Research Primer: Presidential Candidates’ Tax Platforms
Deloitte has issued a straightforward and clear guide to the tax plans of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. The paper was completed before the passage of the bank bailout plan, and draws on analysis from the Tax Policy Center previously featured on Research Recap.
“A combination of tax cuts, a faltering economy, and two overseas wars have erased the budget surplus inherited by the Bush administration in 2001. Testimony from budget experts has made it clear that a policy that maintains the Bush tax cuts but does little to change federal spending will be unsustainable. Yet both McCain and Obama would maintain individual income tax receipts at levels comparable to those reached under President Bush’s policy. McCain’s tax plan seems to add to the challenge by proposing net cuts in corporate tax collections, while the Obama plan calls for significant, but potentially unrealistic, business tax increases.”
One thing is clear: neither candidate is planning to address our looming fiscal crisis by asking for net tax increases.
“In the short term at least, the promise will be, as it has been, that we will control spending. It also means that whenever a new tax cut or spending priority is identified within a constrained federal budget, both the new administration and the new Congress will be tempted to turn their gaze toward high-income and high-net-worth individuals and businesses as likely sources for revenue offsets.”
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