Immediate Relief For American Families

Food and Gas Relief:

The gas thing is a little outdated, because I just filled up my gas tank for $2.69 a gallon, which is pretty low for today’s standards. However, back when gas was $4.00 a gallon, McCain wanted to take away the 54 cent gas tax on imported sugar-based ethanol. Of course, oil prices could always shoot up again in the future. McCain also wants to repeal the ethanol mandate in gasoline to help drive back down the price of certain foods.

Housing Plan:

McCain has a plan to help individuals who genuinely can’t afford their current mortgage whom are currently the primary resident in the home. He wants to put a plan together that will allow individuals to apply for a new mortgage at a fixed rate with a different amount. Apparently, if your current mortgage is $300,000, but you can only afford a payment on a $250,000 mortgage, then the $50,000 difference would be forgiven, and the new loan would be backed by the FHA.

Protect student loans:

The goal of McCain’s plan is to make sure that student loans are available during the credit crunch.

Federal Spending Reform

Balancing The Budget by 2013:

By the end of his first term, McCain claims he will balance the budget by administering comprehensive spending controls, reasonable economic growth, and bi-partisanship in budget efforts.

Eliminate Wasteful Spending:

McCain has a decent record when it comes to voting against bills with too much wasteful spending, and he vows to continue that trend if he is president.

Reforming Social Security and Medicare:

How he’s going to do this in four to eight years, I am not sure, but this seems to me to be a typical Republican thing to promise. Social Security and Medicare are basically federal government liabilities, and I think they’ll just keep pumping money into it to fund it.

Small Business

Cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent:

No one seems to talk about this in the media. This could be a huge stimulant to the economy. The Republic of Ireland was in a huge economic recession, and then they slashed the corporate tax rate, and their economy is now flourishing. Small business accounts for 80% of American jobs, and his plan focuses on protecting small business owners.

McCain wants to establish a permanent tax credit equal to 10% of wages spent on research and development.

Good for companies in health care, energy, and other innovative industries, but not for the local pharmacy and the general contractor.

Reduce the estate tax to 15 percent. The goal is to help keep businesses in the family.

Miscellaneous

• His would like to ban taxes on goods and services sold on the internet and taxes for cell phone/text message use.
• Promote workplace flexibility by allowing people to work at home, maintain a flexible work schedule, and make health care more portable.

Whoever you support for president, whether it’s McCain or Obama, make sure you get your say, don’t forget to vote next week!

We try to avoid partisan political discussions on this site, however, we want you to be be aware of some of the economic policies we might see when you vote for Barack Obama or John McCain. As the election draws near, we’re going to look at the candidates financial plans for topics like energy costs, tax reform, job creation, and home ownership.

We’re not political experts but this is what we understand from listening to McCain and Obama, if we didn’t explain something correctly or you disagree with our take, let us know in the comments.

Energy Costs

One of the things Obama promises to do is enact a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits to give Americans a $1,000 energy rebate to help pay for rising energy costs. How he will define “excessive” is not explained, and now gas prices are back to the price they were a year ago, so this concept may not have as much traction as it would of a while back. 

Tax Relief

This tax relief is part of his plan to restore the economy, which is different from his tax reform plan.

• Provide a tax cut for “working” families. He will set up a tax credit called the “making work pay” tax credit, not sure what criteria he will use to classify a working family.
• He’ll eliminate taxes for senior citizens that make less than $50,000 a year.
• Obama wants to amend the way taxes are filed by requiring the IRS to gather basic financial information from banks and employers, pre-fill the forms, and send them to taxpayers whom then can verify that the information is correct and add or delete anything else on the forms.

Trade

Obama’s philosophy and plan towards trade is to make moves that help American workers keep their jobs and create new manufacturing jobs for American workers.

Part of this plan is to amend the NAFTA with Canada and Mexico. This was the center of controversy during the primary season, because he took a very strong position against NAFTA early on his campaign, and then retracted his strong comments after that. Although, he still wants to amend it, he is not specific what he would like to do with it.

Creating New Jobs

Obama takes two issues, creating jobs and creating alternative sources of energy, and fuses them together. He starts out by investing $150 billion dollars toward clean energy, and thus creating more jobs for workers because more of these plants will be created.

Obama also wants to mandate that all households derive 25% of their energy from renewable energy by 2025, and this will in effect, force the creation of more jobs due to higher demand for renewable energy sources.

