Obama Calls Higher Income Taxes the Wealthy Will Pay Under His Plan ‘Chump Change’

Please, for someone making a million dollars a year? They probably spend that in coffee a year.

OBAMA/BIDEN = CHANGE
McCAIN/PALIN = CHUMP CHANGE

I hope you all realize that Mao Zedong, the dead Communist Leader of China, is a master of class divide.
He divided the World into 3 worlds, the First world, the Second World, and the Third world.
He divided his people into the “Working Class” of the 95% lower income group, and the “Capitalist Class” of the 5% top income group. This “Class Struggle” is at the heart of Mao’s philosophy and practice that lasted for half a century, resulting in 10s of millions dead.
Chairman Mao had a great appeal, and he succeeded in his propaganda, succeeded in taking over the power and control of the government, and succeeded his equalization of Class Divide, with an apparent “overwhelming” support of the people.
It’s like a Deja vu seeing 0bama and Mao – I will take care of you 95% the poor Class and I will take from the 5% Rich Class, spreading wealth and equalizing Class Divide.

I honestly don’t know personally anybody who makes +$250,000. I guess my friends are just “fake Americans.”

Yes, and for people who make $250,000 it’s only like $12 extra per YEAR!

These same folks spend $100,000 a week in hotel expenses.

I wish I had that problem! if you’re a millionare, that will not hurt you…

McCain calls Obama a “redistributionist” but taxes have already been “redistributed” under the Republicans. The difference is that the Republicans redistributed taxes to favor the upper income folks and McCain wants to keep the status quo.
Time for a change…
Obama/Biden ’08

Considering we all do NOT make a million, and at the current rate it does not look like we are ever going to make a million if we keep the money in the upper percentile, YES we will definitely be the judges …
President Obama ’09 …

So I guess Matt sees anyone making less than $250K per years as what? Welfare workers? Bums out on the street? Less than citizens?
We in the middle class are being PUNISHED right now and we work as hard as anyone in the top 2% (a lot of the times harder!).
We don’t have loop holes to jump through to keep our hard earned money.
So if the wealthy have to start paying their fair share…I won’t cry about it!
Vote Obama/Biden!
Vote Al Franken!
Vote El Tinklenburg!
Vote YES Minnesota!

Chump change?! The chumps are the ones voting for this doofus.
For the person making $1,000,000 a year, that $28,301 can go towards the salary of someone who might work for them.

The whole idea that I should be happy and agree with the notion that someone taking my money and giving it to someone else is the right thing to do just galls me. It is thieft, plain and simple. Obama also says he will bankrupt the coal industry. I suppose he wants the people who will loose their jobs to also be happy and “get with the program” of this wealth redistribution. BTW – if he attempts to pull off this stunt he will bankrupt America as this country runs on coal. And the list goes on.

If people do not spend, do not hire, do not have money to invest – how are we going to improve the economy, how are we going to get loans for the things people need homes, cars, and other major purchases?
We need to get the money from the weathly to charities, they can do the most good for the people that need the help, can get medical trials and experiments going, we don’t need to have more goverment.
Can we afford not do this, with more people becoming diabetic every minute, with some of the advances we have made on Cancer. With the help we have provided to countries with natural disasters. Bill Gates gets it, we need to let the weathly people help but not thru goverment. They take too much off the top for themselves.

OBAMAs I WILL BANK RUPT THE COAL INDUSTRY IS GAINING TRACTION!!!!
ABC NBC CBS IN HIDING!!!!

For the person making $1,000,000 a year, that $28,301 can go towards the salary of someone who might work for them.
Posted by: rhian
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yeah, it sure could. But for the past 8 years it didn’t.
Nobody’s buying that BS this time.
‘Cept you and Joe the fake plumber.

They were still millonians under Clinton when it was 39.6 % and there were more jobs and a surplus budget. They will survive if it goes back to 39.6 % it was before.
The only time we lost jobs is when we brought it down to 36 percent for the same people will just gave a $700 billion bailout package

Obama proposes Civilian Armed forces.. to do what? go door 2 door as part of his Thug patrol?

It’s the “ME ME GIVE ME MINE” mindset that has us on the path to looking and behaving like a third world country. We have tent cities of the homeless in our country…the land of the free, home of the brave…the greatest country in the world. We will be indistinguishable from the rest if we continue the trend.
Time to pay up…it’s the way we roll in this country…we help those who are down until they can get up, and the trend carries on. When we are ALL standing, we are unstoppable as a nation.
YES WE CAN!!
OBAMA/BIDEN ’08

It is hard to believe that the issue of Barrack Obama’s birth certificate has come this far! From Barrack Obama saying in his book “Dreams of my Father” that he was in possession of his original birth certificate, which apparently was a lie. Barrack Obama’s website posting his original birth certificate, which was a lie. To factcheck.com saying that they viewed the original birth certificate, which was a lie. The Health Department in Hawaii states they have the original birth certificate. The Health Department in Hawaii is holding the original birth certificate because Barrack Obama was adopted by Sotoreo and taken to Indonesia as a child to live and grow up. Barrack Obama was an Indonesia citizen. He had to give up his American citizenship to become an Indonesia citizen as were the laws at that time. He was known then as Barry Sotoreo, which means that Barrack Obama committed FRAUD when he signed the Supreme Court document and became a Senator for Illinois as he stated that he had NEVER gone by another name. Barrack Obama has an Indonesia passport (still does?) and used it when he should have been using a US Passport if he was a US citizen to travel some years back? Barrack Obama’s college paperwork has been suppressed probably because of filing for foreign aid as he was a citizen of Indonesia. It just goes on and on and this is the man that America is selecting to run this country. You do not even know if his allegiance is to America or Kenya. His cousin Odinga’s allegiance is to Kenya and Barrack Obama spent a week campaigning for his cousin using exactly the same words that he has been using in America—time for a change, this is our time.
24 Electoral potential College Electors are filing action TODAY in court demanding proof from Barrack Obama and yet he and his attorney’s still will not present any evidence. The “media” by not reporting the news has destroyed America

Folks,
You really should not focus on the unfortunate details that 0bama wants you to think only.
The big picture is 0bama’s Ideology of “Class Divide” and “Class Struggle”.
He is making 95% of Americans against 5% of other Americans, unlike what he preaches of a “united state” of america.
This itself is Un-America.

Does it make any difference if it is “chump change” or the difference between eating or not eating, it is the individuals money. They worked for it, they should have the say in how it is spent. If they choose to give it to charity or buy a luxury item, IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS OR THE GOVERNEMENTS!!! It is theirs they worked for it.

This line of argument is appalling. How many millionaires are we minting right now, with asset prices plummeting, jobs shedding and homes being foreclosed upon two at a time? That is the fruition of Bush policies.
Jake, you’re so busy pushing Republican arguments via yet another Republican voter (just give me a chance to ask John McCain some questions, and we’ll see just how well he comes off) that you didn’t even stop to evaluate for a second the veracity of Obama’s answer. The point is not whether or not the additional tax take is ‘chump change’. The point is that when the economy goes to hell, everyone goes with it, and the Republicans have well and truly pile driven this economy into the pavement. How is it possible that we are not spenidng the campaign disputing whether Republicans ideology is merely impoverished or manifestly bankrupt? After eight years of tax cuts and deregulation, and the worst job creation record since Herbert Hoover, and job losses ACCELERATING, that Republicans have been able to get you journalists to drink the KoolAid so throughly, is shocking. A real failure on your part.

Folks,
Ask yourself, why is it wrong you divide a White America and a Black America, but it is perfectly OK if you divide a 95% of America and 5% of America based on income?
The first is racism, which you think it’s wrong. The second is Marxism and a form of racism, which is wRight according to 0bama.

