Len Burman and his staff at the Tax Policy Center have performed a valuable service by crunching the numbers in the McCain and Obama tax plans. The results are disturbing: McCain proposes to increase the deficit by more than $4.5 trillion over the next ten years. Obama is only a bit more restrained, coming in at $3.5 trillion.

You can find more detail than you will ever need at the Tax Policy Center's web site. If you want to know what all this means for someone in your income bracket, click here for Obama and here for McCain. Or, you can also click here to review a summary in the "Learn More" section of our site.

The campaigns are also far more specific on how they intend to spend money than on how they intend to save it. Obama is the worst offender here. He pledges close to one billion dollars in savings over the next ten years, but offers few specifics of how to get there. Some international tax loopholes will be closed. An international "tax haven" watch will be established. Hedge fund managers will be taxed at a higher rate. That may help, but Burman figures it won't come close to the $41 billion a year the campaign hopes to raise.

McCain turns to earmarks for savings. He also wants to broaden the amount of corporate income that is subject to taxation. These are good ideas that are likely to fall far short of the campaign's promises to pay for tax cuts by slashing spending.

This campaign is supposed to be about changing the way Washington works, but on tax and fiscal policy it is business as usual. It's a good bet the deficit is going up no matter who wins.