Put your Vote where your Tax Cuts are!

Election Day. Hopefully a day of exuberance and then we can all go back to talking about something else. I truly respect all of those non-partisan “Just go Vote!” people. But I am just not one of them. (By the way it took me two hours to vote this morning. I live very close to a university... so I was very encouraged by the 'youth' vote turnout! And very frustrated at the time...)

In honor of the day, I had to write about politics one last time. Money Magazine’s November issue hosted a decomp on the candidates tax policies (from the Tax Policy Center): "What Would They Do to Your Tax Bill" It makes it abundantly clear that the McCain plan is to raise no one’s taxes, but not cut anything significant for people who aren’t in the half-millionaire category and above.

Definitely check out the whole article, but I will just highlight one income bracket (my own)! For folks that make anywhere from $37,596 to $66,354 (20% of the population), Obama’s plan would cut their tax bill an average of $1,118. McCain’s plan would cut their tax bill $325 on average.

But what’s really enlightening is how Obama’s tax increases on the wealthy are really laid out. By now, everyone has been saturated by the media promise of “If you make under $250,000 a year, your taxes will stay flat or go down.” But for the income bracket of $227K to $603K the average increase is only $121. One hundred twenty-one dollars! That’s it! But for those making over $603K, the average increase would be $93,000. So, the significant tax increases are only going to the 1 of the population (half millionaires and above)!

Enjoy all of those election night parties!