I don’t think there is any question that the salaries of CEOs are outrageous.
Still, the idea of someone actually saying that he wants to take from someone, to give to someone else, is chilling. Because so few people actually make over $250K and so many people don’t pay any federal income taxes at all, taxes will go up on everyone. It’s logical. Forget what a plan says that is not yet implemented.
The problem is that income redistribution is occuring at every level of taxation. I live in Obama’s county. I recently read that the schools in my district are not being subsidized by the state, but the schools in Obama district receive at least 35% of their funding from the state, and additional significant funding from the feds. This in a neighborhood which murders a school age child at least once a week. I don’t think my taxes are getting a good values in that neighborhood – do you?

He calls it chump change because only chumps believe him.
How is Obama going to give all those who don’t work and don’t pay taxes all those rebate checks with “chump change” AND still pay for everything else?
Chumps, indeed.
What’s he going to use to pay all those coal miners unemployment benefits after he destroys their living?

A phalanx of liberal think tanks and interest groups — anticipating a Democratic victory on Tuesday — are mobilizing to push Sen. Barack Obama to the left of his campaign positions.
In recent weeks, groups have held conferences, drafted policy papers and lobbied campaign advisers in the hope of influencing what they believe would be the most receptive administration to the political left since Jimmy Carter. The Obama campaign declined to comment about pressure from liberal policy groups.
Left-leaning activists are trying to replicate the surge of conservative interest groups under the Reagan administration that shaped Republican politics for the next three decades, staking out positions well to the left of how Sen. Obama has tried to define himself near the political center. For their part, conservatives likewise are preparing for a McCain victory.
A number of the economic and social prescriptions being pushed on Obama advisers would require greater spending that almost certainly depend on raising taxes — threatening Sen. Obama’s campaign promise to cut taxes.

Obama is correct in one respect: a tax increase on the wealthiest of us is, indeed, “chump change” when it comes to financing his multitude of new programs and handouts he desires, particularly when you consider that America can’t currently pay its bills.
Most importantly, this is not the roaring economy of the 90s, but the slumping economy of the 00s. Even increasing everyone’s tax rate to those of the Clinton years would pull in less for the government to spend.
Obama’s calculator is way out of whack. The “chump change” he comes after will be from ALL taxpayers before he’s done.

Posted by: David | Nov 3, 2008 11:33:29 AM
It’s chump change as long as it doesn’t affect those of you who do not create any jobs, but just want from those of us who do create the jobs.
It’s a Trojan horse. It’s proposed as 4%, but when Pelosi and Reid are done with it, it’ll be a lot more than 4% and it will be way lower than 250K.

Dear Anne, You’ve already lost your argument. The Hawai’i State Department of Health has ALREADY declared Obama’s birth certificate authentic! In case you want to say its all a lie, the Gov. of Hawai’i is Linda Lingle and she is a republican who hasn’t disputed the factual evidence.

Liberal logic says as long as they are taking from someone else and giving to me, it’s ok! Start taking from them and there would be heck to pay!

Steave Cuozzo : “A phalanx of liberal think tanks and interest groups — anticipating a Democratic victory on Tuesday — are mobilizing to push Sen. Barack Obama to the left of his campaign positions.”
Good luck with that. As his recent votes on the FISA bill and Patriot act show Obama is NOT bullied by the left. Ignore his pretty rhetoric and look at his almost 10 year long record in government, the laws he has written, the votes he has cast – he is certainly NOT a radical.

McCain also wants to spread the wealth. The difference is that he wants us to trust businesses and rich people to use their tax breaks to create new jobs instead of just pocketing extra money. Yeah, right–because that has worked so well in the past. “If men were angels, they would need no government.”

Tes, it is refreshing to hear someone who has a grasp of just how much money we’re talking about when there is talk of increasing the tax burden on $250,000+ taxable incomes. People don’t think that $150 is essentially 37 Starbucks coffees over the course of a year.

Conservatives are hypocrites in all aspects.
The say they want small government, but expand the US to all over the world.

That is the problem with the republicans idealogy of managing capitalism. Let the few get all and erode the middle class. America was built on an ideology of the middle class. The first country in the world to have a middle class. NO MIDDLE CLASS NO AMMERICA!!
A nation of 300 million people need some regulation otherwise the few will run wide and crazy with their greed.

“As his recent votes on the FISA bill and Patriot act show Obama is NOT bullied by the left.”
Nice try.
Obama voted for it, and then said he was really against it and he “meant” to work to remove telecom immunity.
He’s a jerk and a liar.

The top tax rate is going to be 39.6 percent – essentially 40%. This is on top of social security taxes. Lets push the tax rate to 50% for those filthy rich people.
The rich are by far worse than any of our foes around the world. If we drive the tax rate up to 60% we can get all of those filthy rich people to move to Costa Rica. That will show them.

Earned income credit was formed under Roland Regan. he is the greates socialist.
Hypocrites..

WE already have tiered tax base. It will probably NEVER change… Quite making it sound like it is UNFAIR for the first time ever! For Gods sake!!
To alter this for the benefit of tens of millions of people vs a few hundred thousand is a small price to pay!
Please Vote Obama/Biden 2008!!

OK, Marxists, I have a few questions for you.
- If spreading wealth around is so great, why didn’t Obama do that with the millions he’s made over the last few years?
- If paying that extra 4% is chump change, why didn’t he pay it on his own over the last few years?
- If conscience is so worthy, why is it Sarah Palin contributed far more of her oncome to charity than did the Obama’s over the last few years?

drjohn:
This is not about you.
This is about the vast majority of Americans who are struggling because of the mismanagment of the National Economy, through no fault of their own.
Don’t assume that your success is universal. You vote your wallet, and I’ll vote mine.
The fact that you think that “hard work” is what separates you from all other Americans who are struggling shows how high your ivory tower truly is.

Earned income credit was formed under Roland Regan administration. He is the greates socialist.
Hypocrites..

“To alter this for the benefit of tens of millions of people vs a few hundred thousand is a small price to pay!”
This is what Lenin said.
It is also what Hitler said.
How is it there are jobs that Americans just won’t do? How can that be if so many people are hurting?
Who’s lying here?
Why don’t those “hurting” people try some of those jobs “that Americans just won’t do”?

The real issue is whether revenue goes up when taxes are lower.
Cut taxes, revenues go up.
Cut spending, pay down the debt.
Sounds good to me…

“Why don’t those “hurting” people try some of those jobs “that Americans just won’t do”?” – drjohn
Hmmmmm
Maybe because many companies are laying people off and jobs are harder to find?
Could that be it Einstein?

“You mean the right to life? Not sure, but those words ring a bell with me…”
Why is it liberals have to switch conversations?
“The US has universal healthcare, it is just amazingly inefficient. Rather than getting a $20 bottle of Amoxicillian, kids take up an hour in an ER with a perforated ear drum and then $100 every couple years for a hearing aid from a clinic. Yeah, that’s smart.”
Quite the expert on health care you are.
Obama said we ought to treat asthma with breathalyzers.

“Warren Buffett has said he beieves he should pay his fair share right now his Office Asst pays more per capita of earned income than he does. He feels this is wrong and so do I.”
THEN WHY DOESN’T HE?
WHAT’S STOPPING HIM FROM DOING SO?
Do you people ever think at all?

Jake- do you remember when you posted Obama’s “salad days” speech? About how he and Michelle struggled to pay their student loans, had old cars, lived in a small town house, and worried about saving money for college for their daughters?
During these days of struggle for the Obama’s, his tax records show that he was making either close to $250,000 or above.
Obama did not seem to have “chump change” laying around at the level for which he would raise taxes on others.
Ditto the Bidens.

I take exception with the idea that people who are rich got that way because they “work harder.” Who do you think works “harder” — a CEO or a fruit picker? A lawyer or a hotel maid? Most jobs require “hard work” whether it is physical labor or intellectual labor, and the world is full of people who have engaged in “hard work” their entire lives and have little to show for it. People who are rich largely are rich because of inherited wealth, or sheer luck, or a combination of both. It takes nothing away from their success to expect them to pay a little bit more into the system… after all, the system worked pretty well for them!

