I just took the time to read the candidates economic plans, excluding all the talk about health care. I’m looking for the nuts and bolts if I can find any at all, and sifting through the rhetoric whenever possible. I’ll list what I believe are the three main features for each candidate. (Dispute if you like.) The first will be tax policy, since everyone is so concerned. I’ll start with Hillary, because it was the toughest to sort through.


Hillary:

1. Return to the income tax rates for upper-income Americans that we had in the 1990s. Hillary offer one detail of how it would work: According to Hillary, Wall Street investment managers making $50 million a year could pay just 15% on their earned income – while someone making $50,000 a year pays 25%. She would change that.

2. Create a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund. Oil companies would have the choice of either investing in alternative energy or contributing a portion of their earnings into the Fund. This fund would apparently, somehow, be used to reduce electricity consumption 20% from projected levels by 2020 by changing the way utilities do business, catalyzing a green building industry, enacting strict appliance efficiency standards, and phasing out incandescent light bulbs. Hillary specifically states that Federal Buildings will have to meet new standards of energy efficiency. Finally, $20 billion will apparently go to “Green Vehicle Bonds” to help U.S. automakers retool their plants to meet fuel efficiency standards of 55 miles per gallon by 2030. The rest apparently will go to double the budgets of the National Institute of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the Defense Department, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), so they can make it all happen.

3. Develop a set of budget rules similar to those we had in the 90s which required us to fund new expenditures with new revenues or cuts in other areas.


Obama:

1. Create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. The "Making Work Pay" tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans. Obama will also ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return, thereby saving Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and $2 billion in tax preparer fees.

2. Double federal funding for basic research, and invest in America's highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers to pioneer the first wave of green technologies.

3. Create a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025.


McCain:

1. Cut The Corporate Tax Rate From 35 To 25 Percent.

2. Allow companies to deduct all equipment and technology investment in the first year those investments are made.

3. Establish a permanent tax credit of 10% on wages spent on research and development.

__________________
"Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits." FDR-First Inaugural Address

It's not her money! She has no right to tell private businesses where they must spend their profits!!

What is this, Nazi Germany all over?????????


This is the kind of crap that spawns revolutions. I hope she actually tries it, I'll be first in line to shoot her.

Be careful what you say. As an ex-first lady, she already has the full protection of the secret service.

__________________
"Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits." FDR-First Inaugural Address

If there is a revolution, it won't matter.

Ahhhhh....I get it now....

Or..."Crush the rich! Hate them because...well....'cause they're successful."


Or..."I will tell you how to think, how to invest, how to live, how to build your buildings, etc. Corporations will be under the thumb of the Imperial Government!"

Or..."bleed the rich."


Or..."Big Brother?....it's gonna become a reality, suckos!"

Or....what the Hildabeast said in her #2.

Or..."Give the suckers...err...citizens a 'feel good' reason to take more money from them. We'll just earmark it away at a later day."


Or..."I'm not as liberal as the other two losers, but I understand the concept that the evil corporations employ millions of citizens, and make the USA function, so we have to lay off them, in order to preserve millions of jobs."

Ahhhhh....I get it now....

NO you don't ... and it's probably beyond you

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xandufar
Hillary:

1. Return to the income tax rates for upper-income Americans that we had in the 1990s. Hillary offer one detail of how it would work: According to Hillary, Wall Street investment managers making $50 million a year could pay just 15% on their earned income – while someone making $50,000 a year pays 25%. She would change that.

Or..."Crush the rich! Hate them because...well....'cause they're successful."

so, your economic inclination is to tax the wage earner making $50,000 at 25% of income while the $50,000,000 per year individual who allocates capital but pays only 15% of his income? so, he gets a 40% discount (call it a 40% tax subsidy that the wage earners will have to pay instead) on his tax rate because he is not making anything useful but is just massaging money? why do we want to subsidize that behavior? it gets even worse. little of the wage earner's costs to go to and from work, meals away from home, etc. are deductable. in contrast, the money manager drives a vehicle paid for by the company, driven by a company employee, eating meals deductible as business expense, living in estates funded by the company (or one of its affliated spinoffs), attending sports events and other high-end entertainment at company expense. effectively, the tax code is filled with loopholes for those who are NOT wage earners.
beyond that, who reaps the largest economic benefit of participating in the nation's economy, the wage earner or the high income money manager? why would it seem in any way logical that the person who realizes the least pays the higher rate? as i said this may be beyond your abilities, or if not, the school system failed you by allowing your graduation from the system unable to do simple arithmetic.

