Come on ABC, instead of Firefighters Whack McCain for Taxing Benefits it should read "Firefighters BURN McCain for Taxing Benefits"

Good one, Uncle Sam.

The average health insurance costs about $12,000. Employees will have to pay social security taxes and have income taxes withheld from this amount. This extra $12,000 would raise many tax payers into the 22% rate plus social security taxes, making the additional tax of $3,000.

Employers will also have to pay payroll taxes with can easily exceed $1,000, a tax they do not have to pay currently.

Employers will now be paying for the health insurance AND an additional tax of $1,000. Many employers will stop paying for health insurance because it will cost too much, therefore making the employee pay for the health insurance out of their own pocket.

Explain to this CPA how this is a good deal for either the employee or employer?

I thought Republicans didn't like taxes. Why does their plan include a new tax?

Is this like Palin, claiming to lower one tax while simultaneously increasing another?

Sounds like yet another Republican shell game.

As a person with cancer, after really investigating McCain's healthcare plan, I nearly fell out of my chair. It stinks. At some point, all the healthy workers would leave their employer-sponsored healthcare plan, and an employer would be left with older, sicker workers. My healthcare would be taxed to essentially benefit the people who could leave the system and get healthcare out in the marketplace, while I cannot leave my group coverage, because no insurance plan would insure me. And, at some point, alot of employers would simply drop healthcare as a benefit, because premiums would rise dramatically with a risk pool full of people like myself. Also, I really don't believe a tax credit of $2,500 and $5,000 respectively will pay for an individual policy out there in the marketplace. Another example of a plan supported by McCain that shows no real understanding of the private marketplace, since McCain himself has been taken care of his entire career by the federal government (military VA benefits and federal employees insurance).

These are the types of issues that John McCain should be attending to rather than throwing the same pieces of gum against the wall that was thrown 4-5 months ago & hoping they'll stick. They've tried to make Bill Ayers stick, it didn't. Now they're going to dig up Jeremiah Wright. I thought McCain wanted to move forward. Desperation is a powerful thing, makes you do things you wouldn't normally do. If McCain is such a maverick, he would tell his party to grow up.

Finally working class people are realizing (slowly) that the GOP is not the party w/ the best interests of working people in mind! Some stragglers remain like Joe the Plumber. He might vote against Obama, but I can guarentee you it's because of taxes!

Dee Tee Gee: "Now they're going to dig up Jeremiah Wright."

No they're not. McCain said that one was out of bounds...

Well, just caught myself. As though McCain's word has any meaning.

dem in Chicago: "He might vote against Obama, but I can guarentee you it's because of taxes!"

And then only because he doesn't understand taxes - the policies we have now nor the policies proposed by Obama.

why doesn't Obama help them get their message out, by meeting w/ them and making some TV ads?

Jeez I can not believe all the things Obama has let McCain evade.

Another wimpy Democratic candidate.
No stones. Doesn't even defend himself.

He should be up 20 points and he is up 3.

When he loses this elelction it will wind up as one of the great disasters in U.S. history

Why aren't I seeing these ads in Minnesota and Wisconsin?
I was in Montana recently and I didn't see any good ads their either.

He should be up 20 points and he is up 3.

*************************************

Really? It is nearly 6 on average.

powmadeak47 ,

Don't be such a sucka for the polls, which by the way are specifically designed to sculpt public opinion.

NOTE TO BRAIN: This is going to be a landslide.

So, don't get caught up in the polls by following Ouiji board numbers.

POTUS OBAMA - IT'S A LOCK

"He should be up 20 points..."

And if he was up by 20, the Republicans would say he should be up by 30... why can't Obama close the deal?

All this blather aside, right now McCain is holding his own in Florida and Ohio, but in real danger in North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada and Missouri.

McCain needs to win all these states.

He's down by 10 in three polls in Virginia, down by around 5 in Colorado, Nevada and Missouri, and running even in North Carolina. Additionally, early voting in North Carolina is very heavy, and for whatever reason, most analysts are thinking that's a bad sign for McCain.

