John Edwards provided details in Des Moines, Iowa today on his tax policy under the title “conomic Plan to Restore Fairness, Reform America’s Tax Code, & Reward Hard Work”. It has some basic tax premises that will be embraced by those on the left and heavily scorned by those on the right.

Objectives
(1) create three new tax breaks to honor and strengthen three pillars of America’s middle class: savings, work, and families
(2) require a fair contribution from the wealth of high-income Americans, reversing the shift of the tax code onto middle class wages
(3) end special tax breaks for insiders

How will he achieve it?
In short by raising taxes on wealthy Americans to pay for tax breaks (and social programs) for other Americans.

Details
Edwards specifically proposes to do the following for working class Americans:

• Creating a Get Ahead Credit, which will expand the Savers Credit to match savings up to $500 a year, providing as much as an additional dollar for every dollar of savings.
• Boosting low-income families’ savings with work bonds, which will supplement the Earned Income Tax Credit to match the savings of low-income workers up to $500 per year.
• Exempting from taxes each family’s first $250 in interest, capital gains, and dividends.
• Allowing families to deposit part or all of their child tax credit into a tax-free savings account.
• Expanding the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to pay up to 50 percent of child care expenses up to $5,000 and make it partially refundable to benefit low-income working families.
• Tripling the EITC for 4 million adults without children and cutting the marriage penalty for 3 million families.

How will he pay for this?

• Raising the top tax rate on long-term capital gains to 28 percent, the same rate signed into law by President Reagan. The 28 percent rate will ensure that high-income investors will pay taxes on their investment income at a similar rate to what regular families pay on their earned income.
• Repealing the Bush tax cuts for the most fortunate families, who make more than $200,000 a year.
• Ending the abuse of foreign tax havens.

The campaign has provided a short fact sheet.

• Closing the hedge fund and private equity loopholes.
• Capping executive pensions.