Don't Mess With Taxes

Apparently Barack Obama and John McCain are like the hubby and me. At least when we travel.

When we head out on the road, I'm the titular navigator, although the hubby already has plotted the course and basically knows how he's going to get us to our destination. But I still hold the map -- that's right, we're a GPS-free family -- and I make suggestions.

We both want to get to the same place. We agree on the basic method to get there. But each of us has our own preferred route.

That seems to be the same process that the two presidential candidates take when it comes to tax policy.

Robert Carroll, vice president for economic policy at the Tax Foundation, has taken a look at the tax relief proposals of McCain and Obama. Both candidates have been using the issues of health care, gas prices and housing devaluation, among others, to preface their economic proposals.

But, explains Carroll in Fiscal Fact No. 137,  the candidates have significantly different tax policies that address these issues.

"Sen. Obama has included a set of carefully targeted tax proposals that narrowly aim benefits to specific types of taxpayers, while Sen. McCain provides broad tax relief with benefits that are indirect," says Carroll. "In both cases, tax relief is provided to the vast majority of the electorate."

You can read Carroll's analysis here, download the PDF here and find out more on the candidates' tax plans here.