Patriots and Idiots
I have just got to get this off my chest: the Democrats I've heard today on MSNBC must be idiots. They can't recognize a good talking point, even when Joe Biden serves it up to them on a silver platter and Sarah Palin throws it at their feet.
Joe Biden said it's time for the wealthiest Americans to show a bit of patriotism. To stop caterwauling about their taxes going up a few percent, and recognize that "serving a cause greater than self-interest" requires, well, "sacrifice". Paying a bit extra to your nation's treasury is the easiest possible way to put your "country first". Much easier, at any rate, than literally sacrificing an arm and a leg. Rich patriots pay taxes; rich Republicans clamor for tax cuts.
Sarah Palin, bless her Christian heart, then does her best Tina Fey imitation and mocks Biden for suggesting that "raising taxes is patriotic".
Now, I can understand how stupid people (e.g. moose hunters, TV hosts) can fail to grasp the difference between raising taxes and paying taxes. But what the hell is wrong with Democratic "strategists" who go on TV and fail to make that point?
--TP
Joe Biden said it's time for the wealthiest Americans to show a bit of patriotism. To stop caterwauling about their taxes going up a few percent, and recognize that "serving a cause greater than self-interest" requires, well, "sacrifice". Paying a bit extra to your nation's treasury is the easiest possible way to put your "country first". Much easier, at any rate, than literally sacrificing an arm and a leg. Rich patriots pay taxes; rich Republicans clamor for tax cuts.
Sarah Palin, bless her Christian heart, then does her best Tina Fey imitation and mocks Biden for suggesting that "raising taxes is patriotic".
Now, I can understand how stupid people (e.g. moose hunters, TV hosts) can fail to grasp the difference between raising taxes and paying taxes. But what the hell is wrong with Democratic "strategists" who go on TV and fail to make that point?
--TP
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I'm not sure what your point is exactly, but Obama is in fact proposing tax increases for the very wealthiest Americans, and I assume that's what Biden was talking about, rather than just asking the wealthy to pay their existing taxes and not beg for cuts.
So any strategists who went on TV and suggested that Obama was not actually proposing to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans would quickly be caught in a lie or a gaffe.
September 18, 2008 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes: Obama is proposing to raise taxes on the richest Americans, mainly by letting Dubya's tax cuts for them expire. And I (like Biden) say it's time for those richest Americans to show a bit of actual patriotism, instead of selfishly clamoring to keep their tax cuts and limiting their love of country to "support the troops" stickers on their BMWs.
And, although I may have made it badly, my point was that Democratic "strategists" on TV seem idiotically timid about pointing out that Biden was not calling himself and Obama patriots -- he was challenging the patriotism of the cut-my-taxes rich.
--TP
September 18, 2008 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Democrats need to address the issue of taxes headon.
The Republican ads keep repeating, Obama will tax you.
The democrats have an opening to point out clearly and decisively, that those under Bushes tax revenue giveaway program, have done much to exaserbate our current economic crisis.
The Republican's cut taxes at a time of war, Trillions
Doing so they affected interest rates.
Higher interest rates affected the middle class.
The very ones who were duped to believe, that if the rich who were given the tax cuts, because they would create more jobs and this trckle down mentality would bring prosperity.
NOW HOWS THAT WORKING OUT?
Someone has to pay the bill, that the Republicans ran up. It takes tax (revenue) to do that.
So who do you suppose should pay the bill?
I would expect that it is time for those who have received the most, in the form of CEO compensation or those who recieved the Tax cut benefits, who when given the opportunity to increase their (MINAS) went off and buried them in offshore accounts (Tax shelters) or sent their capital to foreign soil, not doing the original Tax cuts, intended purpose.
It's time for the rich to pay the military Bill.
IT IS THEIR PATRIOTIC DUTY in order to perserve their priveledged way of life.
Or cut the military budget and put the billions towards our recovery.
So I beleieve if these point were raised to point out how the dumb trickle down economics, has failed the middle class.
Those whose ideology exhorts this idea should be run out of office.
Trickle down economics perpetuates the aristocrisy class.
A DUMB IDEA FOR THE WORKING CLASS
September 18, 2008 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the short version: You have to have an income in excess of $226,982 a year or higher to not get a tax cut under the Obama/Biden plan. You have to earn more than $603,403 a year to get a tax increase under the Obama/Biden plan. You have to earn more than $66,355 a year to get a tax cut of more than one percent under the McCain/Palin plan.
If you're making more than $603,403 a year AND keeping every penny of that is more important to you than paying your share of the cost of HAVING an America, you should probably vote for McCain/Palin.
Everybody else ...
September 18, 2008 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quick follow up: got my numbers from the (very interesting) graphs published yesterday at Freakonomics:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/competing-tax-plans-two-perspectives/
September 18, 2008 11:01 PM | Reply | Permalink