repel the AMT or retain the current reduced rates or extend the tax cuts for capital gains and dividends.
You can read the entire article at bankrate.com