![](\"http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/brill-biz-obama-mccain-02-5p.jpg\")
Obama would make permanent select provisions, including expanded child tax credits and the 10-, 15-, 25- and 28-percent tax rate brackets. He would allow the top two rates of 36 and 39.6 percent to return to their levels before the Bush tax cuts. He proposes to make the estate tax permanent with a $3.5 million exemption and a 45 percent rate.
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","NEW TAX CUTS","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "McCain: Double the personal tax exemption for dependents to $7,000. Reduce the top corporate tax rate in phases to 25 percent from 35 percent. Give businesses a first-year deduction for new equipment. Convert the research and development tax credit to a permanent credit for 10 percent of R&D wages. Proposed a summer suspension of federal gas tax.
Obama: Create refundable credit for low-income workers of 6.2 percent of earnings up to $8,100. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. Create a 10 percent tax credit on mortgage interest filers who don't itemize. Eliminate income tax for seniors making less than $50,000 per year. Mandate automatic 401(k) and IRA, expand tax credits for low-income savings and college education funds. Make permanent the R&D and renewable energy production tax credits."; Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","CAPITAL GAINS TAXES, AMT","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "McCain: Keep current tax rates on dividends and capital gains. Permanently extend the 2007 alternative minimum tax exemption, increase it by 5 percent per year after 2013.
Obama: Increase the maximum capital gains rate to 25 percent. Require reporting of cost basis for calculating gains. Eliminate capital gains taxes on start-up businesses and provide tax breaks for landowners selling to first-time family farmers. Extend and index the 2007 AMT patch.
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","TAX REFORM","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "McCain: Create optional alternative tax with two rates and larger standard deductions and personal exemptions. Eliminate oil and gas tax loopholes. Broaden the corporate tax base by eliminating unspecified preferences. Repeal the domestic production activities tax deduction for businesses. Eliminate earmarked projects from the budget.
Obama: Provide taxpayers the option of a \"pre-filled\" tax form that they simply verify and sign. Eliminate oil and gas tax loopholes. Close loopholes that allow companies to deduct chief executive pay. Tax publicly traded financial partnerships as corporations. Tax carried interest as ordinary income. Reallocate multinational tax deductions. Raise payroll taxes for those earning above $250,000.
"; Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","ECONOMIC STIMULUS","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "McCain: Spend up to $10 billion to allow some homeowners to trade high-interest, adjustable-rate mortgages for safer, fixed-rate loans. Summer 2008 suspension of 18.4 cents-a-gallon gasoline tax and 24.4 cents-a-gallon diesel tax.
Obama: Provide immediate tax rebate of up to $1,000 for low- and middle-income couples to help them cope with high energy costs, paid for by additional windfall profits taxes on energy producers. Second, $50 billion economic stimulus plan, including $25 billion in infrastructure improvements and $25 billion to aid state and local governments to help them avoid spending and services cuts and deal with home foreclosures.
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","ENERGY, INFRASTRUCTURE ","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "McCain: Build 45 nuclear reactors by 2030 and commit $2 billion annually until 2024 to clean-coal research and development. Proposes \"serious investment\" to upgrade electric power transmission system, including capacity to charge electric cars if mass-produced in the next decade. Award $300 million prize for development of a battery package that would make electric cars viable on a large scale, create $5,000 tax credit for customers who buy zero-carbon emission vehicles.
Obama: Invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance biofuels, renewable energy and clean coal plants. Create $1 billion annual investment program to help manufacturers modernize infrastructure, adopt clean technologies. Provide $4 billion in tax credits to help automakers retool plants and invest in advanced propulsion and lightweight materials. Create $60 billion National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank over 10 years to rebuild roads, bridges, ports and railways. Proposes to improve mass transit, develop high-speed rail corridors and modernize air traffic control system
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","HEALTH CARE","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "McCain: Include employer-paid health insurance as taxable income and replace the previous exclusion with a refundable tax credit of $2,500 per year for individuals and $5,000 for families. This aims to encourage people to buy more efficient health insurance plans and control health care costs. Create a high-risk pool to help people with high health costs get insurance.
Obama: Target tax subsidies to low income people to help them buy health insurance, expand Medicaid to cover all adults up to the poverty line and the State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover all children in families with income up to three times the poverty level. Impose a \"pay or play\" plan that would charge employers a 6 percent payroll tax penalty if they don't provide health insurance for employees.
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","OFFSHORE DRILLING","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "Obama opposes lifting moratorium on drilling on federal lands off the U.S. coast. New production would take \"five years or more\" to come on stream and \"might reduce the overall world price of oil by a few cents,\" he said.
McCain supports tapping the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil on the U.S. outer continental shelf. \"We can do this in ways that are consistent with sensible standards of environmental protection,\" he said.
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","NUCLEAR POWER","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "Obama supports nuclear power, but says waste disposal and proliferation are important concerns. \"I don't think it's our optimal energy source because we haven't figured out how to store the waste safely,\" he said.
McCain wants to build 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030, and 100 new plants longer term. \"If we're looking for a vast supply of reliable and low-cost electricity -- with zero carbon emissions and long-term stability -- that's the working definition of nuclear energy,\" he said."; Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","OIL SPECULATORS","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "Obama proposed requiring U.S. energy futures to trade on regulated exchanges; wants more data on investors in futures markets; backs legislation to look into the idea of increasing margin requirements.
McCain has expressed concern about excessive speculation in futures markets; supports investigations into possible market manipulation; supports new regulations to make the oil futures market more transparent.
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","GAS TAX HOLIDAY","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "Obama opposes temporarily lifting the federal tax on gasoline; he says the suspension of the tax would save each American family less than $30. \"This isn't a real solution,\" he said.
McCain proposed the gas tax holiday, using other taxes to pay for road projects funded by the tax. \"Let's give low-income Americans a break for the summer and realize maybe they deserve it, given the increase in food costs, given the increase in the cost of gasoline, given the increase in expenses,\" he said."; Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","CLIMATE CHANGE","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""); Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "Obama wants to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050; reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020; require fuels suppliers to cut carbon content by 10 percent by 2020.
McCain favors cap-and-trade CO2 approach; sponsored a bill in 2007 to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2050.
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","OIL CONSUMPTION","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "Obama wants to reduce overall oil consumption by at least 35 percent, or 10 million barrels per day, by 2030, to offset imports from OPEC nations.
McCain wants United States to be independent from foreign oil by 2025.
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "Obama opposes drilling in ANWR.
McCain wants more oil drilling on some outer continental shelf lands, but does not support ANWR drilling \"at this time.\"
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","VEHICLE FUEL ECONOMY","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "Obama wants to double fuel economy standards in 18 years and give automakers tax credits to retool plants and invest in advanced lightweight materials and new engines.
McCain has not specified vehicle fuel economy targets; voted against energy amendments in 2003 that would have boosted fuel economy standards to 40 mpg by 2015; supports increasing fines for car companies that do not meet standards; and wants to provide tax credits based on vehicles' carbon emissions
";
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i++] = new Array("","BIOFUELS","","","","", "sub", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Candidates_Economy[i-1].body = "Obama wants to boost Renewable Fuel Standard to at least 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol by 2030; build out ethanol distribution infrastructure, mandate that all new vehicles be \"flexfuel\" by end of his first term, produce 2 billion gallons of \"cellulosic\" ethanol from non-corn sources like switchgrass by 2013.
McCain favors ethanol incentives after opposing them in the past; generally opposes subsidies and tariffs that distort marketplace."; // END editorial data