John McCain’s plan for our economy is far superior to Barack Obama’s. Obama’s plan includes raising taxes for the rich and lowering taxes for the poor and middle class, which he says will yield a net tax cut — the revenue from the taxes on the rich will not entirely offset the tax cuts for the poor and middle class. He also plans to give one thousand dollars to American families as an emergency energy rebate, which he will pay for with a windfall profits tax on oil companies. Of course, with gas prices — and therefore profits — falling, this tax may not yield as much as planned.

In addition, Obama plans to give up to five hundred dollars to each American worker with his “Making Work Pay” tax credit. He then plans to eliminate income taxes for all seniors making less than $50 thousand dollars per year. And finally, he will contribute another $50 billion for the “State Growth” and “Jobs and Growth” funds.

By Obama’s own numbers (assuming 75 million families, 150 million working Americans, and 7 million seniors saving $14 thousand a piece), this puts 2009 revenues almost $300 billion dollars under current revenues. And this doesn’t even take into account the overall net income tax cut, nor the fact that raising taxes for the rich will inevitably hurt the economy. The $700 billion dollars we recently spent isn’t going to make things any easier, either. And Obama will expand, not cut America’s social programs, as one would expect from one of the most liberal senators in congress. This isn’t a plan. It’s just a bunch of baloney designed to make us vote for him.

John McCain on the other hand, plans to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent, phase out the alternative minimum tax, and give a tax credit to businesses equal to 10 percent of their research and development expenses. McCain’s economic plan primarily targets businesses as a way to boost the economy, rather than pandering to the majority (the poor and middle class) for votes.

McCain also plans to lower barriers to trade and turn unemployment benefits toward retraining, relocating, and assisting workers who have lost their jobs, which will help to boost the economy through increased employment.

When it comes to the economy, John McCain’s plan is the better of the two, simply because it is the only realistic approach.

— Blake Hasenmiller is a senior in industrial engineering and economics from DeWitt