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John Kerry’s Plan
We will fight to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so that we can invest in education and health care. We will also protect middle class tax cuts, such as the child credit and the elimination of the marriage penalty and propose additional tax credits to help middle class families make ends meet.
Specifics:
Specifically, he wants to protect the increases in the child tax credit, the reduced marriage penalty and the new tax bracket that helps people save $350 on their first level of income. He strongly disagrees with Democrats who want to repeal these tax cuts because it would cost a typical middle-class family with two children an additional $2,000. These families are often already struggling with higher health care costs and higher state and local taxes. In fact, John Kerry wants to give more tax breaks to the middle class with new tax credits on health care and college tuition. These tax cuts are part of his plan to restore the economy and cut the budget deficit in half in four years.
John Edward’s Plan
I believe the backbone of the American economy is the hard work, determination, and ingenuity of the middle class, not the insiders. I believe the way to grow the economy is to grow and strengthen the middle class, not shrink its size and add to its burdens. I believe the way a rich nation gets richer is by giving all its citizens the chance to get richer, not by only helping those like me who’ve already succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."
Specifics:
Edwards will make the tax rate for the unearned income of the wealthiest 1 percent equal to the top income tax rate on earned income for middle-class families consisting of teachers, nurses, and secretaries. Edwards will set the top rate on capital gains at 25 percent for people earning over about $350,000, less than the top 1 percent of Americans.
Edwards will also repeal the Bush tax cuts that benefit only the top 2 percent of Americans, including the new top two tax rates on income, and the new rates on income from dividends and capital gains for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Only those earning about $240,000 or more are in the top two income tax brackets. In addition, Edwards will retain the tax on very large estates.
Joe Lieberman’s Plan:
Joe Lieberman is offering a totally different approach. He's taking a fresh look at the tax code as a whole--particularly the way that George W. Bush has worked to shift the tax burden away from corporations and those at the top and dump more and more of it on the backs of the middle class. Instead of just partially repealing the Bush plan, he is proposing major reform to restore fairness and integrity to the tax system and real responsibility to the budget.
The Tax Fairness Plan Joe Lieberman is releasing today lowers taxes for the middle class and asks corporations and the well-off to pay their fair share. In doing so, it will give middle class families that are being squeezed like never before a real break. And it will give the country the ability to begin closing the deficit, saving Social Security, and invest in getting our economy moving again.
Specifics:
Joe Lieberman is committed to changing this equation--and restore fairness and integrity to our tax code again. Here's how:
First, he will keep in place the middle class tax cuts included in the Bush tax cuts some of which were included only because Democrats fought for them--such as the increase in the child tax credit and the elimination of the marriage penalty.
Second, to make the system better balanced, he will:
· Restructure the income tax brackets in a systematic way
· Reset the top two income tax rates that George W. Bush decreased
· Lower the middle two rates for middle class families
· Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families
· Repeal the dividend tax cut that Bush pushed for
· Reform the estate tax that Bush repealed
· Eliminate wasteful corporate loopholes and subsidies that Bush has protected
· Add a special "recapture" bracket for the highest income taxpayers that will recoup the benefits of the lower rates.
As a result, about 98 percent of all taxpayers will get a tax cut as well three-quarters of all small business owners. In particular:
A married couple earning $50,000 could expect to save up $500.
Couples earning $75,000 could expect to save up to $1000.
Couples earning $100,000 could expect to save up to $1500.
Couples earning $150,000 could expect to save up to $2800.
Dennis Kucinich’s Plan:
In response, Kucinich has introduced a bill that creates a more fair, simple, and adequate tax system. The Progressive Tax Act of 2003 gives $87 billion per year to people with modest income and families in the middle class. The bill collects an additional $107 billion per year from the Bush tax cuts, corporate tax loopholes, and other tax giveaways. The bill therefore raises a sum total of $20 billion per year that remains available for deficit reduction or new spending.
First, the bill provides a refundable $1530 Payroll Tax Credit for people who work. This tax credit is simple, targeted to relieve a high tax burden, provides a stimulus effect, and encourages work.
Second, the bill provides a refundable $2000 Simplified Family Credit. This simplifies the tax code by consolidating the EITC, Child Tax Credit, Additional Child Credit, and exemption for children into one Simplified Family Credit. This tax credit will provide greater transparency, provide extra work incentives, and a stimulus effect.
To raise federal revenue the bill will close corporate loopholes and set tougher penalties to prevent corporate tax shelter abuse. In addition, the bill will roll back most of the Bush tax cuts in the past three years that benefited the wealthy.
"Our tax system is in need of desperate repair," said Kucinich. "Tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent of Americans do not create jobs and do not increase wages for working people. The only way to real economic strength and security is to provide real tax relief to those who need it most, workers and families. This bill enables real economic growth and progressive tax reform while providing fiscal responsibility."
Al Sharpton: No Middle Class Taxes Issues Addressed on Website.
Howard Dean’s Plan:
The first step in reversing this agenda, balancing the budget and putting the US fiscal house in order must be the repeal of the Bush tax cuts, and returning the tax code to rates that were in effect during the prosperous years of the Clinton-Gore administration.
The Dean economic program will strive for greater tax fairness for middle class working families. Closing corporate tax loopholes will help shift some of the burden off the shoulders of individuals. Ending unfair tax preferences will raise additional revenue to reduce the deficit and help set the federal budget on the road to balance.
Specifics: No other specifics offered.
Wes Clark’s Plan:
Wes Clark's Families First Tax Reform is a major tax simplification proposal that will restore progressivity to the tax code, relieve the working-family squeeze and reduce poverty. Under Wes Clark's Families First Tax Reform, a family of four making up to $50,000 would pay no federal income taxes, and all taxpaying families with children making up to $100,000 would get a tax cut.
Wes Clark's plan will accomplish all this by consolidating and expanding on an existing confusing and uneven set of tax benefits for children, creating a new tax credit of $2,250 for each child available for families making $20,000 or $50,000 or $100,000.
Specifics:
Wes Clark's Plan is Fair. Under President Bush, typical families have seen their incomes fall by nearly $1,500 - while President Bush provided an average tax cut of $128,000 to taxpayers making over $1 million. Under Wes Clark's Families First Tax Reform:
A married couple with two children making $50,000 would get a $1,583 tax break.
A married couple with three children both earning the minimum wage, or $21,000 annually, would get a tax break of $2,287.
A married couple with two children making $85,000 would get a $975 tax cut.
A single mother raising one child on $30,000 a year would get a $793 tax break.
31 million working families would get tax relief, with the typical family getting a $1,477 tax cut.
Wes Clark's Plan is Progressive. Wes Clark's proposal not only provides relief for middle-income parents struggling not to fall behind in the Bush economy, but to the working poor struggling to work their families out of poverty and into economic independence.
Hundreds of thousands of children will be lifted out of poverty.
Wes Clark's Plan is Simple. Under Wes Clark's plan, families will only need to fill out a simple, three-line form to find out if they need to pay federal income taxes, providing their income, number of children, and marital status. And the majority of families will no longer be required to file tax forms.
Wes Clark's Plan is Responsible. The plan will provide $33 billion annually in tax relief for working families. This will be paid for without increasing the deficit by:
A 5 percentage point increase in the tax rate only on income over $1 million per year. This surcharge, which could be used only for working family tax relief, would not apply to the first $1 million of income or to any capital gains - so it will not affect 99.9 percent of taxpayers.
Closing corporate loopholes, including the ones that Enron took advantage of to unfairly cut its taxes.
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