I’m not very political on this blog, usually politics and the Internet are not a good combination that result more in name calling than actual conversation.
That being said, I found a neat little website that breaks down the financial impact of the 2012 presidential candidates. It’s called Politify, it’s a non-partisan site that bases its forecasts on the candidate’s official policy platforms, as listed on their web sites, BarackObama.com and MittRomney.com.
Sounds pretty cool, right?
I gave it a shot and the site tells me that the net change to my income in 2015 would be $6,646 if Obama were reelected and $9,201 if Romney were elected. That’s a difference of $2,555, which I obviously would like to have, but in 3 years, maybe it that amount won’t be the biggest deal to me.
I took a deeper look at the tax benefits that were being claimed for me from each candidate. As expected, the site says that Romney would give me $9,200 in income tax benefits in 2015. That makes sense considering that Romney has proposed reducing the income tax rates by 20% from current levels.
However, Politify also indicates that I would receive $6,900 in tax benefits if Obama were elected, $4,739 in income tax benefits and $2,202 in payroll tax benefits. This doesn’t mesh with my understanding of Obama’s plan. I think that income rates would either stay the same or increase for someone in my financial situation.
The only way I see that working is based on what would happen if neither were elected (if tax rates increased back to pre-Bush levels), so I don’t think that Politify makes enough assumptions to be accurate. In relation to each other (that $2,555), their calculations may be close, but I don’t think their pure numbers are close enough to reality.
Financial aspects are far from the only consideration when deciding who to vote for in the upcoming election. However, it’s great to have non-partisan data to look at to determine which candidate will be better for you financially.
Readers, what do you think of the Politify application? Would you use the tool in helping to determine who to vote for?
I think the app is pretty neat but it’s not going to help me choose who to vote for. A lot more goes into the decision, but it does give people good information to work with.
I don’t know how they can figure the taxes under Romney as he hasn’t said which deductions he’d eliminate, so you can’t tell how you would be impacted.
Ira
As I kind of already knew, my finances wouldn’t be impacted much in that short term as I’m in my late 20’s and make a very average income without any additional income sources (thought this could all change in the next couple of years). The social issues are the huge, important factor for me in this election, though I won’t start a political war by pointing out exactly which issues those are.
Neat to have the app to see the numbers side by side, but as Ira pointed out, we’re not reeeeally sure what’s going to be happening under Romney’s tax plan yet. There could be much different impacts for some people when/if that information is released.
Nice app to use for “fun” but I didn’t think I would let it choose who I should vote for. I it very disturbing that so many people are voting but don’t really know what each candidate brings to the table. Don’t just vote to vote know what its going on.