I never trust a person can help the poor people, if this person never gave his own brother in Kenya a penny.

Poor Jackie. It’s hard to be on the other end of the stick, isn’t it? You know, the funny thing about all this is that the Democrats will find ways to work with pouting little babies like you and get things done. If you like a guaranteed minimum wage, a 40 hour work week, overtime pay, social security, medicare, family leave and a hundred other programs and policies that comprise the social safety net, thank a Democrat because without them none of these things would exist.
Read a little history people and look what unregulated free market policies did to this country in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. Milton Friedman is dead and so are his unworkable economic theories. How can giving more money to the rich create more jobs? The rich already have enough money to invest to create these jobs and if they are not doing it now how will giving them more inspire them to do so? By appealing to their conscience? Get real! “President Obama.” Get used to hearing it.

“Not sure what you are getting at! My charitable donations are considerably higher than Senator Biden’s and often higher thant Obama’s. I don’t come close to making what they do.”
That’s exactly my point.
You and the Palin’s contribute to charity far more than do the Obama’s and the Biden’s.
Liberals talk a great line, but they do not walk it. Liberals are alwasy generous with everyone else’s money.
They don’t want to have to work for it. They want you to have to cough it up.

We are not just talking individuals here. The rates the Corporations will pay in increased taxes is HUGE. What that means to middle class America is loss of jobs and increased cost to consumers. Do you think Corporations are not going to try to mitigate that increased burden? Of course, they will. They will do so by laying off workers and increasing the cost of goods to the consumer. Keep in mind, Corporations are bound to increase profitability to its shareholders and they will do so whatever it takes. So, too bad for middle class Americans looking for jobs in the future. And, everyone will be paying more for consumer goods.

That $3,363, seriously, what is that to someone at the $250K level, two suits? a day on some vacation spot? 15 minutes at a roulette table? The 28K for the millionaire, c’mon, so they might not buy one more car, or painting or diamond necklace that year. Even that is unlikely considering the tax shelters and breaks available at that income level.

Final Mason-Dixon battleground numbers: dead heat
Jonathan Martin notes at Politico that the battleground states appear to have all reached a dead-heat conclusion — with lots of undecideds — in the last Mason-Dixon polling.
Colorado: Obama 49, McCain 44, Undecided 4
Florida: Obama 47, McCain 45, Undecided 7
Nevada: Obama 47, McCain 43, Undecided 8
Pennsylvania: Obama 47, McCain 43, Undecided 9
Virginia: Obama 47, McCain 44, Undecided 9
Ohio: McCain 47, Obama 45, Undecided 6
Missouri: McCain 47, Obama 46, Undecided 5
North Carolina: McCain 49, Obama 46, Undecided 5
As Brad Coker, who runs the Mason-Dixon poll, notes, the vast majority of the undecided voters in these states are whites.

Why is our economy in the tank? The dot.com bubble burst, we launched a war and didn’t use pay-as-we-go financing, the price of oil shot up, the price of food went up because of transportation costs and growing corn to create bio-fuels, transportation costs increased the price of all goods, the price of health care keeps going up, the housing market went belly up, the stock market crashed.
How would “trickle up” economics have changed any of that?
And how much money would have to be confiscated from the wealthy and handed to everyone else in order to make a difference?
Obama said in a speech the other day that $500 per person would allow you to buy a car or send a kid to college.
Either he’s delusional or he thinks we are.
We have two priorities that are a matter of national security: get spending under control to balance our budget and reduce the debt, and achieve energy independence. If we don’t take care of these, our country is doomed; it’s just a question of how soon it fails.

This red herring line of argument is appallingly frivolous. How many millionaires are we minting right now, with asset prices plummeting, jobs shedding and homes being foreclosed upon two at a time? That is the fruition of Bush policies.
Jake, you’re so busy pushing Republican arguments via yet another Republican voter (just give me a chance to ask John McCain some questions, and we’ll see just how well he comes off) that you didn’t even stop to evaluate for a second the veracity of Obama’s answer. The point is not whether or not the additional tax take is ‘chump change’. The point is that when the economy goes to hell, everyone goes with it, and the Republicans have well and truly pile driven this economy into the pavement. How is it possible that we are not spending the campaign disputing whether Republicans ideology is merely impoverished or manifestly bankrupt? After eight years of tax cuts and deregulation, and the worst job creation record since Herbert Hoover, and job losses ACCELERATING, that Republicans have been able to get you journalists to drink the Kool-Aid so thoroughly, is shocking.

CHUMPS for CHANGE! Go, Nobama!

“we launched a war and didn’t use pay-as-we-go financing” – marylou
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Who’s fault is that marylou?
George Bush CHOSE to do that. He started TWO WARS and CUT TAXES.
And now you tell us to follow you deeper into the pit?
Not this time.

Here are some facts all you delusional McCain supporters are ignoring:
There are tons of loopholes in the current tax system that benefit rich people as well as small business owners. It enables them to evade paying taxes on their profits as well as makes it too easy to claim losses (even though they make great profits!).
So, to all you ignorant people…even with the current tax system, the rich haven’t been paying their fair share while the working class is busting their humps to make the rich richer while our wages go down. Trickle down is a miserable joke!
Get a clue people and do some research…

“After eight years of tax cuts and deregulation, and the worst job creation record since Herbert Hoover, and job losses ACCELERATING, that Republicans have been able to get you journalists to drink the Kool-Aid so thoroughly, is shocking. A real failure on your part.”
I DARE you to learn the economic numbers of this country from 2000-2006. I DARE you to post the stock market growth, and manufacturing growth. I DARE you to post the record low unemployment that existed in 2005.
I DARE you.
Democrats took over in 2006.
I DARE you to post the economic numbers since they took control and promised us change.
They gave us change.
It was ALL BAD.

“We are not just talking individuals here. The rates the Corporations will pay in increased taxes is HUGE. ” – KP
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THE Government Accounting Office released a study this year showing that 70% of corporations pay NO TAXES!
Nobody is falling for this BS! It’s not true!
Corporations cook their books, then ask WE THE PEOPLE to BAIL THEM OUT!
Explain that!

drjohn, really, i want to know what field of medicine you are in i’m very curious.

Trickle up economics was the idea behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac letting out and encouraging all of those bad loans – whcih subsequently tanked the economy. That work – at least to move us along to a Venezuelan style government. It is a shame that the people who brought us the collapse also will not allow us to drill for the oil that is paying off the people in Venezuela.

I wonder how many of the people here expressing horror at Obama wanting to raise tax rates on the wealthy actually make more than $250K a year? To someone who makes an average salary, an additional 3.6% in taxes a year sounds like a huge burden. Keep in mind that the incremental tax rate only applies this increase to that amount above $250K. But as someone who might be affected by this, IF it does come to fruition, I can tell you it’s not that big of a deal. Sure I’d like to have that money to spend, but it’s not all about me. And it’s not all about you, either. Are we going to pull the country out of the tailspin it’s in, or not? If everybody worries about keeping every little slice of the pie for themselves, we all go down together.
Whether we say we like government or not, ALL of us rely on the government to do things that are necessary but we won’t do ourselves. How many of you who are whining about this issue are privately funding infrastructure upgrades, so that we won’t have another bridge collapse like we had in MSP? How many of you are privately funding the military, or Veteran’s benefits? How many of you are giving extra money to public education? Lots of people are fond of saying they like small government, but you can’t have a lot of the things that we depend on without government. Even Reagan, who said he wanted to shrink government, presided over the biggest military buildup in history.
We have had a progressive tax table for 95 years, and now everyone is shouting about how wrong it is for Obama to say he believes in it. Bush kept the progressive tax rates intact, although he slightly lessened the slope of the increase. Is he somehow a Marxist? Keep in mind that Obama’s proposal merely reverses some of Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy. He does not propose any new idea here. This in no way represents class warfare, 95% against 5%. The wealthy have paid a higher tax rate since before WW1. Class warfare begins when the wealthy, or those that aspire to nothing other than wealth, decide that they are an island unto themselves. No responsibility to the country. Me first, country second.
In the end, the most important economic goals are reduction of the deficit and reducing the national debt. These are the hallmarks of a supposedly conservative financial policy, something the Republicans are supposed to advocate. So how do you Republicans propose we do this? Where is all this revenue supposed to come from? I have begun to think you’re all full of hot air, with no real ideas and no real understanding of the complexity of the issues.

