Baseball, Apple Pie, the Flag…

“The Real Scoop On Palin’s Staged Town Hall Meeting — Another Pretend Moment!
So, what was the catch? Unlike most town-hall events, which are open to the public, include diverse crowds, and no one needs an advance invitation, this event was for ticket-holders only. And the only way to get a ticket was through the local Republican Party, after an advance RSVP. No wonder Palin was prepared to play “stump the candidate” — it was a very friendly crowd that had no interest in testing her.
It doesn’t exactly sound like a vote of confidence in the candidates’ ability to answer tough questions, does it?”
How long will the GOP continue to get away with lying, cheating and deceiving the American people?

Why so sad Joe Biden? Don’t feel good about lying? Poor Joe’s conscience is bothering him.

“this [Palin]event was for ticket-holders only.”

now that is where the straight talk express went when the Mccain camp traded it out for the new one from Charles Keating and the deregulation lobby.

How patriotic is Biden? He’s not very charitable. Didn’t he donate 5 bucks? Not very patriotic. Pathetic. Hell, I give more than that & since I don’t make 250 thou we considered po’.

Sounds like taxation without representation… should we be getting ready for our version of the Boston tea party…be patriotic, pay more taxes…stupidest thing I have heard this whole campaign…and that’s saying something!

Why didn’t Joe go to Beverly Hills the other night and tell them to their face?

geevill, for all you people make fun of ‘hollywood liberal elites’, they are some of the few wealthy people who ARE willing to do their part. they know their taxes will go up and still support obama. why? it’s the necessary policy for the ongoing situation.

bout darn time somebody told it like it is without blinking…..just a return to the way it used to be on the upper tax rate….GO JOE!

” … not one trying to line his own and his friends pockets.”

If you raise the capital gains tax and go on a spending spree, we will have a future that will make the Great Depression look like a Hollywood soiree.
A big part of Obama’s platform has been spreading the wealth and spending on new social programs. When the jelly jar is about empty, the peanut butter is too.
I suggest the left step away from it mad embrace of The Great Get Even and start thinking about a steady measured reconstruction of the American economy.
There is no magic bullet. Only hard work and staying home instead of spending money we don’t have for things we don’t need. Instead of thinking you can rob Peter to pay Paul, make Wal-Mart eat the pain. Tell the Chinese you don’t need cheap percolators. Tell the Saudis you can drive a car full to church on Sunday by picking up a few neighbors. If you’re Methodist, drop off some Baptists. It won’t rub off. If you’re Catholic, drive some Presbyterians.
Get Dads to fix your friend’s cars. Get friends to paint your Dad’s house.
Adapt. It is the American Way.

I would be all for a blanket tax on all people to pay for war efforts… but to tax one portion to give to another – IN THE NAME OF PATRIOTISM! Get real Joe. It’s always easier giving away other peoples money, isn’t it. But for someone who espouses self sacrifice during difficult times – it seems more than hypocritical that he gave to charity less than 1% annually in the past ten years.
Just your average Joe… “let someone else pay for it.”

obama is proposing more or less the reagan tax plan. as a percent of gdp, they are equal. reagan was a socialist?

What Biden says is directly from the Communist Manifesto!! Read it and learn about the enemy Obama/Biden of the US

Thank you Senator McCain for proving once again you only care about the top 5% of the country.
Independent groups have all come out and said Obama’s tax plan is more beneficial to 95% of the country than McCain’s plan.
The major media have shown what the tax plans would do for Americans. Fact is McCain can’t stop lying.
Senator McCain’s history of demanding deregulation have come back to haunt Americans. His economic deregulation is responsible for the worst crisis since 1929. A crisis that demanded regulation. Too bad elitist McCain doesn’t care about anyone with less than 7 houses.

Joe Biden? Isn’t he the guy who gives less than half of one percent of his United States Senator’s salary to charity? Apparently, though, to the Senator, it’s only patriotic if the government TAKES the money from you.
Forgive me for disagreeing with the stingy Senator, but I think it is much more patriotic to give money to private charities that are actually accountable for the money they receive. That is the honorable, and yes, patriotic, way to help your fellow Americans, not using the endless powers of government to take what it wants and leave you the leftovers. Here’s the video:

Why did Palin claim last night in a interview that she asked her girls’ opinion before she accepted the nomination and just last week told Gibson she did not hesitate when asked.
Why does the McCain timeline for the Palin selection & introduction have the kids flown to OH under the guise of their parent anniversary only to be told when they arrived what was going on?
Why did Palin just lie about her family?
Why does she lie so easily and often?

