Damn, no drop-down selection for my income of $4,800 a year thank you Welfare

Agreed, his campaign is spending smart. This online calculator is a great idea.

I found a really nice visual aid to compare McCain's plan vs. Obama's plan. I'll take a look at the calculator after I get home from work, but it looks like a nifty tool.

http://chartjunk.karmanaut.com/taxplans/

Oooh. I'm getting an Öhlins fork.

Yes finally -- telling people how much they will get -- instead of telling people "My plan doesn't raise taxes for 95% of you," begging the question of how much will, the average voter, GET.

He's doing good hitting the economy with just the right amount of class warfare -- some but not too much -- also focusing more on the defalcations of corps. and malefactors of great wealth, not just wealth alone.

Bailo did you read the NYT yet and figure out how much you lost already due to GOP mis-rule and effects on Dow Jones?

We didn't have fancy calculators when I was a POW in Vietnam!

But but, I don't mean to sound critical, how do we know Obama isn't lying to us about what he plans on doing? Why believe him when we haven't believed a politician in decades??

@7 - No, we don't *know* he's not lying. But he's put out very detailed information about his plans. Sure, every President has to scale back some of their promises once in office--you can't accomplish everything you want to in that job any more than you can in any other job (actually a lot less so).

The important point is that these are the things he's striving for, the things he believes in, and the direction he wants to take the country. That's what you're voting for, not some guarantee of any one individual program.

If you think he's just lying, that's just your judgement of his character.

That either candidate is seriously entertaining tax cuts at all is irresponsible in this time of near $500 billion dollar deficits and a $10 trillion dollar national debt. The Republicans have been so effective at shifting the dialog on taxes for decades now that everybody seems to think tax cuts are always the solution to our problems and that somehow we can always get something for nothing. I'd still prefer Obama's plan over McCains for where the tax cuts go, but either one of them is going to have trouble passing these plans given the current financial situation.

Would be nice if it generated code that we could use to distribute on our own sites/blogs/etc.

Well, that's a big ZERO for me under both dudes. Still voting for Obama, obviously.

@9

Agreed that tax cuts with our deficits isn't the wisest thing to do now, however if you don't promise working people candy of some sort, you won't get their votes.

Jesse @ 3 links to an informative chart. The calculator seems to disagree rather strongly with the chart, though. As far as I can tell from playing with it, the calculator appears to say that McCain's plan won't cut anybody's taxes. The chart shows clearly that McCain's plan will cut everybody's taxes. Any explanations?

@13

Besides the fact that he's not going to become President?

Or if he did win, he'd start taxing health care benefits, which sort of chews up your cut.

But in fact, you're wrong. It says we would get a $60 tax cut under McCain, vs $1800 for Obama. Which isn't quite enough for an Öhlins fork, I admit, but it gets me pretty close. If we were in the next lower bracket, McCain would manage a $1300 cut for us, which is at least not laughable in comparison with Obama's $1800, though still less.

In conclusion. Shut up, David Wright. Thank you.

A tax cut for the people who would go out and spend the money is not a bad idea in a weak economy. It's demand side trickle up type stuff. Like Reaganomics, except without the voodoo.

Elenchos @ 14: Ah, I see, you have to enter dependents for the calculator to show a tax cut under McCain's plan. That might even be accurate. Thanks for the correction. And no thanks for being an asshole about it.

agree with 9

we can't afford tax cuts. we need a candidate who, like clinton, wasn't afraid to get the deficit under control. that's what led to the roaring 90's

A tax cut is actually pretty important in staving off a depression at this point. The idea is the govt takes on a bunch of debt to get our economy through the this tough part, and then when things are good we pay it back. Unfortunately the last few times things have been "good" we haven't done so well at paying anything back... But nevermind, look at this shiny ball!

Any chance they can open source that widget?

Then we can see all the legerdemain going on inside the calculations...

My Obama savings: $0
My Obama savings if I were in the next highest income bracket: $34

At least McCain is zero for both.

Parade magazine had a good table in their issue this past weekend. I haven't checked it vs. the calculator, but I was hoping that the campaign would seize on this and publicize it... The calculator is a great way to do this.

OT, required reading

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_permanent_smear_campaign

@10 - It does. Link under the calculator to "embed this on your site." It doesn't embed your results, but the calculator itself.

A buck a day.

That's how much I save.

Before the education and retirement bonus amounts.

Unfortunately, I would save MORE money under the McCain plan than I would under the Obama plan. How the hell did THAT happen?

It's interesting, because if I itemize my taxes (which I do, because of the mortgage), I only save $850 under Obama's plan, as opposed to about $2K under McCain. However, if I do not itemize, then I save about $1300. Hmmmmmmmm.

How do I scrape that Obama sticker off my bumper?

(Just kidding!!! I'll actually pay 400 bucks NOT to have McCain be president! I'm just that patriotic.)

Interestingly enough, my work's internet filter blocks the calculator because apparently it's rated 'pornography, nudity'. Looks someone from the McCain campaign is working behind the scenes at iPrism!

Or maybe not. But still...

Well, if he's going to cut taxes, while implementing hundreds of billions in new spending--what other President did that ... ?

OMG!! He's imitating Ronald Reagan!!

That's it, I'm voting for him now.

The calculator would be a better tool if it actually gave the amount that you would save with a McCain tax plan. If you put that you make $250,000 and are filing jointly with 1 child (not MY actual income situation) it doesn't tell you how much you would get from both, it only says "You will probably not get a tax cut under the Obama-Biden plan." They should put the tax increase as well as the savings.

It tells me "You will probably not get a tax cut under the Obama-Biden plan", and does not give me a point of comparison under the McCain plan... I guess that's his way of saying I'm screwed...

@27... Yeah... but that would be the honest thing to do...

I'm still voting for McCain. (Even if I am the last one doing so.) I can't afford to pay to put the middle class on the dole.

It's not the promise of tax cuts. The cuts will increase the tax revenue for the feds. This has been seen time and time again. The problem is that Obama refuses to control spending. Notice he would not commit to a one year freeze in gov't spending in the debate. Doesn't that fact alone raise your alert flags?

How many of you remember when Clinton ran in 1992 with the promise of a middle-class tax cut, then told us three weeks after he won the election that he was going to raise taxes? You believed Clinton then; do you believe Obama now?

Tax cuts are inappropriate in light of the current federal debt.