Cut taxes and revenues go up? That sounds good to me too, except we haven’t seen that happening the last eight years.

drjohn,
Yes dare me. the bus stop at the CEO (Bush) and he mismanaged the economy. McCain and every republican candidate are now distancing themselves from president Bush. In the last election cycles, they were all begging him to campaign for them.

Tell you what – give me a job where I make $1,000,000 per year, and I’ll volunteer to pay TWICE the incremental $28,000 in taxes. Heck, you give me the job and I’ll pay a 70% tax rate – I think can manange to squeak by on $300,000 per year after taxes.

“When Bush came into office, 25% paid no taxes. Now 33% pay no taxes.
This is like shooting fish in a barrel.
-drjohn
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Well, its because they have LOST THEIR JOB and HAVE NO INCOME.
It’s not fish you are shooting, it’s your own foot.

drjohn, really, i want to know what field of medicine you are in i’m very curious.
Dentist

If you voted for Bush, you voted for the failed policies. If you campaigned for Bush, you did it for the same failed policies.

If i’m making 1mil a year – heck yeah and extra 3% tax hike is chump change – what, i’m gonna cut down my golf visits by two???

“Then why was employment at record levels until Democrats took over Congress?
You look it up. You tell us what the unemployment rate was in 2006 before Democrats took over.”
-drjohn
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There is nothing to look up (watch out the gun is pointing at your other foot)!
Name one law passed by the Democratically controlled Congress that has effected unemployment in any way.
You can’t because there isn’t any.
You sir are running out of bogus arguments and your candidate is running out of time.

That $3,363, seriously, what is that to someone at the $250K level, two suits?
========
It is a small portion of a year at college for which someone might not have to take out a loan.
It is a payment toward retirement savings so when the Social Security system is ‘fixed’ at the expense of high wage earners, there will be something for that earner to fall back on.
It is a portion of a payment on that earner’s college loans.
It is help supporting an elderly loved one so that the government doesn’t have to do it.
It is a trip to an impoverished area to help build schools or wells or a medical clinic.

“A dentist. funny, that’s where I’m going today. I can see why no one likes to go.”
True enough.
You could try not going and see what happens.

marylou: “McCain/Palin are the only two talking about shrinking government and balancing our budget.”
McCain has spent a quarter century watching our government grow. Either he is utterly inept at making policy, or he is partially to blame for the current bloated government and massive US debt.

98% of Americans…where the true “hard workers are” are getting a tax cut…
it disgusts me that they are saying the “hard working americans ” are getting taxed…
those who are getting higher taxes…are actually mostly people who AREN’t working hard…
and even if they are … it is miniscule compared to their intake.
and I am one of those people in that top percent.

Matt- I’m one of those that would pay more under Obama’s plan and I assure you it’s chump change. High income people generally derive their income from a variety of sources, many of them taxed at rates far below the 36% top bracket rate (capital gains, for example). In fact, if you look at real rate paid by these people across all of their income it’s often lower than the rate middle income families pay because their income often comes only from payroll. If you do happen to become successful someday, you’ll understand all of the advantages that go with it.

US national debt
09/30/1992 4,064,620,655,521.66
09/30/2008 10,024,724,896,912.49

drjohn:
Your posts HAVE no facts. Only whining. Now you resort to name calling.
I’m not impressed.

okay, if I’m the judge, here’s my verdict:
Yes, if someone makes half a million dollars PER YEAR! — $3,360 extra tax is “chump change,” or at least spare change. It’s not easy to spend that much money in a year–they are going to be investing some of that money in tax free bonds every year, so I don’t think that they will even feel that loss. Very wealthy people sometimes spend that much money in one evening at a premier restaurant.
Now, as far as paying an extra $28,000 if you make $ one million dollars PER YEAR! –I wouldn’t call that much money “chump change,” but again, they are going to have so much money to spare, they are not going to lose their incentive to “work hard,” if they still have that incentive with so much money piling up. Certainly, if one cares about the overall health of the economy, that person is going to be saving tons of that income rather than spending it, so having that small extra percentage going into taxes used to stimulate the economy is definitely worth it. And that person is getting so much back from the country, they have nothing to complain about, and again, they are probably stowing a lot of it away in tax shelters anyway.

Well, nice to see everyone behaving civilly as the election approaches (yep, that’s sarcasm).
Warren Buffett’s observation about his willingness to pay higher taxes is often bandied about as “proof” that Obama’s approach of raising taxes for the top income bracket is right. You know what? If Buffet thinks he should be contributing more to the federal government, I would encourage him to do so. He can make a voluntary contribution to reduce the national debt, even if it is not “required” by his tax bill. Anyone can do this. I have often thought we should launch a “retire the debt” campaign and ask those willing to do so to make a contribution to the government to pay down the national debt. No one is stopping Buffet from giving the government more money than he currently does. What I object to is a plan to raise taxes on anyone at a time of economic troubles, particularly when that is linked with sending a check to mllions of others who do not pay any income taxes to begin with. That is not an ordinary part of the progressive tax system– that is a transfer of wealth, a “spreading the wealth around,” that I find troubling philosophically. One does not have to be on the recieving end of these tax increases to consider them unfair.
I’m glad the caller on MTV stuck to his guns and pointed out the problems with Obama’s plan.
Use your brain/Vote McCain

If someone making 500k has to pay $3000 more in taxes, that is chump change. They can have their kids do a couple of bake sales and make up half of that money (hint: always offer orange juice at a bake sale in a dixie cup; you get the best margins).
Besides, if tax cuts for the middle class encourage consumer spending, lending an economic growth, stocks will go up again and these folks will make thousands in the stock market and pay less tax because the capital gains tax is significantly lower than the income tax. That’s how Clinton created all those millionaires.
This tax debate has been annoying but good because it has exposed the shallowness of the GOP’s attitude towards budget math. Running government costs money, and requires choices and priorities about whom you are going to invest in. The middle class is the engine of economic growth and prosperity.

US national debt
CLINTON
09/30/1992 4,064,620,655,521.66
BUSH
09/30/2008 10,024,724,896,912.49

It’s time that everybody pay their fair share again. And CEOs should not be rewarded for shipping American jobs overseas. The days of the super rich and mega corporations making mad money are coming to a close. People like John McCain may have to scale back his remodeling plans for one of his 7 houses. Sorry John.

McCain = Backward
Obama = Forward
If all that do not like Obama’s tax plan and do not want to be part of it!!!!!
Of course, Obama will be President!!!!
Please, donate the extra tax money you will receive under Obama to CHARITIES!!!!!