“careful len. the repubs call that the ‘jimmy carter sweater’. to the right, conservation is unpatriotic.”
I could care less what the republicans or the democrats think. It matters that America take care of herself and not get distracted by the blame game and cults of personality.
WE bought the SUVs. WE took out the loans. WE’re all guilty. So you can put on a hair coat or you can help you’re neighbor paint his house and he can return the favor. That is how this country was built. Don’t let either party take that away from you.
This is no longer about the election. It is about rebuilding our culture into one we can be proud of. There are lots of dimensions to that and plenty of work for all of us to do publicly, privately, personally and spiritually.
Anyone who tells you other “doesn’t get it”.

When I first read this post, I thought.. “Oh God.. Biden put his foot in his mouth again”..
But when I watched the video, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Biden was telling the truth! Barack will raise taxes on those making $250,000 or more by letting the Bush tax cuts expire.
But, they would still be paying LESS than they did under Reagan. Basically going back to the rate in the Clinton years when everyone was doing just fine.
If the McCain camp has a problem with that then that’s very disturbing because under Obama’s plan I would receive 3 TIMES MORE of a tax CUT, than under McCain.

I TOTALLY agree with Biden. Hell, I make less than that and I’m happy to pay my taxes. If I’m asking soldiers to put their lives on the line, then I can damned well pay a bit more. Let’s see, I think I can do without a new Japanese flat screen TV if that’ll keep our boys alive.
Republicans always want something for nothing, like the magic fairydust is going to come out of the markets and pay for highways, wars, healthcare, NASA, the FDA…
We’re at war. Why do the rich people need a tax cut??? The old McCain was against this, but now he’s just another tired old Republican bum.
Republicans = the ME FIRST party

When the chips are down, there are always a few rich guys out there to shake a fist at – especially if it has a modicum chance of scoring a few brownie points.

Obama didn’t fight corruption in Chicago
and is not fighting it in his own party right now.
Charlie Rangel is in charge of our tax dollars–and has lied and cheated on his own taxes.
The do-nothing Congress, and the all-talk candidate can’t even clean up their own party.
Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Rangel in charge of our finances and our country?

McCain, who has snidely referred to Obama meeting with our enemies, today was unwilling to commit to meet with the leader of a European democracy and a member of NATO (Spain).
That is if he actually understood the question.
John McCain repairing our image around the world!

Tungsten,
That’s a nice sentiment but unfortunately you have absolutely no control over how your federal tax dollars are spent. In fact, the Constitution only requires that we pay for the federal government itself (people’s salaries, legislative and court buildings, etc.) and a common defense. That’s it. Somehow the federal government has mushroomed into the pig that it is today in spite of what its own charter dictates.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a series of check boxes on your tax form to direct your “contributions”? If so I would check one box, Department of Defense. Locally I happily donate extra money to my schools, the volunteer fire department, the police department DARE program and on an on because it improves MY community. I’m just one of many local community organizers trying to make a difference. You want to pay extra federal taxes? Be my guest, but that money would be better spent in your own community in my opinion.

“Charlie Rangel is in charge of our tax dollars–and has lied and cheated on his own taxes.”
I see your Rangel and I raise you a Cindy McCain (who failed to pay her property taxes on one of their 7 homes for 4 years)
And if that’s not enough let’s trot out the the Seven Republican Dwarfs of Corruption.
Why we have Delay, Cunningham, Doolittle, Ney, Frist, Hunter & Stevens!

McCain and Palin have forgotten what the Government asked the Rich to do during WWII.
Paying Taxes was considered to be a Patriotic Duty back then.

Uh, has anyone else noticed that China’s about to buy J.P. Morgan, and the governement has opened the rest of our financial institutions to a fire sale?
A little tax increase isn’t even going to be noticable when no one has a job at all, and the dollar isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
What a mess. Obama/Biden’s best selling point is that they ain’t the Republicans, including McCain, who got us into this horror show.

Biden:
In case you don’t like our tax plan, then you should vote for Barack because he is black and that is transformative in itself.
How can BO give tax cuts to 95% when 40% do not even pay taxes–call it what it is Welfare.

