Post by jgaffney on Oct 25, 2008 0:45:05 GMT -5
We've all heard Obama's promise to cut taxes for 95% of Americans. or, is that 95% of working Americans - I don't know - it keeps changing. Well, the WSJ did a little compiling of a couple of analyses of Obama's tax programs, and finds he comes up about $4.3 trillion short:
The new president, whoever he is, will start out facing a budget deficit of at least $1 trillion, possibly much more. Sen. Obama has nonetheless promised to devote another $1.32 trillion over the next 10 years to several new or expanded refundable tax credits and a special exemption for seniors, according to the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution's Tax Policy Center (TPC). He calls this a "middle-class tax cut," while suggesting the middle class includes 95% of those who work.
Mr. Obama's proposed income-based health-insurance subsidies, tax credits for tiny businesses, and expanded Medicaid eligibility would cost another $1.63 trillion, according to the TPC. Thus his tax rebates and health insurance subsidies alone would lift the undisclosed bill to future taxpayers by $2.95 trillion -- roughly $295 billion a year by 2012.
But that's not all. Mr. Obama has also promised to spend more on 176 other programs, according to an 85-page list of campaign promises (actual quotations) compiled by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. The NTUF was able to produce cost estimates for only 77 of the 176, so its estimate is low. Excluding the Obama health plan, the NTUF estimates that Mr. Obama would raise spending by $611.5 billion over the next five years; the 10-year total (aside from health) would surely exceed $1.4 trillion, because spending typically grows at least as quickly as nominal GDP.
I predict that Obama's "middle class tax cut" will melt away as quickly as the one promised to us by Bill Clinton in 1992. I predict that, under an Obama presidency with a Democrat-controlled Congress, we'll get all of the spending but none of the tax relief. The party that has been hammering McCain over the budget deficit for the past 6 months will suddenly forget all about that. And, numerous people in this forum will follow right along.
Kinda like the device in Men in Black that erases one's memory.
The new president, whoever he is, will start out facing a budget deficit of at least $1 trillion, possibly much more. Sen. Obama has nonetheless promised to devote another $1.32 trillion over the next 10 years to several new or expanded refundable tax credits and a special exemption for seniors, according to the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution's Tax Policy Center (TPC). He calls this a "middle-class tax cut," while suggesting the middle class includes 95% of those who work.
Mr. Obama's proposed income-based health-insurance subsidies, tax credits for tiny businesses, and expanded Medicaid eligibility would cost another $1.63 trillion, according to the TPC. Thus his tax rebates and health insurance subsidies alone would lift the undisclosed bill to future taxpayers by $2.95 trillion -- roughly $295 billion a year by 2012.
But that's not all. Mr. Obama has also promised to spend more on 176 other programs, according to an 85-page list of campaign promises (actual quotations) compiled by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. The NTUF was able to produce cost estimates for only 77 of the 176, so its estimate is low. Excluding the Obama health plan, the NTUF estimates that Mr. Obama would raise spending by $611.5 billion over the next five years; the 10-year total (aside from health) would surely exceed $1.4 trillion, because spending typically grows at least as quickly as nominal GDP.
I predict that Obama's "middle class tax cut" will melt away as quickly as the one promised to us by Bill Clinton in 1992. I predict that, under an Obama presidency with a Democrat-controlled Congress, we'll get all of the spending but none of the tax relief. The party that has been hammering McCain over the budget deficit for the past 6 months will suddenly forget all about that. And, numerous people in this forum will follow right along.
Kinda like the device in Men in Black that erases one's memory.