“And that is why I do far better than you. – drjohn”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
And how do you know that you are doing better than me?
Are you a psychic? lol
P.S. I won’t look for “what you said” because I control my time, not you. I’ll leave the wild goose chases to you.
Have you found the weopons of mass destruction yet?
I mean other than the Bush Adminsitration of course.

drjohn, I see, so it wasn’t the President for the last eight years or the Republican Congress for 6 of them, but the Democrats that ushered in higher taxes and regulation and that’s what screwed everything up, right… Err… I’d like to meet the person that would buy this line.
Unless you want to blame this diabolically bad economic record on the Democrats having raised the minimum wage a few dollars an hour a little over a year ago- and I for one would love to hear that- it is Bush’s economic policies that have prevailed for the full time since Bill Clinton was President. Yes, even after the Democrats gained control of the House and came to effectively split the Senate. Since 2006, taxes have not been raised in the least; in fact they have effectively been cut, via continued budget busting ‘fixes’ to the AMT. Meanwhile the regulatory agencies report into the executive, meaning there has been almost no change to the regulatory regime. That little factoid explains why the most unpopular most diabolically failed President in the history of this nation was still able to pass yet more deregulation this past week.
So, really, you haven’t a leg to stand on. But as long as we’re going down this path and you want to attribute to the Congress the economic success or failure, then I think you’ll find that Ronald Regan had himself a Democratic Congress nearly the entire time he was in office. So the Regan economic miracle is therefore a myth, and we can attribute the economic gains of the 80s to the Democratic Party.
As I say, it’s a terrific theory, but here in the reality based community, we usually take into account those pesky things called ‘facts’, (aka oil to the Republican’s water). And the fact is that Bush economic policy has had the run of this entire decade, and run us directly into two recessions (first since Nixon to do that), the worst job creation record since Herbert Hoover, which continues to get worse, (the current consensus is that fully 250,000 MORE JOBS WERE LOST in the month of October), a doubling of the national debt, an explosion of the federal deficit, a prodigious explosion of the trade and current account deficits, in the net indebtedness of the US to the rest of the world, in health care costs and the ranks of the uninsured, etc. etc. etc. And all in the name of exposing conservative ideology for the utter and complete failure that it is.

James Danley
do you know nothing of how our economy works…
our engine works best when the middle classes can spend money… the better opportunity they have…the more spending power they have in a free market capitalist democracy…the more money the wealthiest Americans make.
you can also say the wealthiest Americans receive the most windfall from our open capitalist democracy that this government protects and oversees…
that is why republican Presidents like Reagan created the earned income tax credit
and Teddy Roosevelt was SUCH a fan of the taxation curve.
enough with this trickle down economics crap that repubs have been using to make the rich richer… tax deductions greater and the middle class poorer
not to mention increasing the middle class’ tax burden ratio growth double the rate of the wealthiest Americans over the past 3-4 decades.
no more bull and being duped…
this country works best when the focus is on the middle class…not the wealthy who receive the most opportunity and windfall from our capitalist democracy.

The economy has been a diversion. THe real question is do we want extremist running the government.
We know that McCain is hated by republicans. Pelosi and Reid are licking their lips getting ready for the Obama presidency.

We have gutted the aid to dependent childrens act we have gutter helpcare systems that try to help the mentally ill we have no medical care for street people who are on the street becasue they are mentally unsound. We act like schools should wave a magic wand and make children learn but we do not have money to pay good teachers and we complain when every 4th child in American IS left behind. All of these things are rightwing attempts at keeping your taxes down. I’d say maybe this is the wrong way to build up a strong America wouldn’t you?
I live in Nebraska where right now we have a law on our books that says hospitals and fire stations can be safe havens for children who parents don’t want them. All other states have such a law also, but it says 3 days old or younger. It is for newborns , ours was not so worded. And we are getting teenagers and 11 year olds. 24 or so so far. All have fallen thru the cracks so to speak. They are in need of much help thier families are at the end of thier ropes. We say have your babies and we will help you, then we don’t do it. Nebraska last Dec 5th had a shotting at a large mall eight people died when a youngster who just did not fit into any aid programs anymore toke a semiautomatic rifle into a store and started shooting people. We need money for these people who are for what ever reason not mentally stable. If we don’t start taking care of the children who are born how can we really be pro=life. What programs aren’t working right now? Tell which ones we need to stop tell me how we can cut back further I want someone to tell me which rpogram they want to end, that is just something to through out there “stop the ones that aren’t working.Lets stop tax brakes to companies that take jobs out of America, lets stop farm subsadies for tobaco, lets stop tax brakes for the richiest 2% then lets talk again about the sytem.IS THIS WHAT PALIN CALLS SOCIALISM?

isn’t it funny how people like drhohn take a statement like “corporations making mad money” and twist that to ask
“do you want corporations to be shut down”
ugh
and the same logic and character in argument ias trying to be used to get another 8 years of that same team
same team
same tactics
9th year
throw these bums out.

John Doe Eastern Washington quoted Proverbs 11:24. “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; And there is one who withholds more than is right, But it leads to poverty.”
And when “The One” WITHHOLDS more from the top 5% it will lead to poverty for much of the other 95% due to higher unemployment and higher prices.

james,
what makes you think the One is not lying about taxes? He has not been a tax cutter in the past? Is this guy too hard to see thru?

It’s time that everybody pay their fair share again. And CEOs should not be rewarded for shipping American jobs overseas. The days of the super rich and mega corporations making mad money are coming to a close. People like John McCain may have to scale back his remodeling plans for one of his 7 houses. Sorry John.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, over tax a company, and they’ll just move the whole kit, and kaboodle overseas, leaving no jobs behind.
Now with Obama’s talk of bankrupting coal companies, which will drive electric rates skyrocketing, and everything associated with electricity, such as the plants that process, can, or prepare foods…then food prices skyrocket. We will ALL be paying a share. We will ALL be going without electricity, and we will ALL be going hungry.
I know some see this as some utopian world coming, but dang. Just do some research on the current conditions of Venezuela. North Korea you never hear about, because of their over kill government, but a majority of the people are starving, despite the insipid report Diane Sawyer portrayed a long while back.
Now I get it. She was trying to make it look appealing to us! Bah!

Keepyuorheelsdown
don’t you think that Obama is just shifting the tax cut focus…
he wasn’t a tax cutter for the wealthiest of Americans
and for the past 4 decades the theory of “trickle down economics”
has kept wealthy tax cuts and tax exemptions (as Buffett called them “Green stamps for the rich”) in almost every bill…
OBama is proposing a tax cut for the people he has seen get shuffed for 4 decades behind the wealthy and their leftovers and scraps…falling down to the rest of us…
he is changing the focus back to what made this country great…a curved taxation plan that put the center of that “tax universe” with the middle class…rather than with the wealthy and ON the middle class.

Jake would like to discuss whether a few percent income tax hike on someone in the top half of 1% of all American earners matters or not. I think it’s rather more interesting wondering why, if these tax cuts on top earners are such magic potion for this economy, did eight years of them result in two recessions, (first president since Nixon to pull that off), the worst job creation record since the Great Depression, (currently deteriorating- the current consensus is that fully 250,000 MORE JOBS WERE LOST in the month of October. That brings the total for 2008 to 1 million.), a doubling of the national debt, an explosion of the federal deficit, a prodigious explosion of the trade and current account deficits, in the indebtedness of the US to the rest of the world, in health care costs and the ranks of the uninsured, etc. etc. etc. Oh yea, and right now the stock market is lower in nominal let alone real terms than when Bush came into office… Nearly eight years ago.
So sure, let’s discuss whether or not a few thousand bucks to a multi-millionaire is chump change, and then let’s ponder how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Alternatively, we can pull our heads out of our colons and talk about, given the abject failure of conservative ideology, what we should to fix the catastrophic mess that Bush created (first step, voting booth November 4).

” The days of the super rich and mega corporations making mad money are coming to a close.”
Do you think we should shut down Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway?
how about Hollywood?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not to mention pharmacutical companies, which rake in much much larger profits, than oil companies do.

this is the point in the balance of a capitalist democracy that is not socialism…ugh
the better the middle class does…
the better almost all of those wealthiest of Americans do.
the problem is as we have learned over the past two decades…
the reverse is not true.
trickle down economics is so flawed that it should not be a driving force in arguments for our tax policy.

James Danley
the better the middle class does
the better the wealthy do.
the problem is
our nation works because of that…
the reverse does not.