I as well as 99.99999999 percent of others who served in the military didn’t make over 250,000 yet look at the sacrifices we have made for this country. Those that those who do make over 250,000 should realize that
Also, if the middle class don’t have money to spend, business will fail anyway.
Ask yourself…. why do we send out stimulus assistance in times like these…. TO CREATE BUSINESS and JUMP START THE ECONOMY. Why not make that a contiuous effore in the form of tax breaks for the middle.
Time for some trickle up economics.
Wise up Republicans, your argument don’t hold water. Nobody is taking your money. And if it is, I don’t hear the same level of contempt against all the BILLIONS being sent out now to save THE growing list of mega businesses going belly-up.
Another thing. For all you delusional people that love to blame the mortgage crisis on folks who purchased too much house, how about looking at the PROFESSIONALS who approved these loans.
If you had to get a kidney taken out and your doctor took out the wrong kidney… would you expect the doctor and the insurance company to blame you because you wanted to LIVE like everyone else?????

“Paying Taxes was considered to be a Patriotic Duty back then.”
Senator McCain (as opposed to candidate McCain) called the Bush tax cuts irresponsible in a time of war.

Did anyone see the new voter registration numbers?
250K in Maryland
280K in Virginia
400K in Nevada
500K in Indiana!
McCain is toast!

“Tax revenues attributed to capital gains have nearly doubled since Bush’s captial gains tax cuts in 2003″
Why do Republicans love out of context statistics?
The reduction in the capital gains tax rate from 20% to 15% in 2003 did not result in an increase in revenue over the course of the business cycle. In 2000 receipts totaled $119 billion, which equals $143 million in 2007 dollars. In 2007, they totaled $122 billion. That’s a 15% decline.

The outrageous part about this quote, and liberalism generally, is that reducing expenditures isn’t mentioned. The amount of money wasted by the govt, by both parties, is shameful…18 billion a year on the Dept. of Education…that doesnt hire teachers, pay their salaries, maintain schools, etc…when private schools get along fine is just one example. (As if local schools can’t set curriculum goals themselves!)
Not to further hammer the point about education, but over the years we’ve dumped even more billions in to this dept…and test scores are completely static.
When I hear about Obama’s 864 billion in new spending, I just groan, because alot of that money will have no direct effect, other than to further indenture poor people to sucking on the government’s teat.

Yes I agree with him. Rich people need to pay up.

“Did anyone see the new voter registration numbers?”
ACORN hard at work …
Unfortunately I agree with you Ryan, McCain is toast. Obama finally has his issue, a world wide financial crisis, and McCain voted to repeal Glass-Steagall. Not good. Of course Clinton signed it and many, many Washington insiders reaped the benefits like Clinton’s DoL guy Robert Reich, now with Citigroup but I’m sure that’s too tangential for most people to understand.
McCain is flopping around like a fish out of water and Obama can point to some failed attempts at passing mortgage regulation legislation. Neither one looks stellar but at least Obama can say, “I told you so”. Just wondering, Ryan, how come Obama couldn’t get any of that passed into law with his own party at the helm?

Woody;
I donate 10% of my income to local causes, and I’m still delighted to pay my taxes. And I think Bush’s tax breaks for the wealthy need to go.
Gov’t needs to be held accountable – I also think that fiscal responsibility in government is crucial. THIS is why the McCain/GOP agenda is totally repellent! Republicans just spend and spend and spend, without any sense of how to pay for it. McCain’s plans are a real budget buster.
Dems say “look, we’ve GOT to find a way to pay for this!”, recognizing that the GOP strategy has failed. Insisting on paying the bills will help make government more thrifty, rather than the deluded McCain “PARTY ON!!” attitude.
Come on, man.

This from a guy that donates “hundreds” of dollars per year to charity (roll eyes). Hey Mr. Biden – I make like a fraction of your Senator’s salary, and I donate more cash then you each year!!!
I’ll be very patriotic w/ my donations if that’s OK w/ you. But I’ll decide where they go, not some Washington beurocracy. Keep your laws off my wallet!!

WHAT — in the present, not the baloney-futures peddled by Obama and Biden — are those PRESENTLY poor supposed to feed themselves?

Woody: “Tax revenues attributed to capital gains have nearly doubled since Bush’s captial gains tax cuts in 2003″
Wrong.
Economist have attributed that particular doubling in revunues to the housing boom.

