W2W4: TAX AND SPEND SHOWDOWN

Sens. Clinton And Obama Are Debating Tonight In PA. "April 16, 2008: Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton participate in an ABC News debate, Philadelphia, PA." ("The Note Futures Calendar," ABC News, Accessed 4/16/08)

Sens. Hillary Clinton And Barack Obama Both Plan To Raise Taxes Significantly If Elected:

Obama Has Called For Higher Income Taxes, Social Security Taxes, Investment Taxes, And Corporate Taxes, As Well As "Massive New Domestic Spending." "Obama's transformation, if you go by his campaign so far, would mean higher income taxes, higher Social Security taxes, higher investment taxes, higher corporate taxes, massive new domestic spending, and a healthcare plan that perhaps could be the next step to a full-scale, single-payer system. Is that what most Americans want, someone who will fulfill a Democratic policy wish list?" (James Pethokoukis, "Barack Hussein Reagan? Ronald Wilson Obama?," U.S. News & World Report's "Capital Commerce" Blog, http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/2/13/barack-hussein-reagan-ronald-wilson-obama.html, 2/12/08)

Sen. Clinton Has Called For Higher Taxes For "The Common Good." Sen. Clinton: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." (Beth Fouhy, "San Francisco Rolls Out The Red Carpet For The Clintons," The Associated Press, 6/29/04)

• Sen. Clinton: "[S]omething Has To Be Taken Away From Some People." (Sen. Hillary Clinton, Remarks At The Pentecost 2007 Forum At George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 6/4/07)

NOTE: Obama's Chief Economic Advisor Has Said That Higher Taxes Could "Significantly Reduce" Americans' Retirement Savings. Austan Goolsbee: "Future increases in tax rates potentially threaten to significantly reduce the value of your retirement savings and may even mean that you should not save in 401(k) accounts at all." (Austan Goolsbee, Op-Ed, "In Retirement Planning, There Is Nothing Certain About Death And Taxes," The New York Times, 11/9/06)

Clinton And Obama's Capital Gains Tax Hike Would Hurt Pennsylvanians:

Obama: "I think that we can have a capital gains rate that is higher than 15 percent." (CNBC's "Closing Bell," 3/27/08)

• CNBC's Maria Bartiromo: "Right now the capital gains tax is 15%. He [Obama] wants to take that up to possibly 28%. ... That's a big deal. Because you're not just talking about the rich. You're talking about 100 million Americans who own stocks that will get impacted by that capital gains tax increase." (MSNBC's "MSNBC Live," 3/28/08)

Sen. Clinton: "You know, capital gains, I think we may have to nudge a little bit..." (CNBC's "Wall Street Journal Report," 12/9/07)

The Wall Street Journal: "But It's Not Only The Wealthy Who Will Take A Hit From Higher Capital Gains Taxes. Recent Surveys Indicate That Roughly 52% Of American Adults Own Stock In Some Form, And Last Year 8.5 Million Of These Investors Paid A Capital Gains Tax." (Editorial, "A Capital Gains Primer," The Wall Street Journal, 10/15/07)

In 2005, Over 1.2 Million Pennsylvanians Reported Capital Gains Income. (Internal Revenue Service Website, "Individual Income And Tax Data, By State And Size Of Adjusted Gross Income, Tax Year 2005," http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/05in39pa.xls, Accessed 3/31/08)

• In 2005, The Average Capital Gains And Dividend Income Reported Per Tax Return In Pennsylvania Was $4,526. On Average, It Accounted For 8.87 Percent Of Adjusted Gross Income. ("Dividends And Capital Gains Income Compared To Other Income, 2005," The Tax Foundation, taxfoundation.org, 7/16/07)

Obama Has Called For A Tax On Coal And Natural Gas, Which Will Hurt Pennsylvania:

Obama Told A Texas Newspaper: "What We Ought To Tax Is Dirty Energy, Like Coal And, To A Lesser Extent, Natural Gas."  ("Q&A With Sen. Barack Obama," San Antonio Express-News, 2/19/08)

As Of 2006, Pennsylvania Had The Third-Highest Number Of Gas Wells In The Country, Accounting For Over 10 Percent Of America's Gas Wells. (American Gas Association Website, http://www.aga.org/NR/rdonlyres/E7876621-6FC7-411A-A06F-B4FDD5F5A43B/0/0802Table25.pdf, Accessed 4/2/08)

• Pennsylvania Had 49,750 Producing Gas Wells As Of 2006. (American Gas Association Website, http://www.aga.org/NR/rdonlyres/E7876621-6FC7-411A-A06F-B4FDD5F5A43B/0/0802Table25.pdf, Accessed 4/2/08)

As Of 2006, There Were 7,526 People Employed In Pennsylvania's Coal Mining Industry. (National Mining Association Website, http://www.nma.org/pdf/c_employment_state_region_method.pdf, Accessed 4/3/08)

