A Preliminary Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans

"Tax and fiscal policy will loom large in the next president's domestic policy agenda. Nearly all of the tax cuts enacted since 2001 expire at the end of 2010. The alternative minimum tax (AMT) threatens to ensnare tens of millions of Americans in a web of pointless complexity and higher taxes, but a permanent fix palatable to both political parties has proven elusive.

"And large projected increases in spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will put unprecedented demands on federal government revenue sources in the coming decades," say the writers of this report (Len Burman, Surachai Khitatrakun, Greg Leiserson, Jeff Rohaly, Eric Toder and Bob Williams of the Tax Policy Center and the Urban Institute), based on statements and websites, as well as their assumptions about essential elements unspecified by the campaigns.

Read the complete report here.