Ohh Thanks :)

We can argue whether the Obama plan is fairer or more economically efficient than the McCain plan, but only if we focus on the end product.

But can we conclude that the rich would pay too little taxes under the McCain plan? Not really, because most media reports do not reveal the resulting share of the tax burden borne by the highest earners.

As it happens, the top fifth of earners currently pay 67% of all federal taxes–including not just income taxes, but payroll taxes, corporate taxes and death taxes. The top 1% of earners pay 26% of all federal taxes.

The fact that high earners pay the vast majority of all federal taxes will come as a surprise to most Americans, who believe the middle class bears the tax burden while the rich get off scot free. A 2007 Gallup poll found that 66% of Americans believe upper-income people pay too little federal income taxes. Media reports play into these beliefs by focusing on how the candidates’ plans would change the tax code, not on what the tax code would look like after those changes took place.

Full article is here:
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.28746/pub_detail.asp

The only people who do NOT pay capital gains are those who have their investments in a tax-deferred account…either a retirement IRA or a 401K. When equities of any kind are sold, they get dumped into a core cash account. However, when the money is pulled out, the pay REGULAR tax (NOT the much lower capital gains tax).

Hence: a recap. McCain’s capital tax reduction idea does not target the general pool of middle class investors. Their investments are largely in tax-differed instruments (i.e., IRAs and 401K’s.) If McCain actually believes that this idea will benefit the middle class, then he knows even less about economics than just about anyone else I know.

After all, McCain thinks “the rich” are those making over $5 million.

Sounds like a Cheney idea.

It’s called, keeping the base happy.

.

This post-1980 fetish with finance seems to have produced something akin to “Dutch Disease,” with capital concentrating on speculative investment at the expense of investment in manufacturing and industry. We rode a strong dollar and easy credit to a huge trade imbalance, with non-tradable services offering a refuge for American workers.

A “service economy” dominated by the retailing of imported products is not sustainable, and neither are laws and economic instruments that emphasize financial speculation over real investment.

Just more of the same supply-side, trickle-down economic theories that don’t work. Further proof that McSame is a “maverick” in name only.

No, you see, John McCain is such a Maverick that he will not be swayed by the fact that 28 years of his economic policy has destroyed the economy.

Rich: $2 billion plus
Successful: $500 million to $2 billion
Middle Class: $100 million to $500 million
Comfortable: $10 million to $100 million
Working Class: $1 million to $10 million

Never mind what;s in the box, just look at the shiny wrapper!

Phew!

Furthermore, The Street noted that McCain’s cut “might have unintended consequences,” like encouraging investors “to make one-time sales to capture lower capital gains and increased tax write-offs,” which “would facilitate capital flight.”

If they ever were “unintended” consequences ( a dubious assertion at best), once those consequences have been recognized, they can no longer be described as ‘unintended,’ can they?