We’ve already examined them in a pop culture showdown, but John McCain and Barack Obama are as different in political ideology as they are in style.

The respective Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls have conflicting philosophies about U.S. tax policy - specifically, how to cut taxes, raise revenue needed for programs, spur growth and ensure fairness.

But all you probably care about is whether the candidates’ views impact your personal tax bill - be it for better or for worse.

Like most people, we’re not experts on economics, but we’ve made broad assumptions about the tax policies of Obama and McCain anyway:

John McCain: The average taxpayer in every income group would see a lower tax bill, but high-income taxpayers would benefit more than anyone.

Barack Obama: High-income taxpayers would pay more, while everyone else’s taxes would be reduced. Lower- and middle-income groups benefit most.

Are these assumptions on or off the mark?

A new report released on Wednesday by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington, D.C., sheds some light on that question…

Basically, if you make between $66,000 and $227,000, or even $603,000, these tax cuts won’t impact you much. The differences are almost negligible.

Obviously, the people on the lower end of the spectrum could use that extra money, and it does make a difference. But for the most part, the middle- and upper-middle class remain largely unaffected, amazingly.

Whether these tax bracket shifts actually occur once either John McCain or Barack Obama occupies the Oval Office is a question for another day, as well.

President George W. Bush warned in an interview that Democratic candidates’ plans to withdraw abruptly from Iraq could “eventually lead to another attack on the United States” and would embolden terrorists.

“The United States pulling out of Iraq or pulling out of the Middle East or not maintaining a forward presence would send all kinds of signals throughout the Middle East,” he told the Politico and Yahoo! News.

“And it would shake everybody’s nerves, and it would embolden the very same people that we’re trying to defeat.”

For the first time, Bush revealed a deeply personal and important choice he made to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families.

Bush said he made this critical policy decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad:

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

NOTE #1: Starting an unnecessary and endless war, however? That signal is cool. This is also the first time we’ve seen the act of playing golf equated with disrespect for U.S. soldiers. Anyone want to buy a set of used clubs?

NOTE #2: The picture above was taken in 2004! Not only is Bush’s argument probably the dumbest thing we’ve ever heard, it’s not even true!

Follow the jump for more amazing George W. Bush quotes from the interview …

Continue reading this article …

We love political cartoons, and Bill Mitchell, a former newspaper cartoonist who’s abandoned print media for the online world (gotta love animated GIFs), is one of our favorites. Check out his great work if you haven’t before.

Earlier, we posted a political cartoon dealing with the staggering cost ($5k/second) of the Iraq war and the farce of the U.S. economic stimulus plan.

Now here’s one about the proposed gas tax holiday, which some presidential hopefuls support. Note that Barack Obama is conspicuously absent below.

Shameless pandering, anyone? Fill ‘er up!

Cartoon source: here. More Mitchell here.

The Iraq war and the U.S. economy are both in a desperate state, yet the brilliant Bush administration doesn’t see a connection between the two.

Some media reports have estimated the cost of the war in Iraq at around $5,000 per second. Despite this staggering cost, there’s been no apparent effort to figure out how we should pay for it.

Nor is there an end in sight. Details, right?

The political cartoon below addresses this issue - and the insignificance of the supposed economic stimulus plan put into effect this spring.

NOTE: This political cartoon was created by and is property of journalist and cartoonist Andrew Wahl. Visit his blog, Off the Wahl, for more of his work.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was interviewed Monday on CNBC’s Morning Joe, from Greenville, N.C., about the current Gas Tax “war” Between herself and Barack Obama, as well as other issues dominating the 2008 presidential race.

Mika Brzezinsky then questioned Hillary Clinton about the tax and Tiki Barber later jumped in to discuss the “Comeback Kid” and the confidence level question as she prepares for the Indiana and North Carolina primaries…

A new national poll shows that 74 percent of Americans think the economy is in a recession, and one wonders where the other 26 percent are living.

That 74 percent figure is up from 66 percent last month, 61 percent in January and 46 percent in October. Not exactly a positive trend.

It’s no surprise then that the economy remains the key issue in the public’s mind, according to the survey conducted by CNN last week.

By a 2-1 margin, the economy tops the Iraq war as the No. 1 issue for Americans in their choice for president in the 2008 election.

A majority of those polled, 53 percent, say the recession will last more than a year, 18 percent say it will continue for 6-12 months, while 2 percent believe that the economic downturn will be over in less than six months.

SIDE NOTE: How can you believe we’re in a recession, yet think it’s going to reverse itself by October? Can you even call it a downturn then? Whatever.

With gas prices - as well as various other commodities - reaching record highs, and a single Euro now worth $1.59, the signs of economic worry are piling up.

Here’s the kicker of this new poll, though - 9 out of 10 Democrats said the economy is in recession, while only 54 percent of Republicans agreed.

This is because economic recessions are, in many ways, class-conscious, most adversely affecting those who can least afford them.