Supporting Small Business

• Eliminate capital gains taxes on start-up businesses and small businesses; which I don’t undertand because small businesses don’t typically pay capital gains taxes do they?
• Plant entrepreneurship incubators around disadvantaged areas of the country to encourage small business start-up in areas that need their economies boosted.

Homeownership and Mortgage Reform

• Create a universal mortgage tax credit that will give an average of $500 tax savings to households making less than $50k per year.
• Ensure more accountability for the subprime mortgage industry, and create a more standardized way of helping consumers learn the true cost of a loan or mortgage product.
• Work to eliminate the provision that allows mortgage companies to prevent bankruptcy courts from modifying the mortgage payments of individuals that file for bankruptcy.

Those are some of the economy policies proposed by Obama that could effect your wallet in one way or another. Make sure you note that political candidates make a lot of promises on the campaign trail so you should do your own research and make an informed opinion about whether you think the promises are feasible or realistic. Next time we’ll take a look at John McCain’s economic plan.

The Political Campaigner

Last election I took time off of work to campaign for the candidate I thought would be best for the country.  I knocked on doors, made phone calls, put up yards signs, made financial donations, and attended rallies.

The Political Abstainer

I am sad to say that for me this has been the tale of two elections. I have contributed absolutely nothing towards the election process this time around. I haven’t watched debates, researched the candidate’s positions on the issues, donated money, volunteered, or even put on a lousy bumper sticker. 

What’s My Problem?

The issues now are no less important. Our country is in a bigger mess now than it was four years ago. But honestly, I’m feeling a bit discouraged with the whole process.

So despite the fact the post title that asks “Barack Obama vs John McCain – Who Cares”, let me assure you I do care who wins. I’m just weary of the wasteful grind we have to endure to get there. Elections seem kind of like a senior prom.  Everyone spends so much time and money preparing for the big night and anticipating the grand finale but they forget that shortly after it’s over they have to graduate into the real world and face real issues. 

The Morning After

Sometimes I feel like we are all a bunch of high school kids getting ready for that prom.  It doesn’t matter who is crowned prom king, who we hang out with, how hard we laugh, who we dance with, or whether our heart is broken — the following morning will always arrive much sooner than we’re ready for.

All the money we spend, the petty quarrelling about dates and plans, the anticipation, the stress — are all for naught when the sun rises the next day.

Expensive & Divisive Elections

In our elections “we the people” spend countless amounts of time, energy, and cash driving relentlessly towards a single goal of getting the most votes for our candidate.  But no matter who wins, we still have the same issues to deal with the following day, just after the country finishes spending an enormous amount of time, money, and momentum on the election.

I will still vote on Election Day, I’ll cast my ballot for the good guy; the candidate I think our country needs the most right now.  But I am feeling a little discouraged with the campaign process: the multitude of promises, the word games and number twisting, and most of all the ridiculous attacks that pop up when campaign advisors start to feel desperate.

After all of that, I needed a laugh, the video below sums up my mood pretty well and is pretty funny. Don’t worry, It’s a bi-partisan laugh, pokes fun at both parties : ) Press the play button to watch the video.

The ending resonate with me that’s how I feel about the process sometimes:

“… citizens gather from both far and near, for a ritual we practice every four years, when we promise you anything you want to hear… to win the crown we’re chasing!

We spend billions of dollars to make our points clear and to get you to step up and cast your vote here

Then we spin you around and poke you in the rear … it’s time for some campaigning!”

Of course, there are many people that don’t get that head start.  What can be done to help them? Hillary Clinton is proposing a “Baby Bond” program that would give every child born in the U.S. $5,000.  The idea is that they could use it to pay for expenses later in life such as college, a first home, or a business venture.

I think it’s an interesting proposal, putting the power of compound growth to work from the moment a person is born.  Letting people see the benefit of saving early and watching it grow. Of course there are many questions such as who would oversee and distribute the funds and what criteria would exist for cashing them in.  But before we answer any of these questions, I think we should first ask how we’re going to pay for it. An ABC news article makes the following cost estimate:

“Presuming that approximately 4 million children are born in the United States each year, a $500 “baby bond” would only cost roughly $2 billion per year. A $5,000 “baby bond” would cost the government $20 billion per year.”

Thanks to a variety of reasons the Federal government is already in massive debt.  Are we willing to commit to spending another twenty billion dollars a year when we don’t know how we’re going to pay for it?  I think after hammering out all the details to account for fraud, oversight, etc. it could really help give people a leg up but where will the money come from?  Is the government going to cut spending somewhere else, raise the money somehow, or just go deeper into debt?

