Obama promotes middle-class tax cut

Barack Obama will highlight his middle-class tax cuts during an event today in Wisconsin, a potential battleground state in November.

The presumptive Democratic nominee will go in armed with a study that suggests that his proposals would give families making between about $38,000 and $66,000 a year would get an average tax cut of $1,042 under his proposals — three times more than the $319 in savings they would get from the tax cut plans of Republican John McCain.

The savings in 2009 would be closer for families making between $66,000 and $112,000 a year — $1,290 under Obama’s plan and $1,009 under McCain, according to the liberal-leaning Tax Policy Center in Washington.

The biggest gap would be for the 0.1 percent of taxpayers with incomes of more than $2.9 million a year. They would pay $270,000 less under McCain, but pay $702,000 more under Obama.

Both plans, however, would dramatically increase the federal deficit, the study found.

Obama’s proposals include a tax cut of $500 per person or $1,000 per couple for most families, but letting President Bush’s tax cuts lapse for those making $200,000 or more a year and raising the capital gains tax rate.

McCain wants to make Bush’s tax cuts permanent and also double the deduction for children and eliminate the alternative minimum tax.

McCain, meanwhile, returns today to New Hampshire, the state that revived his presidential hopes in both 2000 and this year.

He plans a town hall meeting at Daniel Webster College in Nashua, where he is likely to repeat his challenge to Obama for a series of 10 town hall meetings around the country. While both campaigns have expressed interest, they have not agreed on the details. The first would have been today in New York, under McCain’s proposal.