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One thing I've tried to point out occasionally is that Obama's economic plans call for him to spend a tremendous amount of money giving people tax cuts. His Making Work Pay rebate will cost $700 billion over 10 years -- which is, again, an incredibly large sum of money that can't be spent on other things. Now, maybe a broad-based $500 rebate is a good idea, but it's certainly not clear to me that it's a top priority. Anyway, Paul Krugman lays this out better than I've been able to, and also links to The Tax Policy Center's analysis of Obama and McCain's tax plans. It's a great backgrounder for folks interested in this stuff, and concludes:
Although both candidates have at times stressed fiscal responsibility, their specific non-health tax proposals would reduce tax revenues by $3.7 trillion (McCain) and $2.7 trillion (Obama) over the next 10 years, or approximately 10 and 7 percent of the revenues scheduled for collection under current law, respectively. Furthermore, as in the case of President Bush's tax cuts, the true cost of McCain's policies may be masked by phase-ins and sunsets (scheduled expiration dates) that reduce the estimated revenue costs. If his policies were fully phased in and permanent, the ten-year cost would rise to $4.1 trillion, or about 11 percent of total revenues. Both candidates argue that their proposals should be scored against a "current policy" baseline instead of current law. Such a baseline assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would be extended and the AMT patch made permanent. Against current policy, Senator Obama's proposals would raise $700 billion, an increase of 2 percent, and Senator McCain's proposals lose $600 billion, a decrease of roughly 2 percent.Scoring against "current policy," rather than a normal baseline that phases out the President's tax cuts and restores or replaces the AMT, is bullshit, and both campaigns know it. Ignore it. An honest accounting of McCain's plans suggest he'll rip $4 trillion from the treasure, An honest look at Obama's show a nearly $3 trillion shortfall. That's worrying. But they'll apportion that money very differently:
