By: Rachel Munger

Choosing Your Candidate!Choosing Your Candidate!

John McCain

Republican & Senator of Arizona

Barack ObamaDemocrat & Senator of Illinois

Barack Obama• If you like your healthcare you can keep it but premiums will go down as much as

$2,500 .If you don’t have healthcare then you are given a few low cost options for healthcare.

• Families making more than $250,000 will be asked to pay either the same or lower taxes. The wealthiest 2% of families will be asked to pay back a portion of taxes received over the next 8 years to “restore fairness and mend fiscal responsibility”

• Expand Earned Income Tax credit to more families.• Create Transitional job programs that will train and pay people to find better jobs.• Improve transportation to jobs. Make sure funding for public transportation is

directed to communities that need it most.• Raise minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011.• Increase supply of low income housing. Take small portions of profits of Fannie

Mae and Freddie Mac to build new low income housing.

John McCainJohn McCain• Tax cuts of $2,500 for singles and $5,000 for families to help start policy. If policy is cheaper

than the difference can be deposited directly into a health savings account.• Portability so that healthcare can cross state lines and move with new jobs. Ensure care for

higher risk patients. • Offer cheaper generic drugs. • Quality care that would cover even chronic diseases. • Cut taxes for middle class by repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax. This tax cut will save

middle class working families with children over $2,700.• Cut programs that do not work to free up budget. • Increase tax exemptions for each dependant child up to $7,000 per child by year 2016.• Wants to raise the worth of a dollar in hopes of bringing oil prices down. Thus making food,

oil and other goods more affordable. • Implement gas tax holidays where no tax would be paid at the pump.• Proposed the “Home Plan” where homeowners could easily refinance outrageous mortgages

for low interest affordable monthly payments.

Family OneMiddle Class Income

Annual Salary $25,000

Social Security $ 7,200

Total Annual Income= $32,200

Annual Expenses $24,636

Net Income (Income-Expenses)

$7,564

Family TwoUpper Middle Class Income

• Family two is a one income earner as well except in this case the family has three dependents two of which are children in high school who will be entering college soon; the other dependent is a spouse. The family’s head of household makes $98,000 a year. $62,000 is from his current job while the rest is from military retirement. Let’s take a closer look at the annual net income for this family.

• Family two can expect to have a net income of $4,000 before taxes. Last year family two got back $3,000 in taxes. Later we will examine under which candidate they fare the best for 2009 taxes.

Annual Income $62,200

Retirement $36,000

Total Annual Income= $98,000

Annual Expenses $94,000

Net Income (Annual Income-Expenses)

$4,000

The Results

• To have comparison between my results I used two tax calculators from different sites. The first calculator I used was ElectionTaxes.com and the second was Obamataxcut.com; both of these sites are non-partisan affiliated and base their results off of the tax plans laid forth from each candidate. The following tables are the information I managed to compile from these sites and were checked against each presidential candidate’s plan.

Family One Results

Candidate Website Used Taxes

Barack Obama ElectionTaxes.com$233.00

ObamaTaxCut.com$128.00

John McCain ElectionTaxes.com$735.00

ObamaTaxCut.com$480.00

Family Two Results

Candidate Website Used Taxes

Barack Obama ElectionTaxes.com$4,422.00

ObamaTaxCut.com$2,442.73

John McCain ElectionTaxes.com$4,954.00

ObamaTaxCut.com$2,874.14

Conclusions• Family one: Under John McCain this family sees a better return. Qualifying

under John McCain’s healthcare plan they can plan on seeing an additional $5,000.00 tax cut to jump start their policies. Under Barack Obama this family will be getting significantly less and can expect to get a TAX CREDIT of $5,000. Tax credits are only a partial payment of taxes due so this family would still fare better under John McCain. This family also would not qualify for Barack Obama’s poverty programs since those are usually aimed at families making less than $ 15,000 a year. All around John McCain is the best choice for this family.

• Family two: This family also will be better off under John McCain. According to one site they can expect to get more back this year than last year. They will also qualify for the $5,000 tax cut for their healthcare policy. They would still qualify for Barack Obama’s $5,000 tax credit but none of this poverty reforms. They could benefit from John McCain’s gas tax holiday and also his mortgage assistance. John McCain is also the best pick for this family.

Recommendations

• For both of these families John McCain is the best pick; however if you are lower income family and require much assistance then Barack Obama may be best pick for you. I personally think and endorse John McCain after this research because I think his tax cuts will benefit the most people and do the least amount of damage on the national debt. I think his changes will be seen quickly; especially his immediate tax cut for healthcare instead of waiting for reform to trickle down through Obama and MAYBE seeing a tax credit. Although I am endorsing McCain for the best pick I would still say families in extreme poverty situations would fare the best under Obama’s policies.

THE END!As always please remember it’s your civic duty to vote!

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GOD BLESS AMERICA!