Tax Issues Loom Over Campaign

With President Bush’s tax cuts set to expire in 2010, tax reform could become a key issue in this year’s presidential race, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Most Republican candidates favor extending the cuts, though Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul support eliminating income tax altogether. The Democratic candidates almost universally favor repealing Bush’s cuts but differ slightly in their proposals.

Huckabee’s endorsement of the “Fair Tax,” which would abolish the IRS and boost sales tax to 23%, has been called radical by experts. Other GOP plans are more traditional, such as lowering corporate tax rates. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would repeal tax cuts for families with incomes over $250,000. John Edwards’ cut-off was lower, at $200,000. (More Election 2008 stories.)