McCain Unveils New Economic Stimulus Proposal: Tax Cut For Millionaires
McCain Unveils New Economic Stimulus Proposal: Tax Cut For Millionaires
On Saturday night, the McCain campaign told Politico.com that it was planning to unveil “new economic plans” that included temporary tax cuts on capital gains. Politico incorrectly noted that this proposal, which benefits the wealthy, would be “aimed directly at the middle class.”
On Sunday morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham said McCain was planning “a very comprehensive approach to jump-start the economy, by allowing capital to be formed easier in America by lowering taxes.”
But by Sunday night, the McCain campaign – in a sign of “internal confusion” — was telling the New York Times that they “would not have any more proposals this week.”
On Monday, Barack Obama announced “a new economic rescue plan Monday geared toward middle-class voters.” McCain didn’t announce anything, which “caused some head scratching.”
And now, on Tuesday, McCain is unveiling his new proposals, going back to the well of tax cuts for the rich. McCain will announce plans to “cut the capital gains tax on stock profits in half, from 15 percent now on stocks held a year or longer to 7.5 percent — a $10 billion proposal.” The Wonk Room’s James Kvaal noted the impact of cutting capital gains:
Households earning less than $50,000 a year collected a mere 2.5 percent of capital gains in 2005, according to the Tax Policy Center. Families earning more than $1 million a year collected 59 percent of capital gains. Moreover, most middle-class families with capital gains hold their investments in retirement accounts shielded against capital gains taxes.
For a candidate already promising $175 billion tax cut for corporations, including $4 billion for oil companies, handing out a new tax cut for millionaires and calling it a “Pension And Family Security” plan is oddly appropriate.
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War is peace.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:02 amFreedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
Tax cuts for the rich benefit the poor.
Old John really means it when he says "My Friends".
October 14th, 2008 at 11:02 amUh John? What capital gains? With the markets down 30%+ over the past year only people who have been holding large blocks of stock for years wil. . .
Oh yeah, that's right, Cindy gets a big payout from the A-B sale to the Belgians. Way to advocate a huge tax cut for yourself.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:03 amI have one myself. Incarcerate all those ill gotten people and redistribute their wealth. Oh yeah, I'd be stimulated.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:03 amSorry, Johnny Boy, we figured out a long time ago that your trickle down theory was just the rich pi$$ing on us.
PEACE
October 14th, 2008 at 11:05 amAh, finally the old McIIIrd we've come to know and loathe.
Tax cuts for the rich, and the tinkle down (HT/Zooey) effect!
October 14th, 2008 at 11:06 amThis is insane!!!! I looked up this morning to see if anything has trickled down to me....all i got was some bird poo...so much for the trickle down!!! This has to stop!!! The rich don't give a shit about trickle down....it's the size of there wallets there care about. Lets give more to the rich....look at the numbers republicans....most americans are not rich enough to take advantage of useless ideas. Where did all these fu75ed up people come from??? Three more weeks til house cleaning begins.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:06 amMcCain is really making it too easy.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:08 amAnd may I just say that that picture of McLoser totally skeeves me out...?
Ugh. *shudder*
October 14th, 2008 at 11:09 ampaleolib Says:
Uh John? What capital gains? With the markets down 30%+ over the past year only people who have been holding large blocks of stock for years wil. . .
Oh yeah, that’s right, Cindy gets a big payout from the A-B sale to the Belgians. Way to advocate a huge tax cut for yourself.
My guess? Cindy's prenup says that her fortune is off limits, but Johnny Boy gets a slice of any tax cuts he gets for her.
McCain needs enough cash to get a really good metal detector so he can spend his twilight years prowling the beaches of Florida, searching for gold. And his legacy.
PEACE
October 14th, 2008 at 11:10 amWow, sounds exactly like what Bush would do....this guy really will continue 4 more years of Bush, how scary.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:12 amDon't capital gains result from profits made selling stocks you bought at a lower price than you sold them for>?
So who the hell is making money selling stocks now and in the near future?
October 14th, 2008 at 11:12 amAnnie, can'tcha just hear him saying under his breath,
"come a little closer and I'll knock your teeth out", whilst smiling that cheery little grimace of his...
