Comments on: Obama’s Tax Plan

By: Anderson

Anderson — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:17:17 +0000

N.b. the chart at this post, which says that everyone in the bottom four quintiles gets *more* after-tax income from Obama's plan than McCain's. How does that square with Steve V's scary chart?

By: sam

sam — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:37:28 +0000

Actually Jeffery you can't do your analysis and include the give-and-take phase-ins/phase-outs which is why the Brookings Institute/Urban Institute did the analysis this way. Complain to these, "far right" think tanks. Sheesh.

The article your post is based on Steve (I think) says that Alex Brill and Alan Viard are associated with American Enterprise Institute, generally considered to be a conservative think tank.

By: spencer

spencer — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:16:58 +0000

But of course the Bush administration used exactly this type of hypothetical tax return that may have actually applied to two or three actual tax payers to demonstrate that his tax program cut taxes for the middle class.

By: spencer

spencer — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:12:20 +0000

Out of the millions of US tax payers there must be at least two or three where this very, very rare set of conditions would actually apply.

By: Obama = higher taxes — Obama’s Con

Obama = higher taxes — Obama’s Con — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:18:02 +0000

[...] Source. [...]

By: Floyd

Floyd — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:31:40 +0000

One thing is clear.....Obama thinks that "fair" is a synonym to "carnival"! His tax plan sounds like the cotton candy... [A tiny bit of sugar and a WHOLE LOT of HOT AIR. As Elvis once said [or still says]... ""If you've got doubts quit your doubtin' There's thrills, it's spice It's cheap at HALF the price! So don't be bashful, buy a ticket! Get the habit never kick it! Hit the band there, don't just stand there It's CARNIVAL time!"" This "Ringmaster" is surrounded by jugglers and clowns!

By: Ironman

Ironman — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:02:36 +0000

Just a quick point - there's a reason why Obama's tax plan would appear to hike the marginal tax rates paid by those making $25-45,000 per year the most: The "tax paying units" (households and individuals) within this income range collectively make more money than all other U.S. income tax payers. It's why politicians have never given the people in this income range a serious tax cut (except for the people who fall in the $25-30,000 income range. As for the others, forget about it!)

By: RWB

RWB — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:44:00 +0000

Take a good look at the chart and think about what it is showing you - there is something really wrong with it.

By: Zelsdorf Ragshaft III

Zelsdorf Ragshaft III — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:28:32 +0000

Bozo Obama's plan to tax oil companies is just a tax on the consumer. Anyone with a 6th grade education knows corporations pass along costs to those who buy their products. It all sounds good that he wants to give each family $1k. The rub lies in where the lucre comes from.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:24:22 +0000

I think there's merit to Brad DeLong's critique of John McCain's tax plan namely that in the absence of spending cuts a tax cut plan isn't a tax cut plan at all—merely a tax deferment plan. Since Congress doesn't find it incredibly difficult to pass tax cuts and utterly impossible to cut spending, I'm afraid this is something of an out of control system.

By: Anderson

Anderson — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:22:16 +0000

And how does Obama's plan compare with McCain's?

OT, Steve's bio:

leaving school shortly before staring work on his dissertation

Staring work was as far as I got on my own dissertation ... staring at the books, staring at the blank paper ...

By: Jeffrey W. Baker

Jeffrey W. Baker — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:57:41 +0000

Well you didn't link to any complete work so there's nothing to evaluate. I'm just pointing out how ridiculous it is to compare marginal rates. If I make $20000, am I better off with a 20% marginal rate that kicks in on the first dollar, or a 30% marginal rate that exempts the first $19000? Obviously, the latter.

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:44:23 +0000

Actually Jeffery you can't do your analysis and include the give-and-take phase-ins/phase-outs which is why the Brookings Institute/Urban Institute did the analysis this way. Complain to these, "far right" think tanks.

Sheesh.

By: Jeffrey W. Baker

Jeffrey W. Baker — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:39:23 +0000

It's not very informative to discuss the marginal rate at each income level. It's much more informative to simply add up the total tax burden for each income bin. This analysis is just deliberately misleading.