On a Mission to Tax
The mission of the SSTP as stated on their website is to “develop measures to design, test and implement a sales and use tax system that radically simplifies sales and use taxes.” Basically, the SSTP would require merchants to collect sales tax on purchases via the Web to customers in states where the retailer does not have a physical presence.

eCommerce Taxation
The SSTP is being led by a group of US States that are looking to increase state government income by tapping into the huge market of online retailing. The initiative is being opposed through information campaigns by major e-commerce players such as eBay. The eBay site explains why we don’t have to pay sales tax for most online purchases and how the SSTP is looking to change that.

“In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that forcing remote sellers to collect sales tax in states in which they do not have a physical presence would constitute an undue burden on retailers and commerce in general.

Since that ruling, states are prohibited from collecting remote sales tax until they have simplified their tax regimes enough to lift the burden on remote sellers.”

The SSTP is attempting to simplify state and local tax laws in order to comply with the Supreme Court ruling so that they can begin to charge sales tax on internet sales.

Business Effect
According to the information from eBay the proposed SSTP does not succeed in simplification but instead allows for a different rate for each zip code, potentially 49,000 different jurisdictions. eBay warns those that sell online of the potentiAl consequences of the SSTP:

“Small entrepreneurs like you will be disadvantaged by a distant sales tax collection regime that forces you to comply with thousands of different rates, laws, filing instructions, and audit procedures.

Moreover, this would place you at a competitive disadvantage vis-Ã -vis your offline counterparts, who are only required to collect and remit taxes in one jurisdiction. This could force thousands of Internet businesses like yours to shut down.”

Consumer Effect
The way I see it, the SSTP project has the potential to hurt consumers in several ways. The most obvious would be if states “simplified” the tax codes and were allowed to charge sales tax on online transactions. A good example of this is the growing number of people that do their Christmas shopping online every year. The extra sales tax would put an even heavier burden on already strained budgets during the Holiday season.

If the SSTP were to deter individuals and small businesses from selling online I think we would experience fewer choices and fewer good deals. With fewer people selling things online the variety of items would decline. In addition, smaller sellers usually have to charge lower prices to compete with more well known large retailers. If the small guy left the marketplace we’d have less to choose from and not as many low prices.

What can we do?
Let your member of Congress know that you oppose the State Simplification Tax Project and checkout www.streamlinedsalestax.org to keep up to date on the status of the project.

Will your financial constituents re-elect you this year? Follow these ten tips and getting re-elected will be as certain as money in the bank.

1) Know your Constituents Needs
Who are your constituents? Your family and friends; maybe your community. What do they need? The only way to find out is to ask. Sit down and find out their dreams and goals. If you prioritize the list and focus on meeting their most important needs, you will have a satisfied base of support!

2) Have a Good Record
The election debate always turns to a person’s track record. Your list of goals and dreams becomes your election platform. They should guide you in the financial decisions you make in the year to come. As an elected official you have the responsibility of answering to your constituents for the choices you make. Popular or unpopular, if at the end of the year your decisions stayed true to the goals and dreams list, re-election is just around the corner.

3) Keep your Constituents Safe
Will your supporters feel safe voting for you again next year? Do you have an emergency fund built up for a rainy day? What about the appropriate insurance to cover against the unforeseen? Have you put the appropriate security measures in place to protect their personal information?

4) Cut Spending
Have you cut pork barrel spending on special interest projects such as a Prada purse for her or a 60 inch big screen for him? Have you reduced the nickel and dime expenses that add up over a year?

5) Reduce the Deficit
Do you have a plan to pay off the debt? Do you have a plan to keep the debt away? Did you use credit for big purchases or did you save up and buy with cash? Have you kept a clean credit history so if you need to borrow in the future you can do so at low rates?

6) Reduce Taxes
Have you reduced the tax burden on your constituent’s wallets? Have you done tax planning to increase the amount of money they keep from their paycheck?

7) Build Wealth
Are you building the treasury through an automatic investment plan? Are you keeping good counsel for growing and protecting the assets of the community? Have you diversified the economy so that you’re not dependent solely on one income source?

Give Back
Are you giving time and money back to the community? Are you working to build lasting relationships and helping those that need it the most?

9) Add Revenue Streams
Creative officials find ways to use the strengths of their community to bring in extra money. What untapped talent do you have that could earn extra cash for you and your family?

10) Be Efficient with their Money
Have you made the treasury more efficient with direct deposit, online bill pay, and electronic accounting systems? Nothing upsets voters more than wasting their time and hard earned money.

]]> 0