Does this mean that all the companies receiving the bailout won't have to pay taxes on it?

G6, G7, G8, come on all these characters that are tied to American economy are worried. With an Obama presidency there is a likely hood to do away with the Federal Reserve System, then follow the basics of the Constitution, here the Congress really in control of the money operations of the country.

This is an age that is resilient to an extent that Bush and Company don’t realize. The Small Business Administration could be expanded as Obama has suggested. Small money order business could essentially do easy banking for the electorate. Also support the any cash choked payroll system very easy to by pass the fat cats. Heck even the Postal System could possibly be converted to a revenue system to eliminate the central banks. Now that is a nightmare for the Wall Street biggies.

Here, also the Jekyll Island guys now find the American public is not giving money. Actually using the money as an investment as Obama has specified in several rallies. Here, the fat cats are going to have to pay all monies with interest. In this new age and economy the way it should be the American people will get a return with a substantial interest rate. Any time our president needs to dip into the current definition of the so called free market Federal Reserve it will be paid back. More over all monies previously loaned and not repaid are highly and likely going to be called.

McCain seems to be out of touch with reality. I guess being wealthy one is not affected as much by this economic meltdown like average people are, so he doesn't know how bad it is for so many people. Hence the proposal for cut in Capital Gains tax!

...and how are either of those policies "aimed directly at the middle class"?

Yeah, the taxes on those massive capital gains are really likely to be a killer this year. My husband tells me that the (modest) trust fund he's set up for the children has had a massive gain of -30% over the past year. And we've decided that it's better not to even talk abut his retirement fund...

"Because what everyone is really worried about right now is how they'll manage to pay the taxes on their massive capital gains."

Yeah..., I agree.

Someone has capital gains??? On what??? What on earth isn't down right now except for maybe gold or possibly treasuries?

It seems I worry more about capital gains with a Democratic administration than I do with a Republican one. With a Democratic administration, it is like..., how much money did I make, and how much do I owe in taxes. With a Republican administration, it is like..., how much money did I lose.

Because what everyone is really worried about right now is how they'll manage to pay the taxes on their massive capital gains.

Every day that passes, it seems as if these people are either more and more insane or a new species destined for an evolutionary dead end.

So, when is Sarah Palin going to announce she has 'family problems' back home and she has to drop the race for the Vice Presidency and besides she's kinda gettin' creeped-out by the old geezer.

Oh, and by the way, she can take all those scary hate-filled screamers with her, so they can create their own special militia in the wilderness of America.

Cutting taxes on capital gains when the market is tanking is a brilliant idea that could only have been devised by a maverick ex-POW. If investors weren't so frightened about paying taxes, they'd be trying to make money instead of losing it.

I'm making millions on my 401k and m 403b right now, so thanks McSame. I was SO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O worried about what I would do with all those profits and capital gains right now. You are my hero!!! True stud to all us hockey-moms. Truly American. You beth'cha, what a maverick! Oh my god, like Joe 6packs everywhere are so-ooo worried about all their profits right now. Johnny rotten, you are the thinking man's thinking man. And more tax cuts during war time too. Just what we need have less money to 'support the troops!".

McCain's a better pilot than economist.

Oddly enough, there is an issue for a few of us. When you reach 70 1/2, you have to start taking disbursements on IRAs. The disbursement is a percentage based on life expectancy and the percent is based on the value of the account as of, I think, Dec. 30 in the year previous to the disbursement. If between Dec. 30 and June 30 your IRAs have taken a huge hit, you will have to take a much larger percentage than is in fact prudent and lock in losses. I don't think they are taxed as capital gains. But when McCain announced he wanted to do something about this problem, I paid attention. This is a very small group of people because hardly anybody was born in 1938 ... 1937 was not much of a year for baby-making.

Desperation smells worse than overripe Taleggio. And even less satisfying.

Is there anyone who has capital gains to declare? Let alone anyone in the middle class!