The Republican rich are indeed
unpatriotic. They balk at paying
a little more in taxes – still
lower than what they paid under
Reagan as Biden pointed out -
to provide some relief to the
middle class.

“James Johnson as advisor, former chairman and chief executive of Fannie Mae, and managing director with Lehman Brothers.”

“Economist have attributed that particular doubling in revunues to the housing boom.”
Really? Got a name or two? Which economists? They should lose their licenses because according to Ryan revenues actually declined.

Sooo …. in a Liberal’s point of view, it’s patriotic to accept higher taxes, giving money to an extremely inefficient beurocracy …. but it’s not patriotic to support the troops??
Thank you God for making me a conservative!!
Libs – keep your laws off my wallet!!

jpt quotes Biden:
“We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people.”

Tungsten,
Come on, man, yourself. They ALL spend and spend. Be honest. When Gramm-Rudman expired budgets started spiraling out of control again. BTW, I’m not a Republican so those tirades don’t bother me.
Are you in favor of a flat tax?

I had to read this as these are three words I WOULD NEVER ASSOCIATE WITH BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA. Seriously, baseball, apple pie and the flag? How about basketball, arugala, and the African/Indonesian flag? As a member of Trinity for 20 years, Obama had to pledge an unapologetic allegiance to Africa, the mother land….I wonder if he puts his hand over his heart when pledging that allegiance?
COUNTRY FIRST – McCAIN/PALIN

JohnTX,
Ah, so correlation does not imply causation? Fine, I’ll go along with that. So then how do measure the relative success or failure of any change in tax policy? If there are too many moving parts to attribute credit (no pun intended) when we look at the data then the whole argument in moot.

Emma:
John McCain sold out to Vietnamese captors and sold out America for future gain….
see how easy it is to make stuff up…

“lower than what they paid under
Reagan as Biden pointed out -
to provide some relief to the
middle class.”

Countries who have lower tax rates, in general, are more prosperous and successful. If any liberal wants to step in and defend Western Europe as a great place to run a business, I’ll gladly listen.
Not having to pay YOUR money to another entity, after YOU earned it, frees you up to hire new employees, invest in new businesses, etc.
Liberals love to trash tax cuts, but that is the message of conservatism (before Bush went on his wild spending spree, anyway) at it’s core:
Individuals and businesses should be free to spend their own money as they see fit.
Liberalism seeks to use that money elsewhere, by either growing govt or as an entitlement.

“[Palin]initiated a windfall profits tax on oil companyprofits and returned money to the people of Alaska…”

“they picked the wrong guy.”

Belle Starr:
your cultural identity war roots are showing…
Republican ‘concern’ for the poor and middle class is well documented…. NOT….. LOL

Robin Hood might have been a good movie, but it’s a rotten tax policy.
It’s easy to think of this as “sticking it to the wealthy” but there’s a bunch of people who get caught up in this that have no deep pockets.
Two professionals in a double income family a major metro area can easily make more than $250K – add 2 kids, daycare expenses, mortgage (in a decent but not great) neighborhood, health insurance, life insurance, medical expenses, car payments, utilities, college savings, retirement savings, gas prices, emergency fund, groceries … they’re just as stretched even if living moderately and just as worried about what the future holds.
How is it right to essentially penalize people who made the effort to get educations, who make the effort to keep employed, who are trying to hava decent home/life for their kids — and tell them “well, you can cough up some more $” because others have it worse off?
Are we now in a race to the bottom, where no one can be better off than the worse off person?

Woody;
I agree that all politicians tend towards greater spending, but the GOP has been by far the worst because they’re too gutless to figure out a real way to pay for it. And look at the two spending plans: McCain’s puts us far deeper in the hole.
I don’t mean to imply you’re a republican. I am so, so sorry to insult you like that. The point is, there are two parties, and it’s time to throw the GOP out. I’ve voted republican, including for Reagan.
The best way to fix the Republican party is to pitch them out on their fat, lazy kiesters for a few cycles.

