Bullet Points: Alan Keyes on Taxation and Government Spending

Related Post: ThirdPartyWatch.Com: Keyes Starts New Party

The following are bullet points of Alan Keyes position on Taxation and Government Spending as posted on his campaign website:

• No "reform" of the income tax system can "correct its fundamental denial of control over our own money."
• "Only the abolition of the income tax will restore the basic American principle that our income is both our own money and our own private business — not the government's."
• "Replacing the income tax with a national sales tax would rejuvenate independence and responsibility in our citizens."
• "A national sales tax would also put the American citizen back in control of fiscal policy. The best way to curtail government spending is to cut taxes, because they can't spend what they don't get."
• Add "a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, with barriers to both borrowing and spending, is the best way to secure budget discipline."

Source: www.alankeyes.com

Obama Proposes Reduction in Taxes to Boost American Manufacturing

The following are bullet points on Barack Obama's plan to "revive and strengthen" American manufacturing:

• Tax breaks to companies that create good-paying jobs right here in America.


• Invest $150 billion over the next ten years in clean/green energy.


• Provide domestic automakers with the funding they need to retool their factories and make fuel-efficient and alternative fuel cars.


• Invest $10 billion a year in creating a Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund. This government-backed fund will help solve this problem by creating an initiative right here in Michigan that will accelerate the development and deployment of cutting-edge vehicle technologies.


• Creating an Advanced Manufacturing Fund that will invest in innovation and job creation in places that have been hard hit by the decline in manufacturing.


• Make the research and development tax credit permanent.


• Stop slashing funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and start doubling it.


• Help community colleges develop associate degree programs in green technology.


• Universal health care.

Obama also mentioned in his speech that the US auto manufacturers are suffering because their corporate boards and executives "invested in the SUVs and large trucks that may have helped meet a rising demand" instead of "the fuel-efficient cars of the future" and that "manufacturing supports one in six American jobs – jobs that pay more and offer better benefits than other jobs – and we all have a stake in saving them."

Source: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGBlL3 .

Ron Paul: Big Government Responsible for Housing Bubble

Related Posts: Excerpts From Ron Paul Interview on Housing Bailout, Ron Paul Statement on Money, Inflation and Government From March 31, 2008, Ron Paul Statement on HR 5512 to Change Pennies from Copper to Steel, New Ron Paul Statement on Earmark Abuse, Ron Paul: The Double Trouble of Taxation

• The following is Ron Paul's statement on the "housing bubble" posted on his weekly Texas Straight Talk column posted on www.house.gov/paul:

The House passed two bills attempting to rehabilitate the housing and mortgage market this week. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of criticism and blame for the bad decisions, and rightly so. Lenders and banks do share much of the blame for the overheated market. Lending standards were relaxed, or even abandoned altogether, creating an exaggerated pool of homebuyers that led to ballooning home prices that many, especially real estate investors, expected to continue forever. Now that the bubble has burst, the losses are staggering.

However, many in Washington fail to realize it was government intervention that brought on the current economic malaise in the first place. The Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates created the loose, easy credit that ignited a voracious
appetite in the banks for borrowers. People made these lending and buying decisions based on market conditions that were wildly manipulated by government. But part of sound financial management should be recognizing untenable or falsified economic conditions and adjusting risk accordingly. Many banks failed to do that and are now looking to taxpayers to pick up the pieces. This is wrong-headed and unfair, but Congress is attempting to do it anyway.

These housing bills address the crisis in exactly the wrong way, by seeking to hide the problem with more disastrous government bail-outs and interventions. One measure, HR 5830 the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Housing Stabilization and Homeowner Retention Act would allow the FHA to guarantee as much as $300 billion worth of refinanced home loans for those facing threat of foreclosure. HR 5818 the Neighborhood Stabilization Act, would provide $15 billion in loans and grants to localities to purchase and renovate foreclosed homes with the object of then selling or renting out those homes. Thankfully, President Bush has vowed to veto both of these bills. It is neither morally right nor fiscally wise to socialize private
losses in this way.

The solution is for government to stop micromanaging the economy and let the market adjust, as painful as that will be for some. We should not force taxpayers, including renters and more frugal homeowners, to switch places with the speculators and take on those same risks that bankrupted them. It is a terrible idea to spread the financial crisis any wider or deeper than it already is, and to prolong the agony years into the future. Socializing the losses now will only create more unintended consequences that will give new excuses for further government interventions in the future. This is how government grows - by claiming to correct the mistakes it earlier
created, all the while constantly shaking down the taxpayer. The market needs a chance to correct itself, and Congress needs to avoid making the situation worse by pretending to ride to the rescue.

Bullet Points on John McCain's Economic Plan, Some May Surprise You

The following are the bullet points on John McCain's economic plan outlined in an April 15, 2008 press release on www.johnmccain.com:

• Reduce the Federal Corporate Tax Rate to 25% from 35%.
• Institute a one-year spending pause to evaluate programs. Outside of essential military and veterans programs there should be a one-year discretionary spending pause that should be used for a top-to-bottom review of the effectiveness of federal programs.
• Establish alternative new and simpler tax system. Those who wish to stay under the current system could still do so, but everyone else could choose a vastly less complicated system with two tax rates and a "generous" standard deduction.
• Permanently repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).
• Double the personal exemption for dependents from $3,500 to $7,000.
• Raise the exemption from taxation on estates up to $10 million while cutting the tax rate to 15%.
• End ethanol subsidies, tariff barriers and sugar quotas that drive up food prices.
• Summer Gas Tax Holiday to suspend the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
• Stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to reduce demand.
• "HOME Plan"-For homeowners with non-conventional mortgages taken after 2005 who live in their home (primary residence only); can prove creditworthiness at the time of the original loan; are either delinquent, in arrears on payments, facing a reset or otherwise demonstrate that they will be unable to continue to meet their mortgage obligations; and can meet the terms of a new 30 year fixed-rate mortgage on the existing home, the mortgage servicer will write down and retire the existing loan, which will be replaced by an FHA guaranteed HOME loan from a lender.
• Formation of a Justice Department Mortgage Abuse Task Force.
• "Student Loan Continuity Plan"- McCain will calls on the federal government and the 50 governors to anticipate student loan accessibility problems and expand the lender-of-last resort capabilities for each state's guarantee agency.
• Cut taxes for the middle class.
• Require a 3/5 majority vote in Congress to raise taxes.
• Keep the current rates on dividends and capital gains.
• Permit corporations to immediately deduct the cost of equipment investment.
• Ban Internet taxes.
• Ban new cell phone taxes.
• Establish permanent tax credit equal to 10% of wages spent on R&D.
• Lower medicare premiums.
• Stop earmarks, pork-barrel spending, and waste.
• Balancing the federal budget.
• Reform civil service system to promote accountability and good performance in the Federal workforce.
• Reform Social Security by supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts.
• Control Medicare growth.
• Lower barriers to international trade.
• Make American workers more competitive by improving education.
• Reform the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system so that a portion of each worker's Unemployment Insurance Tax is deposited into a Lost Earnings Buffer Account (LEB) that can be used by the unemployed to cover needed expenses, with a backstop of traditional UI if the account is exhausted before 26 weeks.
• Reform training programs to provide quick assistance to workers seeking new skills.
• Comprehensive health care reform.
• National energy strategy that declares independence from the risk bred by our reliance on oil imported from petro-dictators and the vulnerability to the troubled politics of their lands.

Source: http://johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/b61edf42-a65d-4c4d-b038-6123db8fc2a5.htm