Some political talk

I've been pretty lazy the last few days, but I will make a post before I leave for NYC on Monday. A post about something other than politics... but for today, this is what you get.

This Wall Street Journal opinion piece is really good. It is titled Obama's Tax Plan is Really a Welfare Plan. I would suggest everyone read it. I'm going to pull some excerpts for those who don't want to take the time.

Dr. Ferrara talking about his tax credits:

He also proposes a raft of tax credits that taxpayers can receive if they engage in various government-specified activities.

Moreover, the tax credits would mostly go to those who pay little or nothing in federal income taxes. His trick is to make the tax credits "refundable."

....

In effect, Mr. Obama is proposing to create or expand a slew of government spending programs that are disguised as tax credits. The spending on these programs is then subtracted from the total tax burden, in order to make the claim that his tax plan is a net tax cut overall.

On the shift of the tax burden:

Overall, the bottom 60% of income earners pay less than 1% of federal income taxes on net. When "tax credits" primarily go to this group in the form of checks from the government (rather than a reduction in their tax burden) it is simply an abuse of the language to call the spending a tax cut.

.....

The top individual income tax rate, for example, would be increased by 13%, to 39.6%; the next-highest rate would be raised to 36%. The top rates on capital gains and dividends would rise by a third, to 20%

The Social Security payroll tax would be raised between 16% to 32% for families making over $250,000 a year. This means that the real returns these people get from their lifetime payments into the retirement program will be driven below 0%, according to my own previous research, which was published by the Cato Institute and elsewhere.

Maybe it is just me, but I find it really concerning. Giving money back to people that didn't pay...

Another article I thought was very informative is about America's Corporate tax rates. It is called "America the Uncompetitive". Basically America has the 2nd highest corporate tax rate behind Japan, yet all politicians want to do is raise corporate taxes. Do they not realize that only drives corporations away? And with the world becoming smaller day by day, they don't care if they aren't based in the US... they just want bigger profits. It is very easy to manipulate what is happening... like saying that 28% of US corporations pay no taxes. But in the article it shows that 85% of those not paying taxes lost money last year. This sums the whole thing up really well:

America now has the worst of all worlds: high corporate tax rates, but also lots of loopholes passed by Congress at the behest of favored businesses to avoid the confiscatory rate. This imposes huge compliance costs as businesses scramble to exploit the loopholes, with the result of less revenue for the government.

I think McCain knows what he talking about. Sure he isn't the perfect candidate, but he isn't a socialist.