JohnTX,
When did it become the govt’s job to elevate people out of poverty?
It comes down to a thing called personal responsibility, friend.
If you aren’t forced to earn for your family because the govt. is handing you money every month, what’s your incentive to better yourself?
My family had food stamps when I was a kid, and I said to myself my kids would never know that shame.

hate to say this, but if Clinton were the nom, she’d have a 10-point lead right now, and this latest crisis would be the nail in McCain’s coffin.”
Based on what?
Obama outperformed her in head to head polling vs McCain throughout the primary.
Obama has proven himself to have the far superior fundraising and ground game operation.
Its that ground game that has expanded the electoral map putting states into contention while Hillary would have been stuck defending the Kerry states.
Hillary can’t make the experience argument over McCain.
She ended her campaign massively in debt.
Her fav/unfav ratio is maybe even while Obama & McCain enjoy +10 to +20 fav to unfav.
Then there’s the baggage of which there is a tremendous amount of.
Couple all that with people saying over and over again that they want change and Clinton Part Deux would be lucky to be nipping at McCain’s heels in the polls.

Tungsten,
Please explain how Obama’s planned trillion dollar expenditure gets us out of debt faster than McCain.

Any readers sold their house in the last 20 years? Wasn’t it great you could keep all that money, tax free?
Guess which party made that happen?
…starts with an R….

hippie-chucker
re: ‘When did it become the govt’s job to elevate people out of poverty? It comes down to a thing called personal responsibility, friend.’
Why even bother helping the folks who are struggling now because of hurricane IKE?
they built their houses along the ocean, they knew this could happen….why should state and federal monies go to help them… they assumed the risk when they built there… let em all starve and rot if they can’t grow their own food…..they are going through the ‘shame’ of government handouts……..I mean it’s all about personal responsibility, friend.

hippie_chucker, you seem to overestimate waste in our government.
Most of your money is going to social security, medicare, medicaid and interest on the national debt (50%). Now, I imagine, being the good conservative that you are, you believe all these are evil evil programs and we should make the elderly work, let the poor children die, default on all our loans and keep all that money for ourselves.
The next largest chunk of your money is going to defense and homeland security (22%). Now, of course as a good conservative you probably would like to spend more here. Probably much more.
A decent chunk (11%) is going to unemployment and welfare. Actually welfare isn’t that big and frankly, compared to social security, it is nothing.
The rest is split into dozens of divisions. Silly things like the Department of Justice, the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture. Administration for programs like Social Security represents a tiny fraction of its actual budget (they are pretty efficient programs to run).
The vast majority of the growth in our budget is due to entitlements – i.e. money we have to send out for things like social security, not because of administrative “waste”.

“Please explain how Obama’s planned trillion dollar expenditure gets us out of debt faster than McCain.”
That fact that he will consider raising taxes vs McCain’s pledge not to is a start.
McCain says he’s cut wasteful earmark spending. Watchdog groups peg that wasteful spending at about $17B this current budget.
McCain has no plan for reducing our force in Iraq and that costs us billions every single month. I would not mind that so much if Iraq was the group that attacked us on 9/11 but they were not.
So please tell me what spending McCain will cut that will reduce the national debt.
Oh yeah you can’t because McCain hasn’t said what he plans to do. As his economic adviser said, its too early to put something down on paper.

JohnTX,
Google medical fraud in Medicare, and how the government has to pay double of triple the market costs for equipment.
That’s one example of what I’m referring to.

“We need to raise more poor people into the middle class. I have a hard time believing ignoring them like the Republican platform seems to advocate, is the best policy.”
JohnTX,
Of course we need to raise more poor people into the middle class. That’s exactly the path I’ve travelled in my life. The $64,000 question is: what’s the best way to do that?
Conservatives believe the best way the federal government can help is by promoting the most competitive environment possible for the free market system to thrive, provide jobs and so on. Liberals believe the best way to help is by direct intervention with market controls, welfare, etc. I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The 50 year War on Poverty has been an unqualified failure and Wall St. left unchecked will swallow it’s own tail as we’ve seen.
Unfortunately I think whoever wins won’t be unable to get anything done with the current mood in D.C. Reagan was able to work with Tip O’Neil, Clinton with Gingrich. It’s much better to argue about who should take credit for successes than take blame for failures. Seems like we’ve forgotten that along the way.

hippie_chucker, which of course would be fixed if we implemented a sane universal health care system instead of doing this willy nilly crap we do right now.
It isn’t just medicare that pays way too much money for health care, the *entire* US does. We pay significant more money per person than any country in Europe or Canada. Our costs are *insane*.

