First, I should tell you that my opinion is that both candidates are smoking funny cigarettes if they think a tax cut of any kind makes sense. That kind of proposal is like the family with so many credit cards that they can't get any more having the husband tell his wife, "...go ahead honey, quit your job, we can get along without that income".

But back to your post. You said, "...there is no free lunch. Obama's middle-class tax relief would have to be paid for, either now or later. Middle-class tax cuts might make sense if they were paid for by spending cuts, but that is not Obama's plan. Like his opponent, Obama points to vague savings..."

Several non-partisan "fact-checking" websites have projectged that the economic plans presented by the Obama campaign would increase the national debt by $3.5 trillion dollars by the end of the first term. However, those same analysts estimate that McCain's economic plans would add $5 trillion to our debt in four years.

Personally, I think all this is moot because the countries in the world who buy our debt (mainly China, Japan and to a lesser extent the EU) have neither the capacity nor interest in continuing to fund U.S. deficit spending by continuing to buy our Treasury bonds and bills. I don't place much emphasis at all on the tax cut plans by either candidate because it's impossible for either plan to happen! If anything will be necessary, it will be massive cuts in federal spending and maybe even a tax increase.The U.S. simply has very little additional borrowing capacity and a very sick economy. Much of this campiagn posturing by both candidates is nonsense as far as I'm concerned.