October 9, 2007

Questions for the GOP Economic Debate

by TF Staff

In just a few hours, the GOP Presidential hopefuls will participate in a debate in Dearborn, MI. The theme of the day is taxes and the economy. Accordingly, the Tax Foundation has offered some suggested questions that should be asked of the candidates:

• Sen. Clinton recently unveiled a plan to use the tax code to reward those who have children, and Sen. Obama offers a proposal to use the code to reward those who own homes. Gov. Huckabee has suggested using taxes to punish those who make health decisions he disagrees with. Do you support using the federal tax code as a way to reward and punish individual decisions you support or oppose, or is the purpose of taxes just to raise revenue in the least distortionary way?
• Everyone agrees that the federal income tax is too complex. Explain what you would do to make it less complex.
• Every other industrialized country is lowering their corporate tax rates. Will you support lowering the U.S. and state corporate tax rates?
• Politicians frequently talk about how their policies are designed to help "the middle class." Can you please define specifically in terms of income and family/household situation what you consider to be "middle class" in America?