October 14th, 2008 at 11:13 amOK, lemme get this straight. If taxes are lowered on capital gains, then I will be incented to go out and get me some capital gains?
Um...where do I go to get some?
October 14th, 2008 at 11:16 amMissHMolly, there might be a KapitalGanes drive through on a strip mall near you. Look for a golden arch thingy. Don't forget to ask for extra napkins.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:21 amAwwww, now, RU, cut it out! You're scaring me!!! :o/
October 14th, 2008 at 11:22 amYesterday, Senator McCain was way off base comparing Senator Obama to Herbert Hoover. It's the Republicans who are channeling Hoover. You know what President Hoover's answer to the stock market crash was? Capital gains tax cut!!!
October 14th, 2008 at 11:26 amAre they just phoning it in now?
October 14th, 2008 at 11:27 amFrom what I could find, capital gains is not just stocks -- it can also apply to real estate. If so, then all the subprime mortgage trading that went on WOULD show, for some (many?) a profit that would be taxed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not JUST an idea that appeals to the wealthy and Wall Street in the future, it is an immediate issue.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:30 amMost Americans' investments are in 401k and IRAs, not subject to capital gains taxes, so McCain's plan will help Cindy a lot more than it will help the middle class
October 14th, 2008 at 11:31 amCaption Contest:
Right here in my hand, I've got the secret plan to revitalize our great nation, my friends!
October 14th, 2008 at 11:32 amC'mon everybody, this story is dishonest. According to McStain you're not rich unless you make more than 5 million dollars a year. His plan will clearly benefit many of John McCain's "middle-class" voters (snark).
October 14th, 2008 at 11:32 amSlightly O/T but does anyone think that Cindy McCain will attend the funeral of her half sister that she forgets to mention on the stump when claiming to be an only child?
raynman ~ yes, on one of those old style mount on the wall crank up phones with the cool duck beak looking earpieces!
October 14th, 2008 at 11:34 amPatriot? Did her half sister pass away?
October 14th, 2008 at 11:35 amBefore you can get capital gains, you have to have capital. Unfortunately, 28 years of Milton Friedman's supply-side, corporate feudalism, disaster capitalism economy, all the capital is in the Cayman Island bank accounts of rich capitalists. So, I'm afraid you are out of luck.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:36 amCaption Contest:
How John McCain did karaoke before they invented microphones...
October 14th, 2008 at 11:37 amYes RU, one of her two half sisters, Dixie Lea Burd died of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 74:
October 14th, 2008 at 11:39 amhttp://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/story.aspx?content_id=a9d8714c-1c63-4b33-9a81-b81409edbbfb
John McCain quote: "If I were a dictator, which I've always aspired to be..."
October 14th, 2008 at 11:43 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqkBuvClSIM
That's pretty funny as most people who are selling now are having to sell because they can't afford to keep the property and are selling at a loss.
More than likely it is so the fat cats, after buying these properties for pennies on the dollare will be able to sell them for huge profits when things turn around and mccain wants to give them tax cuts on the capital gain. win/win for the fat cats who mccain represents.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:45 amHow will he pay for these idiotic tax cuts, etc.? The rick folks will gladly take these mega-savings and just plop them in their lovely off-shore accounts, ready for the next market/economic meltdown that finally puts the rest of us under.
http://www.sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/
October 14th, 2008 at 11:50 amThe argument for middle class voters to somehow be swayed by a proposal for tax cuts for the rich always includes something about how it will "stimulate job-growth". John McCain has disingenuously redifined the "Fundamentals" of our economy as being our workers and touting the claim that they are "strong".
What this fails to address is that after years of Bush's tax cuts for the rich, we have lost jobs and, while our workers have somehow become more productive, they are making less in real wages... with the rich getting richer off of our backs while maintaining the sentiment that they don't owe us anything for it.
I really wanted to add a snarky conclusion, but I'll just let that speak for itself.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:51 am00mpp00 Says:
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How will he pay for these idiotic tax cuts, etc.?
