Platform Seven: Economics

Greetings.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama wants to restore fairness to the tax code and provide relief by creating a new “Making Work Pay” tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1000 per working family to offset the payroll tax they pay. Also concerned with taxes, Obama promotes the dramatic simplification tax filing so that Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes. Obama wishes to 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. Obama also encourages the deployment of the most modern communications infrastructure to reduce the costs of health care, help solve the energy crisis, create new jobs, and fuel economical growth. In doing this, Obama wants to make long-term investments in education, training, and workforce development so that Americans can leverage our strengths—ingenuity and entrepreneurialism—to create new high-wage jobs. Obama also promotes the strengthening the ability of workers to organize by ensuring workers’ freedom to unionize, but also promotes raising the minimum wage to allow full-time workers earn enough to raise their families and pay basic needs.

The Republican candidate John McCain starts by promoting helping American confront higher living costs. He believes the high gasoline price is hurting Americans and hence want to create a summer gas tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. To help the middle class, McCain wants to permanently repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax—a tax that will be paid nearly exclusively by middle class families. McCain also supports keeping tax rates low by maintaining the current income and investment tax rates and fight any plans for a tax increases. Keeping taxes low on dividends and capital gains also promotes saving, channel investment dollars to innovative, high-value uses and not wasteful financial planning. McCain also proposes to allow corporations to deduct the cost of equipment investment, providing a valuable pro-growth investment incentive. The senator also wishes to lower Medicare premiums and also has proposed comprehensive, pro-market health care and Medicare reforms to reduce health care costs. The health care reform also will reduce the growth in Medicare spending, protect seniors against rising premiums and preserve the advancements in medical science center to providing quality care. He also supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts.

The other Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, addresses the rising income inequality. She supports a return to shared prosperity and tax fairness, while expanding access to quality education and healthcare for all. To do this, Clinton wants to first level the playing field and reduce special breaks for big corporations. Clinton wishes to eliminate incentives for American companies to ship jobs and profits overseas. She believes the current policy puts companies that create jobs in America at a competitive disadvantage and she wants to pursue tax policies that reward the decision to create jobs in America. Clinton wants to give every young person an opportunity to attend college, increasing support for community colleges and alternative schools. To do this, she wants to make college more affordable so that students of all backgrounds can attend, and hence expanding regional skills alliances and other job training programs to ensure workers have the valuable skills they need. Clinton also promotes helping working people earn enough to support their families and save for the future by simplifying and expanding the EITC, overhauling the unemployment insurance system, and making it easier for workers to join unions. Clinton also wishes to make investments necessary for creating new jobs.