I agree with “moderate” about the folly of taxing the wealthy and giving the money to those who don’t pay taxes. The wealthy shouldn’t be responsible for anything that the underclass needs – education, sanitation, food. Let them eat cake! Okay, that was sarcasm. Moderate should take some lessons from history and see where this approach gets us. The rich cannot afford to be an island.
Having said this, I did object (and I’m being serious here, and maybe Moderate and and I agree on this one) to the provision of the economic stimulus plan, in which those at the lowest tax brackets, or lower than the lowest bracket, got rebate checks, whereas those in the higher brackets did not. In concert with the progressive tax rates, this means that we create a bigger deficit, and then those in the higher tax brackets will pay it off. All for dubious reasons – there’s no evidence that this did anything to stimulate the economy.
Now that I’m on this soap box, I’ll throw in another 2 cents and say that our economic problems cannot be solved by tax cuts or economic stimulus plans. The problem is that we’ve lost our manufacturing base, and our economy has become speculative – wealth built on the mass perception of value. I remember when a politician campaigning in the late 1980′s spoke of the need to restore our manufacturing base, and he was treated with derision. We don’t want those manufacturing jobs! We want to be white collar workers! What percentage of our GDP did they say that financial services has become? Something like 20%? That’s a recipe for instability.
I hope that whoever gets elected will start working to restore our manufacturing base. So far, only Obama has touched on the subject. It needs to be a big focus.

drjohn, you said the Democrats taking control of the Congress (really the House, the Senate is at best nominally in their control) relieves the Bush administration and the Republican congresses of the prior six years from any responsibility for their abysmal record. I pointed out that this was an interesting argument to make given that Democrats haven’t remotely been able to change the course of Republican economic policy. They have not increased regulation as they would’ve liked. They have not increased taxes, they have in fact lowered taxes. They haven’t even been able to shape response to this crisis, except in pushing Paulson to get a clue, a point on which he belatedly relented.
It is you that has to figure out how that reality makes it possible to pin the blame for this economy on Democrats. I’m all ears.

and I agree James danl;ey that the middle class should work hard
…99% of them …do.
can’t be said for the wealthy as much as everyone wants to try and make
wealth = hard work.

I get it Jeanie, so Bush and the Republicans have so thoroughly destroyed this economy with such negilgent incompetence and blind ideology that we cannot change course or we might hit the mountain. Remind me never to let you pilot my plane.

“drjohn, its hard to tell if you are being sarcastic.”
I meant what I said.
I appreciate anyone who does their best to not be a burden on others.

drjohn says, “It [America] became great and powerful without social security and without more than 3% income taxes.”
Uh… so America became great getting itself and the rest of the world into the Great Depression, and then screwed everything up by creating Social Security, getting out of the Great Depression, winning World War II, and the Cold War, etc. What metrics are you using to evaluate greatness? Most wealth lost and jobs destroyed? Least power relative to other nations? If so, then yes, I’ll agree with you that taxation and Social Security were not part of what has made America great.

“Circuit City to close 155 US stores”
More news from the real world . . .
All those employees looking for new jobs in a struggling economy . . .
Guess they can all start their own businesses now and become rich, right drjohn?

drjohn You are absolutely right, first the money will move of shore, then the jobs and businesses will move of shore and then the best and brightest will follow in a reverse brain drain.

James Danely said:
And when “The One” WITHHOLDS more from the top 5% it will lead to poverty for much of the other 95% due to higher unemployment and higher prices.
================================
LOL!
The top 5% have already had less withheld taxes from them over the past 8 years but we now some of the highest unemployment rates and prices in History!!
So if what you say is true then we are in a Lose/Lose predicament this election… what a joke.

James Danely said:
And when “The One” WITHHOLDS more from the top 5% it will lead to poverty for much of the other 95% due to higher unemployment and higher prices.
================================
LOL!
The top 5% have already had less withheld taxes from them over the past 8 years but we now some of the highest unemployment rates and prices in History!!
So if what you say is true then we are in a Lose/Lose predicament this election… what a joke.

I feel everyone makes choices in life. Some people want to work and others want to sponge off the taxpayers. I am not against some tax payer programs which are short term and can make the person a productive part of society. There is a huge difference between helping the needy and enabeling people to live off the taxpayers for life which I don’t agree with at all. I live near Detroit and its a chronic problem where a large perscentage of people collect food stamps, welfare and housing pay and live like that forever! rediculous!

“You say the banks gave out risky loans.
I wonder why that was possible?
Oh yeah, DEREGULATION!”
Yeah, it was.
And Chris Dodd wanted MORE deregulation last year!
NOT ONE Democrat voted for more regulation since then.
Bush asked for more regulation in 2001 and 2003.
McCain asked for MORE regulation in 2005 and 2006.
Obama never asked for it.

AGAINST REGULATION:
Barney Frank
Maxine Waters.
Lacy Clay
Chuck Schumer
Gergory Meeks
You won’t find a SINGLE DEMOCRAT who was in favor of more regulation between 2001 and 2007.
NOT ONE.

What are the main problems that threaten to bankrupt the US today?
Social Security insolvency, because our illustrious leaders have spent all of the money in the “Social Security Trust Fund,” Medicare/Medicaid which loose 31% of their budget each year to fraud, a spendthrift Congress that continues to raise the debt limit and the federal budget. The budget in 2006 was 2.2 Trillion dollars, the 2009 budget is projected to be 3.2 trillion dollars and that doesn’t include the billions that Obama has promised to spend. Government does nothing efficiently. How much is enough?
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. —Thomas Jefferson
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have … The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. —Thomas Jefferson

Nashville fan said: The same deregulation championed by John McCain and now regretted by Alan Greenspan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wrong! John McCain called for regulation over Frannie, and Freddie, because they were under government control. They are government entities. He wrote up a bill, calling for more regulation, and every republican signed it. They didn’t have the 60 votes needed, and not one Democrat, not even Obama, would cross party lines, and prevent this fall out from happening.
President Bush, called for regulation over these 2 entities for 8 years. 17 times this year alone. All of this is on the record.
Obama’s claim, is some letter he wrote to one of the cabinet secretaries. That letter has yet to be produced.

Please go out and ask the 700,000 and more to come about being unemployed!!!
I believe they will say that “THEY WANT TO WORK!!!!
People that do not understand or know how Welfare work should SHUT UP!!!!!!
First, FDR set up welfare during the Great Depression!!!!
Second, welfare money is not free money but a loan that must be paid back!!!
Men and women in this country refuses to take care of their children leaving the parent overwhelm and unable to care for that child!!!!!
When the State catches up with those DEAD BEAT PARENTS (father/mother) they go after them to make them responsible for that child (ren)!!!
I read many comments that people refuses to take handouts from the Gov’t!!!!
1)You just lost your job and entitle to Unemployment would you collect or let pride stand in your way????
2)You and your children are hungry would you accept food stamps or die of hunger????
3)You and your family can not afford housing ($1,00.00 a month)you make less than $2,000 a month)would you accept housing assistance or be homeless????
4)You are sick and unable to work would you accept SSI or die?????
Everybody will not become MILLIONAIRES/BILLIONAIRES and I do not see there is a problem with raising their taxes!!!!
THEY CAN AFFORD IT!!!!!!
As a American citizen, I take great pride in helping my fellow man!!!!!

Blip Honduras is not the only country in the world. Ireland with its flat tax and burgeoning economy looks pretty good to me. Couple that with my Swiss bank account and who knows….

I just started getting the “bankrupting the coal industry” smear.
It’s a last ditch effort to dissuade people in a few swing states from voting for Obama.
They saved the smear for the 11th hour. If McCain unleashed the smear earlier, it would be debunked, and then cost him votes.
The timing on this smear is very cleverly calculated. And the people who are pushing it are active partisans… and untrustworthy sources of information.

“drjohn, you should try to relax a bit. Both the Democrates and Republicans have had their hands in where we are now. The only president I haven’t liked is George W. Bush. I am somewhere between both parties and try not to point fingers too much at one side. There are crooked politicians in both parties.”
There are crooks on both sides, but ask yourself why Barney Frank and company swore nothing was wrong with Fannie or Freddie. Ask why no hearings will be held until after anything can be done.
Ask yourself why Franklin Raines and Jaimie Gorelick were pulling down over half a million each in bonuses while Fannie was sinking.
Ask yourself why not a single Democrat wanted more regulation in that time period.
NOT ONE.
This is the truth.