Without question, it’s been building for some time now, beginning with the erosion of community values in an age of corporate greed and deception.

How bad it gets remains to be seen. But this era of highly leveraged U.S. economic expansion is on the brink of collapse, and you can count on the GOP to make out like bandits if it does, writes the Existentialist Cowboy…

With the economy sure to play an increasingly important role in the 2008 presidential campaign, here’s a perspective you probably haven’t heard.

The concept of the free market is treated with god-like reverence in the United States - but Harvard professor Stephen Marglin argues that the free market relationships we worship actually erode community values.

Generations ago, if a family’s barn burned down, their neighbors more than likely lent their time, money and energy to get them back on their feet. Now that family turns not to their fellow Americans, but to … their insurance company.

Insurance may be a more efficient way to organize resources, but social ties - the very essence of community - are weakened by a shift from human interaction and decency to this singular dependence on economic relations.

The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community is a book that reexamines the basic assumptions of economics and how they justify a world in which people are becoming increasingly isolated.

Isolated in the sense of their social connections, that is. More and more often, we Americans define ourselves in terms of how much we consume. Marglin theorizes how this ideology (and imbalance) came about and what to do about it.

It’s a timely, eloquent and much-needed critique of conventional wisdom, one that does not require an economics degree to follow.

Many people have lamented that the basic concepts of family and community are things of the past in the United States of America, but few have pointed a finger at business and the very market-based system that drives us all.

After Barack Obama won the Maine caucuses Sunday, he sat down at the keyboard of his computer to write an e-mail.

The recipient? Not a media consultant. Not a superdelegate. It was banker Robert Wolf, the CEO of UBS Americas (UBS).

The two exchanged notes about the Senate-passed economic stimulus package and that weekend’s G-7 economic summit.

A banker as Barack Obama’s pen pal?

It many seem hard to believe, Business Week notes, given the senator’s liberal image, but Obama has also taken time to consult with Warren Buffett, whose support of rolling back the Bush tax cuts Obama often cites.

Reportedly, Barack Obama has also been in touch with former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who endorsed him in January.

“I found him to be unbelievably refreshing, smart and thoughtful,” says Wolf, who met Obama through financier George Soros.

Still, Corporate America may not be persuaded easily.

He has a mere three years in the U.S. Senate, a desire to roll back the Bush tax cuts that benefit many people running big companies, and a lower rating by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce than Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

But Tuesday’s Chesapeake Bay massacre proves Obama is now a serious contender for the Democratic nomination. How will Big Business react if faced with an Obama candidacy? Or an Obama presidency?

Continue reading Business Week’s take on business and the Senator …

Congress has approved a two-year, $168 billion economic stimulus plan Thursday that will send rebate checks to millions of Americans.

The bipartisan measure, coming after a concession by Senate Democrats who demanded more aid, could become law as soon as next week, with rebate checks arriving as soon as May.

The stimulus legislation cleared the Senate, 81-16, after Dems gave up their attempt to pressure the GOP into backing a more expansive package.

The House then approved it, 380-34.

“This plan is robust, broad-based, timely, and it will be effective,” President George W. Bush said in a statement.

“What counts is the result,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana), who helped lead the Democratic drive for a larger package. “This is a big victory.”

Compromise and actually getting a bill signed is nice. Maybe it will help Congress’ abysmal (lower than Bush’s!) approval rating.

Now, whether this victory actually stimulates anything? That’s entirely up in the air - and a topic for another time.

In somewhat-related news regarding the economy not being what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered king of currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

It’s a trend that doesn’t look to be abating anytime soon as other nations grow rapidly and recession fears rankle U.S. financial markets.

The Democratic Congress is poised to heed President Bush’s call to help save the economy, but may not give him much else.

In a State of the Union speech that recycled many past initiatives, the lame duck called again for immigration reform, an end to lawmakers’ pet projects, control of Social Security and making tax cuts permanent.

Democrats have rejected many of the same Bush initiatives before.

In a sign that the dominant political battles will not be in Congress, many in the House chamber kept an eye not on Bush’s speech but on Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, who hours earlier had endorsed Obama over Clinton, reached out to shake Clinton’s hand when she approached.

Delivering the televised Democratic response, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius - who is considered a possible running mate for Clinton or Obama - urged Bush to work with a Congress controlled by her party.

“The last five years have cost us dearly — in lives lost, in thousands of wounded warriors whose futures may never be the same, in challenges not met here at home because our resources were committed elsewhere,” she said. “America’s foreign policy has left us with  more enemies.”

The president pushed hard for “a robust growth package” to jump-start the economy, asking Democrats to avoid the temptation “to load up the bill.”

Democrats already were planning to expand the stimulus plan negotiated by Bush and House leaders from both parties, to include tax rebates for senior citizens and an extension of unemployment benefits.

Continue reading this article …