“Google medical fraud in Medicare, and how the government has to pay double of triple the market costs for equipment”
Does fraud not exist in the private sector?
Medicare doesn’t have to pay executive bonuses or CEO pay or advertising.
The overhead is 3 times less that than private insurance.
That is why opening up the rolls of public health plans is going to beat the private ones in the market place.

Ryan C: “Watchdog groups peg that wasteful spending at about $17B this current budget.”
I heard it is 18,3 Billion. But you should add that the current budget is over 2,9 Trillion. Even my 18,3B accounts for only 0,63% of the entire budget.

Ryan
Fraud?
you mean where companies actually BID on medical equipment? that type of fraud?
You honestly believe there are $600 hammers being bought on the free market?

These watchdog groups, they wouldn’t be the “nonpartisan” Brookings Institute, or that ilk?

Tungsten,
If Obama wins and the Dems maintain control of the House and Senate, watch out. Remember when Bush had the same advantage? How many spending bills did he veto? Zero. And you think Obama will be different because …? It looks like the Dems will indeed get their chance to run the whole show. Just pray they don’t blow it like Bush and Co. did, ya know the whole power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely thing.
I know everyone is worried about four more years of Bush but I’m equally worried about four more years of Jimmy Carter. There are actually some striking similarities in the marketplace with the late 70′s right now. High fuel and food costs, a depleated military, a credit crunch and an inexperienced leader. If we had 18% mortgage rates we would be all set!

John,
Im not defending our health care system, it needs reform. But asking the govt, to run something like this is insane….a govt. bureaucrat, with a lifetime job, is going to give a crap about you and your problems? Government is the last organization who should be stepping in when your life’s at stake.
Try calling the IRS, RIGHT NOW, and get some tax questions answered. Leave a message, and tell me how long it takes to get someone to call you back.

The McCain-Palin campaign immediately pounced.
That’s because they put their tax bracket ahead of their country.

Rex, it is very weird to have Republicans defending Palin isn’t it? I mean, she is an actual socialist governor of a welfare state.
Literally. A welfare state. Alaska handed out what, $4,000 to every man, woman and *child* this year. They don’t have income tax or sales tax. They just tax oil companies and get handouts from the Federal government.
I mean, the best Democrats came up with was a one time windfall tax – not an ongoing 25% tax on oil company net revenue.

“my sister lives in denmark…she turns down extra translating work because after the socialist govt. gets their hand on it, it’s not even worth doing”
And that way, she also helps another translator out of poverty …
I’ve lived in Europe for a long time and stories like this were popular at birthday parties but when pressed for details, they turned out to be false or extremely exaggerated.
It always concerned couples who were hoovering around a particular tax bracket: making a little bit more caused them to pay a higher tax on that extra income. But when they got the chance to make that extra bit of money, all of them took it. Their net income still increased.

Woody;
OK, let’s for a moment sweep away the precise proposals that both McCain and Obama are making for now. The reality is that Presidents have both more and less power than we think during the campaign. Reagan, for example, was effective because he had charisma and a broad vision that people got behind. These times will require a president with unusually steely nerves and CHARISMA. Perhaps this is what the Right fears: that in Obama, the moderates and liberals have their Reagan.
McCain is chaotic, reactive, and completely uncharismatic. Obama is steady, planful, and charismatic. Who will be a better president, given that both will have to govern as moderates?
My sense is that McCain’s wooden “I’ll shake things up!!!!” pitch will play less and less well in a nation that has seen too much shaking.

johnTX
agree… it is a very curious thing.
redistribute wealth under a republican heading and it’s a great American policy worthy of praise..
suggest it under a Dem heading and it’s “socialism”

I am proud on the commentators today.
Sure I am one mean sob but the exchange of ideas on this thread has been much more pleasant than recent weeks.

“Obama is steady, planful, and charismatic.”

It is the differences between the Obama and McCain administrations I’m more interested in. After all, how many campaign promises do presidents actually keep?
I trust Obama to hire smart people. His campaign isn’t full of lobbyists and seems to operate really well. His economic policies are endorsed by a majority of polled economists. His healthcare proposals, while not great, are ranked better than McCain’s.
McCain’s campaign looks like Bush’s and I’d expect his administration to look a lot like Bush’s too. God forbid anything happen to him because I don’t even want to imagine what a Palin administration would look like. That woman has cronyism written all over her.
More importantly, I do not see McCain operating very efficiently with a Congress controlled even more by Democrats. Sure he has that whole “across the aisle thing”, but he is so against any compromise on earmarks and he has essentially morphed into Bush in so many ways, that I believe he would end up just butting heads against Congress for 4 years. They say this congress is a do-nothing congress, but let’s be honest with ourselves here – there have been more fillibusters and more Presidential vetos than ever before. What we have today is a failure to negotiate. I can’t imagine a McCain administration would be any better.