“Fannie, the Federal National Mortgage Association, and Freddie, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., don’t lend money, to minorities or anyone else, however. They purchase loans from the private lenders who actually underwrite the loans.”
You really need to get your facts in order.
Bush ASKED FOR MORE REGULATION IN 2001 AND 2003.
McCain asked for more regulation in 2005 and 2006.
Democrats BLOCKED reform of Fannie and Freddie AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY.
Feel free to hate Bush all you want, but it would be best to hate on the basis of the truth instead of what you’re doing now.

drjohn
It is an undeniable fact that the roots of this disaster can be found in the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Passed by Democrats in Congress and signed into law by Jimmy Carter in 1977, it was designed to increase the home ownership of the disadvantage and minority population. The provisions of the bill were reinforced in 1993 and came to full flower during the Clinton Administration who, with threats, coercion and regulation forced lending institutions to make Politically Correct but bad loans to unqualified borrowers in a misguided attempt to increase home ownership among a population who traditionally vote Democratic. The program was a huge success and home sales skyrocketed during the last half of the 1990’s. These loans were then bought by the GSE’s (Government Supported Corps.) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bundled with other conventional loans and sold into the financial market. With the housing boom is full swing by 1996 unscrupulous speculators able to get low interest loans with little or no down payment, or additional piggy back loans to cover the down payment, jumped into the market. The housing boom exploded causing a housing bubble of a trillion dollar or more. Warnings began to appear as early as the late 1990’s that the bubble was not sustainable and a dangerous situation requiring a taxpayer bail out was coming.
All of the warnings were ignored or ridiculed by the Polls and Pundits because of the Politically Correct rise in home ownership among the poor and minority population and the millions of dollars funneled into the hands of the politicians, mostly Democrats, who defeated any attempt to rein in the runaway housing bubble. 90% of the taxpayers knew nothing of what was going on because they pay little attention to anything outside of the pop culture, and the Press, in the tank with the PC Left gave them no warning of the impending disaster. Nor will they place blame where it belongs.
Blame for this mess rests not only with the greedy Wall Street CEO’s, but also with the US Government under the leadership of Bill Clinton and the Democrats in the Congress, (Notice how quite Hillary has been lately), who enabled, not to mention directed and coerced, the lending practices that caused this mess while Democrats in the Congress sheltered the lenders from oversight.
I have always believed the old adage “Follow the Money”. If you follow the money from these failed lending institutions you will find that the majority of it leads to the Democratic Congressmen and Senators who are now writing the legislation to saddle the taxpayers with the debt. On top of the list are Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, John Kerry, Christopher Dodd, Charles Rangel, Barney Frank, Christopher Cox, Maxine Watters and Obama advisors Harold Raines who made off with 90 million and Jim Johnson who chaired the search for Obama’s VP. And the only one of these fools who has taken In support of your point.

I don’t quite get your point. Ireland has low taces, but they are much more socialistic than the US. Ireland also does not have to spend money on defense.
They can get away with low taxes because it is all diverted to social services and socialist programs. They spend next to nothing on defense.
If the United States copied Ireland… we probably would have lower taxes… But then who would protect the world? And given the US’s reluctance to work through international frameworks like the UN… I don’t foresee any break in military spending.
I get what you’re saying… but we cannot simply imitate Ireland. If you want America to be #1, you have to pay for it. That’s all there is to it.
But, historically speaking, it has been a worthwhile investment. We have all benefited from the strong government of the postwar era.

Blip,
How can it be a SMEAR if it’s the truth? Obama is against using coal. Thats a fact. Dont you even know what smear is?

Fannie, the Federal National Mortgage Association, and Freddie, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., don’t lend money, to minorities or anyone else, however. They purchase loans from the private lenders who actually underwrite the loans.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nope. They along with ACORN went out, and did what ever they had to, to force banks into giving out these high risk loans.
Bush called for regulation. McCain called for regulation. Democrats ignored it, and said everything was fine. There is even video of Franks saying a few weeks before the fall out, that things were fine…and for years, when ever anyone questioned it, they were called racist.
Try again.
Bush may be responsible for a lot of things, as is any president, but for this one…nope.

Blip, you liberals are always twisting everything that is written or said. I never said the “problem” with the middle class is that they aren’t working hard enough. I never said the middle class was a problem. What I DID say was that instead of stealing from the wealthy and giving to the middle class, we should encourage the middle class to achieve the American Dream through their OWN hard work and determination.
If someone is butting heads against a brickwall and not receiving any results, then they should be encouraged to step away from that brickwall. The federal government should be spreading opportunities not wealth.

jeanie,
Is ACORN responsible for global warming too?
lol
All these conspiracy theories are giving me a headache. Anything to avoid responsibilty for your actions I suppose. THE IRAQ WAR is the source of our financial problems.
Nobody wants to talk about that.

drjohn, its been real. I’m voting for Obama. Try to be nice to all your patients today!

To Obama and Jake:
1. A student loan is not a hand out. It is a loan that has to be repaid.
2. The current tax rate is 35%, no 36% as Obama says.
3. If the tax code was fair everyone would pay income taxes. Right now approximately 40% of the people in the U.S. pay no income taxes – and it is not people making over $250,000 a year.
4. And Obama is missing the part where he plans to raise capital gains taxes from 15% to 20% or 25% or more.
5. Plus Obama forgets that he will apply Social Security taxes for those making more than $250,000. This means that the employed will be paying an additional 6.2 percent, and the self-employed will be paying an additional 12.4 percent.
If you vote for Obama, you deserve the higher taxes.

“What Would Jesus Do?”
Go fishing.

If it was so important to regulate the mortgage and loan industries, and it the Republicans were so committed to it – why didn’t the Republicans do it when they had control of the White House, the Congress and the Senate for SIX YEARS?

Think about what Matt and people like him are saying – they are not complaining that they are making more than $250,000 now and will have to pay the additional $3,363. They are saying “what incentive do I have to make that $500,000?” Hrm. How about the extra $200,000 + that will go in your freaking pocket after taxes?!?!? Are these people really saying that they will forego making an additional $250,000 becuase they will have to pay an additional $3,363 in taxes? Really?!?! Is that how selfish we have become as a society? I find it remarkable that these conservatives have no problem condemning homosexuality and other social issues based on passages from the Old Testament, yet somehow ignore Jeses’ own words at Matthew 19:21 – 24 in which he clearly states that to find favor in the Lord, one must give up all his property to the poor, as it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of God. And here they balk at sharing an additional 3% of profits over $250,000.

“he hates everything that is AMERICA”, “has no belief in our country” . . . Kevin with these kind of unsubstantiated and hateful accusations you show yourself to be a fairly whacked out extremist. Get a grip lad.

jeannie:
If it was so important to regulate the mortgage and loan industries, and it the Republicans were so committed to it – why didn’t the Republicans do it when they had control of the White House, the Congress and the Senate for SIX YEARS?

So Richard, in Dubuque, Do you make over $250K a year? Because in Dubuque, you would REALLY stand out. And if you don’t your taxes are not going to change. Welfare makes up about 1% of the Federal Budget. So who is it you don’t want to give your money to? The soldiers in Iraq? The ones who have come home disabled? The ones who are going to school? The people who come when there is a flood on the Mississippi? Those guys who build the roads iand bridges in the summer? People working to try to find a cure for cancer? People who have worked all their lives and are living on less that $600 of social security a month? Those people are welcome to my tax dollars. The idea that all our tax dollars go to welfare receipients (who are, by the way, mostly white) is complete baloney.
There’s alot I would like to see cut out – including a war on drugs that has accomplished nothing, abstinence-only programs which have acoomplished nothing, tax cuts for the oil companies for DRILLING, at the same time they are making record profits, sweetheart deals made with Halliburton, any money to the evaluators of the No Child Left Behind Act, the money we have given to foreign countries who hate us… but I like decent roads. And I think that the kids who come back from Iraq deserve an education.