Your grandchildren will pay for them. McCain's grandchildren will live tax free after he eliminates capital, estate, and dividend taxes.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:54 amFred Says: More than likely it is so the fat cats, after buying these properties for pennies on the dollare will be able to sell them for huge profits when things turn around and mccain wants to give them tax cuts on the capital gain. win/win for the fat cats who mccain represents.
Thanks for restating my question, as your comment is what I meant to imply (not that people losing their homes, or even regular people owning a home will get anything -- the capital gains, again as I feebly understand it, includes real estate in some manner, though I am sure not on the "living there" front: I don't think I get any kind of capital gains for the house I live in - never been sent anything to that effect).
But I still ask, as I am unclear, is that correct: did all these banks trading these loans (connected to the real estate) get capital gains assesed? If so, there are many of them who DID show profits for these trades, even if their stocks and assets are showing losses, and this offer by McBush is just another cherry on the fruitcake welfare offered these corporate criminals.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:54 amThe spoiled decadent rich have ruined this country. Where's all the money they have stashed these last 8 years? In Swiss bank accounts perhaps? In euros? 8 years of tax-cuts for the 'have mores' have not helped the economy at all! Things are so much worse than they were 8 years ago.
I'm so sick of having the rich splurge at the expense of the middle class. Middle class individuals have to work so hard just to barely scrape by while the rich get richer and the economy heads down the toilet. Like the idiot would say "that's uniquely american!" IT'S A DAMN SHAME!
October 14th, 2008 at 11:58 amA reduction in capital gains tax affects only those who actually make capital gains.
For those who have the money to play the stock market, a reduction in capital gains tax would encourage short-term investment and profit-taking as least as much as it would encourage long-term investment.
In fact it is those in the lower income levels who need to make long term investments because they can't afford to take a short term investment approach.
If a 5K investment from a 50K delivers 10% capital gain over 1 year it only yields a 1% increase in the year's overall income, $500, whilst reducing that investors yearly operating income to 45K for the year until the profit for the investment is cashed-in.
The small investor has to rely on a long term investment to earn compound interest that will build a larger capital gain.
The large investor on the other hand has the freedom to choose between the long and the short term. Reducing capital gains tax will tempt the large investor to move his or her money to whichever stock provides the highest return whilst the capital gains tax is low, ergo creating a volatile stock trading market as stocks get bought and sold in the search for a faster profit before the capital gains tax is increased--and when that happens a sell-off will occur in advance of a proposed increase.
So, "durr", as the kids like to say.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:00 pmMany or most wealthy Americans who have investment portfolios which are not set up as IRA's or 401K's which depend on earned income and are limited in the amount of money that can be put in each year and deducted from taxable income. These investors, when selling stock even to put in their cash core accounts or T-Bills, pay capital gains on the difference between their initial investment cost and the sell price. If they withdraw cash from their core accounts at a later time, they pay no further taxes on that money. Whereas in an IRA or 401K, the proceeds from the stocks, etc. which are sold are put into the cash core account without capital gains taxes applying. However, if cash is pulled out of the core account, then the money is taxed as regular income. So the investor in an IRA or 401K receive a tax benefit until they withdraw cash. The only people that will benefit from McCain's plan to cut capital gain and dividend taxes will be largely the wealthy...who are only now paying 15% on their gain. And he wants to cut what they pay in half, to 7.5%. Meanwhile the poor chumps (and I'm among them) who are forced to withdraw money from their actual retirement IRAs or 401Ks in order to survive get NO tax break.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:01 pmWhat's your point?
October 14th, 2008 at 12:04 pmSorry for the O/T but this is too funny. FAUX News is aghast at what four protesters wore at a Palin appearance in Pennsylvania today. It seems they had green t-shirts on that said "Palin is a c@nt!". Tammy Bruce and Martha MacCallum are downright flabbergasted by the audacity and blaming Obama (natch)and his campaign's tone for what a few gutsy kids did at a Palin rally:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,437622,00.html
I know, linking to FOX made me feel a little dirty but it's worth it for the sheer comedy of it all.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:05 pmTammy Bruce and Martha MacCallum...a couple of GOP water carrying hypocritical c@nts calling the kettle a scary black man! Keep chasing windmills FOX, just don't dare look in a mirror.