So all this discussion about which candidate is beating the spread sounds a little silly. People are voting, and the winner will be the one who gets to 270 first. Doesn't matter if you get to 271... just get to 270 and you're in.

Nat, it will be a lock when Obama gets to 270. Only two weeks - I suggest we assume nothing.

McCain still has a scenario left in which he can win. He holds everywhere he's up, and wins everything once considered a toss-up, even the ones now considered by some to be leaning Obama.

Its not likely, but let's not assume it isn't possible.

(To the theme of the Beverly Hillbillies)

Come listen to a story about a man named McCain
Decided to run for President but forgot to bring his brain.

And then one day he was losing in the polls
So he brought in a woman hoping to smell just like a rose.

Sarah that is, Palin..............Alaskan Governor..........Hockey Mom

Well the next thing you know John's polls began to rise
But when he thought he had them, there came a big surprise
He thought he could win with just Wright and Bill Ayers
But the economy tanked and the country got the scares.

Stocks plummet.................401k's gone...........

Well they lost the debates in the view of peoples eyes
There message was off base but they kept spreading lies.
Joe the Plumber, ACORN and Socialism became their main selection
Which ended up costing them this 2008 election.

Bad Choice.................. Stick to the real issues.

Great post Paul,

In essence, McCain is trying to save a toe in PA, but losing his whole leg in North Carolina. Add another leg in Virginia. An arm in Colorado. The other arm in Nevada.

There you have it!

"The Headless McChicken"

HE WILL CRUSHED via both popular vote and electoral. First and only landslide POTUS election this generation.

POTUS OBAMA - IT'S A LOCK!

By the way, Politico reported today that an unnamed McCain staffer said Nevada and Colorado were "gone."

The RNC countered that report, saying McCain will contest those states.

No surprise. He has no choice. Because if that staffer is correct, then Obama will surpass 270.

Ad misleadingly accuses John McCain of taxing health insurance for the first time, leading to the largest middle-class tax increase in history. In reality, the tax code will subsidize -- not tax -- health insurance both before and after the McCain reforms.

It is true that the reform will make that subsidy more fair -- providing the same help to rich and poor regardless of the source of their insurance. This is a powerful way to reduce the number of uninsured, which is why even Sen. Obama's own economic policy adviser has advocated for a refundable tax credit like the one proposed by Sen. McCain. And there is no tax increase.

A final ad accuses Sen. McCain of sending the tax credit straight to insurance companies. American families can choose which policy best fits their family, and the insurance company that provides it. At that point, the funds will be transferred to the insurance company of their choice.

The flood of distorting ads is apparently intended to change the subject from Barack Obama's plan. He will mandate that parents cover their children and fine them if they don't. He will mandate employers provide the insurance Barack Obama dictates, or face a fine if they don't. He refuses to explain either fine, and his top health adviser recently told the Wall Street Journal that they have no plans to come clean before the election.

Barack Obama's plan will cause almost 50 million Americans to lose the health coverage they currently have. It has been estimated to cost more than $240 billion annually -- a financial burden of more than $3,000 per American family.

When the kids and employees are forced into the government-run plan, America will be closer to the government-run, single-payer health-care system Barack Obama has said he wished America had.

Health care reform is too important an issue to limit to 30 second sound-bites. But when a presidential candidates' plan does as much damage to the existing health-care system as Sen. Obama's, it's understandable why he would want to avoid talking about it.

Cmon Paul,

McCain has to win OH, PA, NC, VA, CO, IA, FL just to keep the race tight and down to the last vote!

He's not looking to win any of these AT ALL! Ok, I'll GIVE him PA and he won't win it!

Still, 1 out of 7 when you need 7 looks dismal, which it is FOR MCCAIN.

I SAY AGAIN..POTUS OBAMA - IT'S A LOCK!