The preoccupation with earmark reform

The total national debt, as I write this, is $9,679,000,000,000.00 (nine and a half trillion).

The Budget for 2008 is close to $3,000,000,000,000.00 (three trillion).

Our budget deficit for this year is going to range in between $400-500,000,000,000.00 (four hundred to five hundred billion, give or take a few billion).

The total value of earmarks in 2008 will be approximately $18,000,000,000.00 (eighteen billion).

In other words, when McCain talks about earmarks, he is talking about 3% of our annual budget deficit, .6% of our annual budget, and a number too small to even report when discussing our national debt. Or, put another way, he is talking about two months in Iraq, something he wants to keep going indefinitely.

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Tax cuts

According to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, both candidates are proposing tax plans that would result in cuts for most American families. Obama’s plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy. [Source]

The Tax Policy Center (TPC) is a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, based in Washington, D.C.. The Center is mostly composed of tax lawyers, accountants and former politicians; their main focus is to provide accessible analysis and facts about tax policy to policymakers, journalists, citizens, and researchers.