• Pennsylvania Had The Third-Highest Number Of Coal Mines In The Country, Accounting For Over 18 Percent Of America's Coal Mines. (National Mining Association Website, http://www.nma.org/pdf/c_production_mines_state_type.pdf, Accessed 4/3/08)

• Pennsylvania Was The Fourth-Largest Consumer Of Coal In The Country, Using 59,000 Thousand Short Tons In 2006. (National Mining Association Website, http://www.nma.org/pdf/c_use_state.pdf, Accessed 4/3/08)  

Obama Would Raise The Payroll Tax, And Sen. Clinton Is Considering It As Well:

Obama: "If We Kept The Payroll Tax Rate Exactly The Same But Applied It To All Earnings And Not Just The First $97,500, We Could Virtually Eliminate The Entire Social Security Shortfall." (Sen. Barack Obama, Op-Ed, "Fixed-Income Seniors Can Expect A Tax Cut," Quad City Times [IA], 9/21/07)

• Obama: "I Think That Lifting The Cap Is Probably Going To Be The Best Option." (Sen. Barack Obama, Democrat Presidential Candidates Debate, Hanover, NH, 9/26/07)

• Obama's Chief Economic Advisor Austan Goolsbee: "An Increase In The Payroll Tax Of 6 Percentage Points Phased In Over Many Years Or Decades Doesn't Strike Me As A Dramatic Move." (James Pethokoukis, "Goolsbee Speaks!" U.S. News & World Report, 4/11/08)

Obama's Social Security Tax Hike Would Be "The Largest Tax Increase In American History." "As far as dealing with Social Security goes, raising taxes--by lifting the cap on taxable wages--seems a popular way of returning solvency to the system. (Such a move, by the way, would be the largest tax increase in American history.)" (James Pethokoukis, "Forget Clintonomics--This Is Mondalenomics," U.S. News & World Report's "Capital Commerce" Blog, http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2007/9/27/forget-clintonomics-this-is-mondalenomics.html, 9/27/07)

The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Estimates That Eliminating The Earnings Cap Would Increase Taxes By More Than $1.4 Trillion Over Ten Years. (The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, "Options To Adjust Social Security Earnings Cap, Static Impact On Individual Income And Payroll Tax Liability And Revenue ($ Billions), 2009-18," http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/displayatab.cfm?DocID=1719&topic2ID=60&topic3ID=69&DocTypeID=5, 1/2/08)

• Eliminating The Earnings Cap Would Reduce The Take-Home Pay Of 10.3 Million Workers By An Average Of $5,650 And Raise Taxes On Four Million Workers Over Age 50. (Editorial, "Caps Off For Obama," Investor's Business Daily, 9/24/07)

• "The Self-Employed Would Be Subject To A Double Whammy, Since They Pay Both The Employee And Employer Portion Of The Payroll Tax." (Editorial, "Caps Off For Obama," Investor's Business Daily, 9/25/07)

• Three Million Small Business Owners Would Have Their Taxes Raised. "Lost in Obama's calculations is that many of the people who would be affected by eliminating the earnings cap are small-business owners ... Taxes would also be raised on 3 million small-business owners." (Editorial, "Caps Off For Obama," Investor's Business Daily, 9/24/07)

Privately, Sen. Clinton Has Also Hinted She'd Raise Payroll Taxes To Fund Social Security. "Hillary Rodham Clinton has given a private clue on an issue she has refused to discuss publicly how to preserve Social Security in the long term. The Democratic presidential contender told an Iowa voter she would be willing to consider an idea that her Democratic rival John Edwards has been promoting raising Social Security taxes on high-income earners. ... She told him she didn't want to put an additional tax burden on the middle class but would consider a 'gap,' with no Social Security taxes on income from $97,500 to around $200,000. Anything above that could be taxed." (Nedra Pickler, "Clinton Weighs Social Security Tax 'Gap, '" The Associated Press, 10/12/07)

Both Democrat Candidates Have Big Spending Agendas Which They Claim Are Paid For ... Meaning More Taxes?

USA Today: "[C]linton And Obama Both Offer A Long List Of New Spending Proposals That Suggests A Lack Of Seriousness In Confronting The Nation's Fiscal Condition." (Editorial, "Democrats Promise A Lot, But Who Will Pay The Bill?" USA Today, 2/25/08)

If Sen. Clinton Could Enact All Of Her Campaign Proposals, Taxpayers Would Be Faced With Financing Over $709 Billion In New Spending Over One White House Term. (RNC Research)

• Sen. Clinton: "Everything I've Put Forward, I've Said How I Would Pay For It." (Sally Jenkins, "Growing Up Rodham," The Washington Post, 12/9/07)

If Obama Could Enact All Of His Campaign Proposals, Taxpayers Would Be Faced With Financing Over $662 Billion In New Spending Over One White House Term. (RNC Research)

• Obama: "We Account For Every Single Dollar That We Propose." (Sen. Barack Obama, CNN Democrat Presidential Candidates Debate, Myrtle Beach, SC, 1/21/08)