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Barack Obama was in Kaukauna, Wisconsin today talking about tax cuts. Surprisingly Obama used much of his speech to talk about John McCain’s tax cut plan which he described as a tax code that rewards wealth instead of work.

“We both favor tax cuts. The difference is that Senator McCain wants to continue a Bush tax code that rewards wealth; I want to reform our tax code so that it rewards work. That’s why the typical middle-class family will get three times more from my tax cut than the one John McCain has proposed, while nearly a quarter of his tax cuts go to households making over $2.8 million every year. That’s right – $2.8 million. That’s where John McCain wants to focus his tax relief in this struggling economy,” Obama said.

He also accused McCain of flip-flopping on the Bush tax cuts, “And Senator McCain once knew better. He said that he couldn’t vote for the Bush tax cuts in good conscience because they were too skewed to the wealthiest Americans, but now he wants to make those same tax cuts permanent. Later, he said it was irresponsible to cut taxes during a time of war because we couldn’t afford them, but now he’d continue running up hundreds of billions of dollars in debt while spending billions of dollars a day in Iraq. There’s nothing conservative about that.”

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Obama said that McCain’s plan is twice as regressive as Bush’s, and he has no plan to pay for it, “Because the fact is, Senator McCain is now calling for a new round of tax giveaways that are twice as expensive as the original Bush plan and nearly twice as regressive, and he has no concrete plan to pay for it.”

“He’d spend nearly $2 trillion over a decade in tax breaks for corporations, including $1.2 billion for Exxon Mobil. Think about that. While you’re paying four dollars at the pump and your children’s future is being mortgaged under a mountain of debt, Senator McCain wants to give billions of dollars in tax breaks to Big Oil, and opposes a windfall profits tax on oil companies like Exxon to help families struggling with high energy costs,” he continued.

Obama proposed a $500 tax cut for all workers, and a $1000 tax cut for families. He also wants to eliminate income taxes for those on Social Security who earn less than $50,000, and simplify the tax code. The proposals by both candidates are pretty much the standard partisan fare.

What is interesting is that so far Obama has been targeting his economic message to swing states North Carolina, Florida, and now Wisconsin. Obama is extending the definition of change to include economic change. This is smart move. Its success or failure will go a long way towards determining the fate of his campaign in November.

You can read the full speech right here.