Obama and Clinton tax plans compared

In this season of round-the-clock boxing coverage of the Democratic nomination battle, the policy story has become more than ever an endangered species. Alison Fitzgerald and Matthew Benjamin of Bloomberg News have filed a good one today comparing the tax proposals of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Highly recommended. 

"The two candidates' plans -- especially Clinton's -- would further complicate a tax system that experts say is already Byzantine," they write. "Obama would tweak and augment current laws, while Clinton would introduce even more rules by adding at least nine new credits with complex qualification requirements, phase-outs and sliding scales."

Bottom line: Obama's proposal would reduce the tax burden on the poor and restore an element of progressivity to the code; Clinton's centerpiece is tax credits geared to particular activities (e.g., bearing the cost of caring for elderly relatives).

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