John McCain

John McCain's "Jobs for America" plan would cost $280 billion and create fewer than half a million jobs in 2009.

McCain’s health plan will hit families with a huge new tax. Currently, employer-provided health care benefits are tax exempt, a longstanding policy that has saved families thousands of dollars and helped keep health care costs from spiraling out of control. McCain has promised to eliminate this tax break, a move that could add over $1,100 to the average family’s tax bill by 2013.

The tax credit McCain claims will offset this new burden would rise only at the rate of inflation—not the rate of health care costs, which grow much more quickly—so that by 2018 a family earning $40,000 a year will be paying $2,800 in higher taxes, even with McCain’s tax credit.

The health care tax exemption does more than lower families’ tax burden; it also provides an incentive for businesses to offer health care benefits to their employees. Without the exemption, an estimated 11 million to 27 million people nationwide will lose their employer-sponsored health insurance. more »

McCain’s plan will sink anyone with a pre-existing condition. Plenty of families won’t be able to obtain health coverage at any price, since the McCain plan offers no protection for those with pre-existing conditions. That will allow insurers to refuse to cover an estimated 56 million people who have preexisting conditions such as cancer or diabetes

McCain would cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent and give corporations larger tax deductions. Big oil companies would receive an additional $3.8 billion every year under his plan—$1.2 billion a year for Exxon Mobil alone.