McCain or Obama? I think this discussion will go on and on and on and still we won't be able to come to a concrete conclusion, if we don't prefer to choose the couterpart to our preference.

however, when I see some people preferring one candidate to the other thinking he will cut their taxes, it cracks me up like anything.

i guess most of the folks interested in this thread know that under obama's plan, the rich (statistically those who earn more than $250K...who makes less than just 5% of the US population) would pay more and the low and middle class would pay less.

by how much? we don't know. i don't know.

McCain's plan would make rich pay less compared to what Obama's plan would do.

by how much ? again, we don't know.

the tax proposals of the candidates are not as conspicuous as some of you may think and argue.

but here's a quick overview:
individual top income tax will go up to 39% under Obama's plan from the current 35% (The plan that Bush enacted ..which McCain's proposal will retain).
capital gains tax will go up tp 28-29% (which it was  towards the end of Bill Clinton's era that saw an undprecedented surplus) from the current 15%. however, there are doubts Obama will actually bring that much increase.
estate tax will go to a whopping 45% for the estates above $3.5 million under Obama's plan to only 15% for estates above $5 million under McCain's plan. So there is a major difference in this category as i see. but this tax is not the one that's making the uproar among people...(remember, it's a "death tax")

hence i don't see a MAJOR difference for the commoners.

on top of that, each individual's tax situation is different form others so it's hard to predict how much more or less you, as an individual or a hedge fund manager, are gonna pay under obama or mccain tax proposals.

and in addition to that uncertainty, there are caveats:

1) we don't know if their proposals will get through the congress. (Remember, McCain plan which is the continuation of Bush's plan will expire by the end of 2009-10 fiscal year)

2) their proposals don't take into account: wars, global economy, whethere the president will sign an expensive social program into law and other big, unexpected changes.

but assuming their proposals are renwed, under Obama's plan, the country will make a whopping $700 billion surplus in the next 10 years or so they say while McCain will make the US treasury pay $600 billion and hence will bring about another nearly insurmoutable deficit to the already weak economy of he country (And that does NOT include the impact of the ongoing Iraq war expenses which the old man is firm at continuing for another 100 freaking years!)