The wealthiest Americans would pay nearly $800,000 a year more in taxes under proposals by Barack Obama than they would under the tax plan of John McCain, said a study by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.
THE PROPOSALS
Under Obama: The top one-tenth of 1 percent of taxpayers, or about 150,000 families, would see a tax increase of 12.4 percent, or $790,000 a year compared with today's rates, it said. The poorest 20 percent of households would see a tax cut of 6.2 percent, or about $698 in 2012, the report said.
Under McCain: His plan would give those richest families a tax cut of $191,000 on average. The poorest would receive a tax cut of about $101.
Under both: They would cut taxes for lower- and middle-income taxpayers, and those tax cuts are larger under Obama's proposals, according to the center.
WHAT IT MEANS
"The big difference between Obama and McCain is that Obama is clearly more focused on income distribution," said Leonard Burman, one of the authors.
Tax cuts: The analysis, which was done with the cooperation of the campaigns, showed that both cut taxes overall, and fall short of making up for the lost revenue, so their plans would add to the federal deficit. McCain's proposals could exacerbate income inequality by cutting taxes for the wealthy more than for lower-income families, it said.
Federal debt: McCain's proposals would add $1 trillion more to the federal debt over the next 10 years than Obama's, the study said. Taxes flowing into the U.S. Treasury would decline by $3.7 trillion through 2018 under McCain's plan, while Obama's cuts federal income by $2.7 trillion. Still, the study said it couldn't verify the source of $925 billion in federal revenue that Obama's plan forecasts.
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