Whoa, a Republican is proposing to cut capital gains taxes? That's a shocking potentially game-changing proposal!

jhill, they're taxed as income, not capgains. The IRA was built with deferred income tax and subject to that tax upon withdrawal. My mother's been doing that for eight or ten years now. It's a sliding scale based on actuarial tables for life expectancy. The older you are, the larger the percentage you have to withdraw, as you say.

Please, please, please do this Mr McCain! In the dumbed down, easiest to understand version of the meltdown, its those 'greedy capitalist, wall street bankers' who f'ed this all up (except in the knuckledragger world where its the 'darkies' and 'foreigns' who caused it). And who gets cap gains tax breaks (in middle America average Joe mindset)? Why those same 'greedy capitalist, wall street bankers'. So just another give away of taxpayer money to the same guys who created this mess. How tone deaf can McCain be? Seriously.

But, McCain is in a absolutely no win situation in regards to the economy. If he goes populist, he loses the mouth breathing chamber of commerce, club for growth people. And he still loses the sane 'intellectual' fiscal conservatives because they wont trust him to be able to effectively do anything. And if McCain sticks to the republican ideology (as these ideas seem to show is his intention), well, slaughter would be too kind a word of what his electoral projections would be.

McCain had one shot in this election, and the celebrity BS of the summer and Palin killed it. He had the press IN THE TANK on the honor theme and the experience theme. If he had actually played it straight, stayed above the fray and actually stood up to the fundies of the right (I mean, who are the fundies going to vote for anyway, how hard would it be to stand up to them) and picked a sensible, experienced, drama-less VP, he could have possibly made this race really, really tight.

No drama (where McCain should have gone) against no drama (where Obama has placed his stake in the ground since the beginning) and the media and boring-ness of the race would have brought it to a dead heat.

But McCain, that maverick, had to get all mavericky and he panicked at every chance where he should have been calm and he screwed himself hard.

Lie down with dogs.....

It's all clear to me, people. We are getting the "trickle down" brand of economic relief. I am quite amused by "Trickle Down" theory.
a.) give money to rich people
b.) ???????
c.) a chicken in every pot
This has been a test. In the event of a real emergency. . .?

Only a Republican would float a capital gains tax cut as middle class tax relief. What about a temporary payroll tax reduction? Or a tax credit as Obama has proposed as part of his standard economic package - just with higher a phase out income?

Don't let's forget that this capital gains issue is important to those earning "carried interest." It will be interesting to see, if Hon. Sen. McCain rolls this out, if some study is done on the hedgie CEOs who will be rewarded by such a proposal, as, you know, their so popular these days. Maybe his best bud Sen. Gramm can come out of hiding to regale us with tales of why this makes economic sense.

Sarah Palin and Dick Chaney need to go hunting together.

As a defense of cutting capital gains taxes, when you want money to flow into the market and not out of it, this would create a tiny incentive for someone to buy now, when they think the market is at the bottom.

However, I do realize that this is the Republicans' standard solution to anything, and I don't for a moment believe it was proposed to fix any kind of problem.

Because what everyone is really worried about right now is how they'll manage to pay the taxes on their massive capital gains.

Talk about out of touch. Any one who has taken big hits in the stock market is not worried about capital gains. They're worried about capital losses -- and they are bitching and moaning about the $3000 maximum amount that can be taken as a tax deduction each year.

You betcha, doggonit.

Capital gains tax cuts will help a lot of working and middle class people. They will also help a whole LOT of retired and nearly retired people.

They may not have millions in the stock market, but a good many of them do have some money there. Obama's plans to tax the hell out of any of their gains is going to hurt.

In spite of that, a good many people will still vote for him, against their own economic self interest, but for the good of the country.

jhill

You can transfer in kind(not cash) the percentage that have to be disbursed to a taxable account, that way you can get up to $3000 of deductions in capital losses. However it doesnt seem like McCains camp was aware of this !!! Talk about clueless.

Hari

The problem right now is no one knows where the bottom is - every morning on CNBC a bunch of people come on and say the market has found its bottom, and guess what at the end of the day the market is down from anywhere between 100 - 700 points !!! THe problem with this market is not capital gains taxes, it is fear and most middle class investors will NOT invest in this climate, regardless of what McCain and his bunch of fools say!!