JohnTx: “although every analysis I’ve read says McCain’s would be disastrous and force people who do have healthcare to lose it”
Studies say it could be 20 million.
And not only that. People who have employer based healthinsurance will see an increase in paid taxes.

Ryan C – get you facts – over 60% of the cost of medicare is overhead expenditures, just like 75% of the education budget is overhead
Government control is more wasteful then anything on earth!
The only split in this country is in Washington and from the Obama Drones!!
If Obama gets in you can see a repeat of when Stalin got in to Russia!!

Obama/Biden will they eliminate all deductions? Isn’t that the patriotic thing to do. never mind honoring the National Anthem (as Josh Howard said blacks don’t have to respect that s- word.)

“If Obama gets in you can see a repeat of when Stalin got in to Russia!!”

By the way why are they stealing Kerry’s lines of 250,000 dollars or more, by the end Kerry at it at 100,000. Obama already said he is raising taxes on everyone ah if Bush lowered taxes , as he did and Obama takes that away is that not RAISING TAXES!!!
Say NO to The LKibs, vote in the ticket that has proven to fight for the people McCain / Palin they took on Government Spending, they took on the oil companies, they took on corruption.
Obama/ Biden get donations from the Corrupt, they are corrupt. They spread racism and sexism!! and Hatred of all kinds to split the US.

hippie_chucker:
if the rest of the U.S. received what Alaskan citizens get per person, per family from the windfall profit it would certainly help with the overall economy…
with a family of 5 you would get, I believe somewhere’s in the neighborhood of a
$12,000 share per family.. that would certainly perk up the economy
I agree that they must be conservatives freaking out that Palin’s done that, but, does the republican party platform support her on this or not,….. if not, they should say so.
BTW; Belle Starr
google/yahoo ‘stalinism’ and you will come up with a pretty good description of Bush & Cheney.

Rex,
My support of domestic drilling is largely based on tax revenue and jobs…enough to bail us out of our staggering debt, so in that regard I support oil revenues.
I’ll get behind any other alternatives the same way, if they can demonstrate viability like oil, too.
Windfall profits on big oil, who’s net profit is less than Microsoft’s (7%) is pure socialism, in my opinion.

The whole coastal drilling thing is sort of silly though. No state on the western seaboard is going to approve drilling and a whole lot on the Eastern seaboard also don’t look too enthusiastic.
That leaves us with essentially Florida which seems keen.
Woo hoo, we’ll end up with 1/100th of a penny worth of new oil and maybe a thousand new jobs

People with income 250.000 $ or more ,vote Republicans on 2000 and 2004. That is what the data confirm. In that case they should be prepared to pay for the economic chaos created by Bush decisions Next time they should be more careful for who they vote.

hippie_chucker, yes, unfortunately the majority of Americans (those not living in a coastal state) have no say in the matter. The states decide if they should drill or not in the end and a lot of coastal states are showing no interest.
The bills in Congress would only allow them to drill if they wanted to.

Foreclosure,
explain Bush’s decisions and how they have let our markets unravel, comparing them with Clinton’s, since we’re making blanket statements.
Alot of this crisis can be put on the backs of Fannie and Freddie relaxing credit standards, in the pursuit of “homeownership for everyone”.
McCain sounded the alarm in ’05 in a bill, but it was killed in Dem. committee.
Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Dems who run oversight of Fannie/Freddie, each received in excess of 100k from lobbyists for Fannie/Freddie…Obama is number 2 on that handout list, btw, as well as having former CEO’s of both on his staff.

“By the way why are they stealing Kerry’s lines”
Democrats calling for taxes on the rich is somehow stolen from kerry?
So what is McCain’s tax & spend liberal sctick? A theft from Reagan?

Ok this is the gameplan everyone. The top percentage will pay a little more taxes and we retool America ok then we lift everyone ones ship from the bottom up right up to the top percentage paying a little more taxes so everyone profits. Obama/Biden have not been p….. off anyone so they can work with everyone in DC. It will still be divided in DC you see the Republicans love to block bills and the Deocrats are the majority and can’t pass to many bills. Think Team work everyone! Vote Obama/Biden!

