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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review August 4, 2008 / 3 Menachem-Av 5768

Tax-Cut nation

By Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Every year, Washington spends more than it takes in. The federal deficit is expected to hit $482 billion next year. So why are both presidential candidates promising voters bigger government and more tax cuts? They must figure that if they don't, they lose.


I understand why John McCain wants to make permanent the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, and Obama wants to retain the cuts for families earning up to $250,000. When those cuts sunset after 2010, the child tax credit will shrink, the marriage penalty will return and Americans will see a big bump in their tax bills.


But why add more goodies? Why eliminate the income tax for seniors making less than $50,000 a year — as Obama proposes? Why suspend the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon over the summer — as McCain proposes?


Why more tax cuts? I asked the Obama campaign. Team Obama sent this statement: "President Bush's tax breaks to the special interests are what set us on the road to bankruptcy — Sen. Obama's tax cut plan is a common sense solution to our current economic crisis. Rather than giving additional tax breaks to oil companies and the richest 1 percent of the nation, Sen. Obama will provide $1,000 of tax relief to more than 95 percent of all Americans. Sen. Obama will put more money in the pockets of working Americans, while ensuring that our vital public programs — such as public education and veterans' health care — are fully funded."


OK, but that's the wrong approach. The Tax Policy Center figures, over 10 years, Obama's tax package would reduce federal revenues — read: increase the federal deficit — by $2.8 trillion. And that doesn't include the cost of his spending proposals.


In an interview Monday, McCain answered that tax cuts can stimulate the economy. His proposal to lower the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent is intended not to help "the fat cat," but to create jobs. Economist Gerald Prante of the nonpartisan Tax Foundation sees the McCain corporate-rate cut as one of McCain's better ideas — although McCain is "not really paying" for it.


Neither candidate is paying for his tax cuts. McCain made the mistake recently of telling ABC's George Stephanopoulos that nothing, not even a tax hike, is "off the table" when it comes to fixing Social Security and Medicare systems that are underfunded to the tune of $175,000 per American. Tax foes pounced. McCain retreated.


Too bad. McCain has a long history of fighting Washington's big-spending ways. He has been a fearless foe of earmarks. He voted against the pork-rich farm bill, which Obama supported. Ask me whom I trust to cut spending, and there's only one answer: McCain.


A Democratic Congress, with a President Obama, likely would spend, well, like he's George W. Bush. Voters tell pollsters that they want change. Do they? No serious White House would dare not to promise more something for nothing.

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