This reveals a fundamental distinction between McCain and Obama.
McCain has spent so much time trying to ingratiate himself to the rich and the wealthy that he only sees their "pain."
Obama has succeeded on skill and hard work -- and since he spent three years trying to help the working poor to improve their conditions -- he gets what it's like to worry about putting food on the table.
One thing I found myself wondering while watching McCain wax "poetic" about what he calls the "fundamentals of the American economy" during the second debate -- has this man ever had a real job? Has he ever sweated for a wage, watched his hands grow calloused? Has he ever shopped for work clothes in a second-hand store?
October 14th, 2008 at 12:17 pm666lattes: "while our workers have somehow become more productive, they are making less in real wages"
That's pretty much the way the work force becomes more productive.
The networking of PCs (thanks Al!) increased efficiency in data management, communications and data control (research, number crunching, modeling, machine control and so on).
October 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pmBut that increased productivity really occurred between 1995 and 2000, but with no really significant new technology since then the increase in "productivity" has been largely due 'efficiencies' in wages (for the majority).
Anonymouse Says: "...and since he [Obama]spent three years trying to help the working poor to improve their conditions — he gets what it’s like to worry about putting food on the table."
Actually I think Obama already had that understanding.
One thing I found myself wondering while watching McCain wax “poetic” about what he calls the “fundamentals of the American economy” during the second debate — has this man ever had a real job? Has he ever sweated for a wage, watched his hands grow calloused? Has he ever shopped for work clothes in a second-hand store?
Quite.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:23 pmpaleolib Says:
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Uh John? What capital gains? With the markets down 30%+ over the past year only people who have been holding large blocks of stock for years wil. . .
Oh yeah, that’s right, Cindy gets a big payout from the A-B sale to the Belgians. Way to advocate a huge tax cut for yourself.
Maybe the Belgians can show the folks at A-B how to brew really good beer.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:37 pmWe'll see if Cindy ISN'T going to attend funeral services for her sister..
If she doesn't. well, how Babsy of her.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:55 pmSorry for the O/T but this is too funny. FAUX News is aghast at what four protesters wore at a Palin appearance in Pennsylvania today. It seems they had green t-shirts on that said “Palin is a c@nt!”. Tammy Bruce and Martha MacCallum are downright flabbergasted by the audacity and blaming Obama (natch)and his campaign’s tone for what a few gutsy kids did at a Palin rally:
October 14th, 2008 at 12:55 pmhttp://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,437622,00.html
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It wouldn't surprise me if these "protestors" weren't really republican plants to deflect criticism away from the hateful, racist McCain/Palin supporters.
.
You know, I'm tired of these folks who insist on "trickling down" on my leg while selling me umbrellas.
.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:03 pmtemporary tax cuts on capital gains
i heard paul begala on ed schultz say:
"WHAT capital gains?!?!"
October 14th, 2008 at 2:07 pmPretty much everything McCain suggests is targeted to Wall Street with nothing targeted to job creation for Main Street. The reason investment is weak right now is because demand is weak. Increased incentives for imvestment will not work at this time because we have over capacity and it makes no sense to increase capacity when we already have over capacity. The economy may need help in 2011 but it clearly needs lots of help right now. McCain offers nothing for the right now and 2011 is too late.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pmCould this guy be more transparent in his favoring of the extremely well-to-do?
By all rights, if people actually voted in their own economic self interest, he wouldn't get more than ten percent of the vote.
October 14th, 2008 at 7:36 pmDo you think anything about this will change voters' minds?
October 14th, 2008 at 8:03 pmLet’s see. Trillions of dollars lost in the stock market hitting people’s stock portfolios, 401ks and retirement funds. Billions of dollars in losses in the value of homes across the country. So where are the capital gains here? McCain’s plan to reduce capital gains only works if you have a capital gain. Impossible today for most Americans. But this works really well for the really rich people (top 5%).
McCain is so out of touch, it’s unbelievable! That’s why he proposed this capital gains tax reduction. Most Americans won’t benefit from it but people like himself will. Sounds more like Me First!, not Country First!
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