How about the conflict when we’re crying about the economy and yet $800 million is being flushed down the toilet with this election? What if that money could be put into Wall Street or somewhere else to stimulate the economy? I do not want to hear the cry poverty line during this costly campaign. Obama can always bring in the big bucks with Hollywood Elite, tho.
Obama is back with a four point lead due to the economy….after debates those numbers will drop.

Obama is back with a four point lead …

The conservatives say that the percentage of the income you take should be a fixed number and that’s fair.
The liberals say that the percentage of the income you take should be based on how much “pain” it causes you and that’s fair.
Technically they are both right and they are both fair. So we can only go based on what is realistic. A flat tax is very much not realistic. It would cause the majority of Americans to slip into poverty and we all know what happens then – a massive increase in crime which benefits no one.

Belle Starr, that statement would only make sense if Biden was a Republican. Republican believe in a flat tax system, not Democrats.

John,
I know you don’t, but I could ask if do you believe that the poor shouldn’t have to pay, say, sales tax either, if it’s so hard for them to pay their own income taxes.
Years ago, before we had government sponsored poor people, who are supported by those of us that have had some success in life, it was an embarrassment to be poor, and people flocked to live here because it was obvious that you could do well in America.
Now, with so many living off the govt, the incentive to move off poverty is gone, and with it, large segments of population don’t even know how to get a job, or that they even need jobs.
It’s like those who didn’t evacuate Katrina-they grew up their entire lives dependent, then depended on the govt. to evacuate them, then depended on the govt. to rebuild their homes. The non dependent people, poor and rich, evacuated.
People complain about the govt. reponse to Katrina, and it was horrible-but I always tell people that is what you get when you depend on the government for direction/assistance/food, etc.

hippie_chucker, actually so we get things clear. I’m an independent. My recent Democratic leanings are entirely due to this Presidential race. Actually, normally I lean Republican or did before they started getting involved in my social life.
I actually believe we should put poor people to work. I mean, if they are going to take government handouts, they should be required to either be enrolled in school or be working and they sure as hell shouldn’t be living in the most expensive areas in the nation.
The problem is that my libertarian leanings refuse to meddle at this level.
So I essentially swing between Republicans and Democrats every year hoping that one side will trigger the poor to work for their keep and the other side will keep them from robbing me blind.
I know that’s kind of sad, but it’s true. This year however, I’m mostly for Obama for certain policies related to education which I’m all too happy to spend vast quantities of money on since I have trouble finding college graduates at this point.

johnTX,
You make some good points about flat taxes vs. graduated taxes but you omit a key point: the current tax system is graduated and rife with loopholes and crazy dodges that allow the very wealthy to escape paying taxes a rate equal to the average Joe.
What about a kinder, gentler flat tax? If we had a flat tax of say 15% that where the first 30K in income was exempt, would reason and fairness then balance out in your mind? Even though it would mean slightly more taxes for me personally I would be all for it. And I really wouldn’t feel any more patriotic, I just think it’s a much better way to go than what we have now.

People with income 250.000 $ or more, vote Republicans on 2000 and 2004. That is what the data confirm. In that case they should be prepared to pay for the economic chaos created by Bush decisions .Next time they should be more careful how they vote.
Just a minute McCain said the fundamentals of the economy are strong .Probably he was thinking about the family Business.
Was hilarious to watch Cindy McCain, when Senator McCain on his speech talks about the big salaries of the CEO’s, and how greedy they are.
The wealthy cheerleading Bush Administration for so long.
And clapping at any opportunity for the stupid war on Iraq which have create trillion of dollars in Debt, The question is. Who and how to you want think would pay for this mess. The Penguins of Antarctica?

Biden is right. We think nothing of asking our poor and middle-class to put their very lives on the line in a time of war, but we want tax cuts for the rich in a time of war to amass huge deficits to give to our grandchildren? Now, we have to bail out Wall Street because of their greed and ineptitude, but the president has threatened to veto health care for children because of cost? I understand that we need to grow the economy, but we must have balance, or our middle class will disappear. Not all policies that benefit corporations benefit the middle class.

Biden is here to make obama lose. It couldn’t have gone better if the republicans somehow planted him as the lib’ VP candidate. LOL!