McCain: McCain has had a mixed record on efforts to reduce taxes, mostly over concerns about a growing federal deficit. He has been a leading crusading against excessive government spending, especially against earmarked projects sometimes called "pork barrel spending."

He has said he would repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax and supports extending the Bush tax cuts, which are set to expire in 2010. However, he originally opposed Bush's tax cuts. On controlling excessive spending, McCain says he would seek a line-item veto to veto specific items on spending bills. He says he would also publicize the names of big-spending lawmakers.

Quote: "Pork barrel spending is an insult to taxpayers, a waste of public resources, and an abdication of our leaders' responsibility to be good and honorable stewards of the public treasury."

Obama: Obama says he will cut taxes for the middle class, but would repeal the Bush income tax cuts for those who make more than $250,000. He has supported increasing some taxes on private equity and hedge fund managers.

Obama also supports a new Social Security tax on incomes above $250,000, a "windfall profits" tax on oil companies; a $4,000 annual college tuition credit for those who commit to national or community service programs; and an end to income taxes for elderly people making less than $50,000 a year. He says ending Bush's tax cuts and ending the war in Iraq would help pay for his programs.

Quote: "When it comes to the middle-class tax cuts. that is something that I believe is absolutely necessary to strengthen an economy that is going to be sliding, probably, into a deeper recession."