Someone calls me an extremist? that is funny. NoBama is lying to everyone and you are all biting into it. Why did he stay in a church that is notorious for it’s outrageous views on many different things. One being the hate of America. The people of that church have even been likened to the people of the Al-Quida. When you struggle for yopur money the way i do then you can say something. it is because todays americans are money hungry and belive in anyone that can GIVE them morer money. What happened to working hard for your money? What happened to taking pride in the way you live? What happened to being thankful for making your own way and not recieving handouts? Well maybe you know what is like to feel that way. But how in the heck is he going to give 95% of americans a tax break when 60% of them don’t pay taxes? I work in business that cashes checks every month, 90% of them are US treasury SSI and Disability checks. they pull up to cash these 600-1500.00 checks in brand new cars and trucks. Yet they live in government housing and get welfare and foodstamps. Can you tell me how i can qualify for that? I need help! I struggle paycheck to paycheck but i survive and I work hard for my money. My wife is a 23 year old type 2 diabetic, yet there is no assistance for me no matter what i try. Because i make too much money!! Now you figure out if you can live off 20000.00 a year with rent, bills, medical expenses, and medication, not to mention food and clothes. Have a good day and try thinking outside the box.

I wish we could just call this elektion off and let Bush stay another four years.
But since we can’t, go McCane!!!!

Ryan C. actually the bottom 40% of the total WAGE EARNERS pay no federal income tax. It may be withheld, but they receive it all (if not more with tax credits) back in tax refunds.
The bottom 50% of the nation’s wage earners only pay 2.99% of the total federal income tax.

Tax increases I left out:
1. Rate on long term capital gain increases from 15% to either 20% or 28%.
2. Estate tax exemption falls from $3.5 million to $1 million. For a person dying under the lower exemption amount this means a tax increase of about $1.4 million.
There are more tax increases in the works — but these are probably the biggest.
So, this “chump change” business is complete BS, much like most of what we have been hearing from the O-camp.

Kevin we both agree that some church goers (perhaps most) are hypocrites. All of us have our shortcomings; none of us is perfect.
And I also agree with you that – when not reduced to cheap and totally unfair media sound bites – Reverend Wright’s sermons often ‘hit the nail on the head’.
I still have no admiration for your hateful, unsubstantiated claims that Senator Obama ‘hates America’.
You say Senator Obama ‘hates America’ because of things he said in his book – like what?
You provide no substantiation at all.

Well you tell me to do some research when i already have. Why don’t you go to a book store sit with a cup of java and read his books for yourself. He doesn’t place his hand over his heart for the pledge, he doesn’t belive in our national anthem, and i am sure there are tons of other things that he has or hasn’t done to substantiate my feelings. It really doesn’t matter what you or i or any other american thinks or feels on these subjects because in all actuallity we don’t vote the president into office. We place that job into the hands of our state representatives in the electoral college. They do not have to vote as we vote. So no harm no foul, and i appologize for my views thoughts and feelings, but this is america and i just don’t see him as an american. When i look at him i see someone that hates our country. Why did he go over seas to vist our guys but he wouldn’t even shake the hands of the guys that supported him? He stayed for one day and then was gone. He spent more time in hawaii with a sick grandmother that was not in critical condition than he did with our boys that are giving thier limbs and lives to defend our country from TERRORISM! Palin went over there and stayed for a week. She dressed in full gear and went to the front lines. I have more respect for her than someone who looks down at the people defending our countries beliefs.

“Why did he go over seas to visit our guys but he wouldn’t even shake the hands of the guys that supported him” . …
Sorry Kevin, if you believe Senator Obama wouldn’t shake the hands of our military personnel overseas, you’ve bought into a whole line of right wing media crap that is just not truthful.
Check out veterans organizations to see who they believe has done better by the service men and women – you’ll find they rate Senator Obama far higher than McCain.
P.S. – the ‘examples’ you site where he supposedly shows his ‘hatred of America’ are not that strong or convincing Kevin. They’re as weak as the fact he was condemned for a while for not wearing a flag pin. That does not mean you ‘hate’ your country. We’ve seen many pictures since then of McCain without a flag pin during his campaign speeches.
I wish you the best Kevin and hope you and your family are not hit too hard by this current economic mess.

I think what Obama really meant to say was that GOP Chumps like Matt from Iowa are going to have to Change their attitudes from the ME FIRST era of the Bush Administration if this country is ever going to get out of the rut it is in.
What Obama could have also mentioned that George Bush and all the chumps, like John McCain are the greatest redistributors in our history.
Bush and the GOP took the future wealth of Americans (our children and grandchildren’s money) and gave it to present day millionaires and billionaires. How is that? Those tax cuts of the Bush era all came from BORROWED MONEY JUST PILED ON TOP OF THE NATIONAL DEBT.
SO, either some of you Chumps are going to have to CHANGE or our future generations will be completely screwed.
$5 Trillion added in George Bush’s administration, largely due to tax cuts that were not paid for. Meanwhile the ratio of our national debt as a percent of GDP is now over 70%.
Fool me once – Ronald Reagan increased the debt as a % of GDP by 20%.
Fool me twice – George H.W. Bush increased the debt by roughly 13%.
Fool me three times!!! – George W. Bush increased the debt by 15% as a % of GDP.
(The Debt went down as a % of GDP under both Carter and Clinton).
So, here is the message. Chumps, CHANGE!

Cut the salaries of all of the people in business at the top. Then you can also cut the salaries and unfair distribution of wealth caused by professional sports figures. Just look at what they get in salaries, or winning a golf tournament and add in endorsements. Figures are gross and I hear no complaining about them. Look at ticket prices, an average family can not afford to go to the games. In addition to the money we put them on pedestals and look how many of them let us down.

Kevin -
His grandmother wasn’t critically ill? She just died today, so tell me, how stupid do you feel now?

If anyone actually bothered to look at the Tax Policy Center link, the assumptions laid out to get those figures were absurd. It was assumed that a family would have $75K in deductions. Because of phaseouts on deductions as income increases, to get to that $75K figure for an itemized deduction, the taxpayer would have to start out with about $100K in deductions. It also assumed that 40% of the deductions were based on mortgage interest, 40% on state income taxes and local property taxes and 20% on charitable donations. Really, 20% to charity? Hell, Joe Biden’s annual contributions avereaged out to less than 1% per year. Even Obama, before he gave a lot the year his second book came out, averaged less than 3% a year. How many taxpayers in America does anyone think actually contribute 20% of their pretax income to charity?
The chart also jumped from 200K (which according to Obama, means no change) to $1M. Where was the famous $250K figure where your taxes would actually make that first 3% jump? I fall into the current 33% tax bracket. I just pulled my 2007 tax return. The jump from 33% to 36% is $7,947.83 for me, based on all other factors concerning the calculations of taxes (current phaseout rates, lower tax brackets remaining the sames, etc.). To me, almost $8,000 isn’t “chump change” – it’s a semester of my daughter’s college tuition.
Obama is an empty suit.

3K on 500K is chump change. Trust me.
Also, note that Warren Buffet, who is no “socialist”, supports Obama and has high prize for his economic plan. I don’t think people on this net should double guess Warren B. on what is good for the economy an capitalism of this country.

I can’t believe the riot over taxes. We have a business and I pray for the day that we make enough we can pay the “extra” taxes because that means we have succeeded! We came to life with nothing and we will leave this life with nothing. What we have in our life on earth should be used to help ourselves and others. Taxes build roads, build businesses, send kids to school. Shut up you whiners. If you make that much more it will not hurt you to pay a little more and if it does than you are living above your means or in excess, that is what is wrong with the republican America.

What i don’t understand is why people making 250k a yr are taxed at the same rate as people making 5,10,20 times that much??? Dosent make sense to me!! the system is a joke!welfare is totally out of control and i dont believe in paying for people who CHOOSE not to work!