Quote:
2. Create a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund. Oil companies would have the choice of either investing in alternative energy or contributing a portion of their earnings into the Fund. This fund would apparently, somehow, be used to reduce electricity consumption 20% from projected levels by 2020 by changing the way utilities do business, catalyzing a green building industry, enacting strict appliance efficiency standards, and phasing out incandescent light bulbs. Hillary specifically states that Federal Buildings will have to meet new standards of energy efficiency. Finally, $20 billion will apparently go to “Green Vehicle Bonds” to help U.S. automakers retool their plants to meet fuel efficiency standards of 55 miles per gallon by 2030. The rest apparently will go to double the budgets of the National Institute of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the Defense Department, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), so they can make it all happen.
Or..."I will tell you how to think, how to invest, how to live, how to build your buildings, etc. Corporations will be under the thumb of the Imperial Government!"

appears you prefer the republican approach instead. that would consist of cheney calling in the oil honchos and cutting a secret deal that has resulted in the increase of gas prices three-fold since his regime has taken office. let's see who benefitted? oil company executives, oil company stockholders and the oil sheiks of the middle east. who lost? American citizens.
we are in iraq because of oil ... otherwise, to get rid of bad guys developing weapons of mass destruction we would be in north korea. the oil industry wants the American soldier to secure oil rights so that they can preserve their oil income for many decades to come. if there was oil self determination then it would not have to be sold thru western oil companies who actually have very little oil of their own to sell.
so, to allow us to detach our foreign policy from our oil needs the democrats would like to see America energy independent. why do republicans prefer we remain addicted to middle east oil?

Quote:
3. Develop a set of budget rules similar to those we had in the 90s which required us to fund new expenditures with new revenues or cuts in other areas.
Or..."bleed the rich."
or viewed a different way, spend America's tax dollars to help Americans rather than giving it to multi-national corporations and corrupt foreign regimes


Quote:
Obama:

1. Create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. The "Making Work Pay" tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans. Obama will also ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return, thereby saving Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and $2 billion in tax preparer fees.
Or..."Big Brother?....it's gonna become a reality, suckos!"
yes, to make it reality all you have to do is vote for the candidate who has committed to doing it. that will not be a republican. the republicans prefer to craft tax loopholes for the rich, while generating an income stream for H&R Block and tax accountants and tax attornies. that way wage earners wind up paying the taxes while the rich and powerful become more rich and powerful

Quote:
2. Double federal funding for basic research, and invest in America's highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers to pioneer the first wave of green technologies.
Or....what the Hildabeast said in her #2.
yes, i see your point. the republican machine has negotiated trade agreements that disfavor our country and cause our high paying jobs to be exported. the republican regime does nothing to enforce the illicit hiring of undocumented alien employees who displace American citizens from jobs because they are willing to work for wages that are untenable as income for a tax paying American citizen. ignore it, pretend it doesn't happen while the good jobs go abroad and the remaining jobs are filled by illegals. aren't you proud to support that kind of governance?

Quote:
3. Create a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025.
Or..."Give the suckers...err...citizens a 'feel good' reason to take more money from them. We'll just earmark it away at a later day."
or maybe it is as it is written ... find ways to rely on something other than oil based energy so we no longer have to do the bidding of the saudis ... but then you might prefer to have to deal with a government which is cozy with the terrorists ... osama bin forgotten is one of them


Quote:
McCain:

1. Cut The Corporate Tax Rate From 35 To 25 Percent.

2. Allow companies to deduct all equipment and technology investment in the first year those investments are made.

3. Establish a permanent tax credit of 10% on wages spent on research and development.
Or..."I'm not as liberal as the other two losers, but I understand the concept that the evil corporations employ millions of citizens, and make the USA function, so we have to lay off them, in order to preserve millions of jobs."
every dollar that the corporations do not have to pay in taxes will instead have to be paid by wage earners ... or borrowed from the chinese. so, if that's the platform the republicans would prefer to run on, please have at it

Here is another economic program.


Xandufar:

1. Impose a 1% tax, to be paid by the seller, on all speculative transactions in stock, options, derivatives, and other financial paper, thereby generating trillions of dollars each fiscal year. The windfall surplusses will be returned to families and individuals in the form of tax cuts.

2. Nationalize the Federal Reserve Bank and recreate it as the Third National Bank of the United States. This bank will be under the control of the congressional branch of the federal government as Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution requires. It will be used to emit new, long-term, low-interest credit for the development of basic economic infrastructure such as high speed rail, large scale water projects, and nuclear energy production.

3. Revise or revoke all harmful trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, to insure that productive American jobs in such areas as farming, manufacturing, mining, and construction, are given the full protection of the federal government they deserve.

__________________
"Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits." FDR-First Inaugural Address

Democrats-
Tax&Spend with the line "only the wealthy"


Republican-
Keep your own money

Nationalist:

Use our ability to create real wealth for everyone.

__________________
"Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits." FDR-First Inaugural Address

Citizens already have that opportunity in the US. The problem is that there are plenty of people unwilling to work for it.