Obama & Taxes

"And w/ capital gains tax... As long as the middle class is exempt, why would anyone complain? After all, we saw what Bush's tax cuts did to the economy. They trickled down all right."

Is that $75K the cut-off for middle class? I would love to keep my 15% rate, but if that is the number, then I don't qualify. Seriously, I am curious as to what that cut-off is. $75K is NOT middle class for many parts of America.

Some of Mr. Obama's ideas are feasible, but there are some problems. For example, the money for such programs, must come from three primary sources. Taxation, government borrowing or printing more dollars. As for the cost of the war, soldiers must be paid, even when they are in stateside garrison. Withdrawal from Iraq will result in no great monetary savings. To be sure, there will be fewer US casualties, but there will be many more Iraqi casualties. Mr. Ron Paul understood the economics involved, but his position on the war itself was over the top. He would be a great economic advisor to Mr. McCain. Mr. Bush's economic advisors did not do a very good job. Mr. Greenspan is an example. Hopefully Mr. McCain will do better.

There will be no halting of the war in Iraq by any candidate.

Regardless of what political rhetoric is put forth, the present course dictates that tax dollars will continue to flow into the region to protect the interests of big oil.

If you don't like that idea, then consider the price of gas at about 8 or 10 dollars a gallon. That is what would happen if big oil interests were compromised and Iran controlled Iraq.

As for billions being saved by not being in Iraq, we have trillions of dollars of national debt from that war. The interest alone will eat up any savings from an Iraq withdrawal.

A real solution would be to require oil company profits to be no more than pre-9/11 levels and apply any excesses to the national debt.

Or, all oil companies could be completely regulated or nationalized and future profits applied towards the national debt.

Whatever the solution, telling voters you plan to raise taxes is paramount to defeat in any presidential election.

So much for Obama.

Jake - why don't you make it clear to your readers... The ONLY people Obama wants to raise to tax for (federal income tax) is those in the top 1% (making over $320,000). Those making under $75,000 would get a tax cut. Those in between would not be affected. You definitely are trying to slide a fast one.

And w/ capital gains tax... As long as the middle class is exempt, why would anyone complain? After all, we saw what Bush's tax cuts did to the economy. They trickled down all right.

I'm sure that there's quite a few people out there making $75K per year who are going to be surprised to learn that they're rich. In higher COL areas, like NYC, LA, and Chicago, that's basically means you're probably just a little ahead of the game.. You'd think that Obama as a Chicagoan would know this, especially considering that his wife is constantly whining about how tough it is living on only $200K/ year.

Obamites:

Get a grip!

The post is about taxes!

As I recall, Dukakis and Kerry both spoke of raising taxes until they were defeated soundly by the Republicans.

Amazing that Barack Obama would embark on the same trail.

For a man who voted present a hundred times how could you believe any words he says, especially when he said "I was not in church when those harsh words were spoken". He would not answer the question when asked if he was liberal, so again how could you believe this man.

jay halting the Iraq war will bring in billions

How could anyone doubt Obama's integrity. We all know Obama was preparing to quit the Rev Wirght's church. He was just waiting for the right time-it was just about there in the 21st year.

Jay,

Under big bad "Conservative" G.W. Bush the US monetary system, otherwise known as the "dollar", has been collapsing. Maybe you could care to explain how instituting plans to stimulate the majority of Americans, the same ones getting hit worst by the economic crisis, and clamping down on foreign debt is going to somehow further inflate the dollar.

Jake, your wording implies that Obama will raise the capital gains taxes by 15 to 28%. If you could clarify some, that the current rate is 15% and that he won't be issuing up to a 28% hike, it would seem a bit less scary.

"That would be a bummer if he raised the capital gains tax. It was one of very few things that I agreed with under this Bush administration"

Bill Clinton lowered the capital gains tax.

This is not about Ms. Rice, its about raising taxes on people who have earned more money than less motivated workers in our capitalist system. Why shouldn't everybody have the same amount of money. Just because someone doesn't earn it doesn't mean that that poor people should go without free programs. I want new cars too and society owes it to me. The Socialism of Obama will make everyone equal.

Sell your stocks soon.

"America doesn't have an easy time dealing with race," Miss Rice said, adding that members of her family have "endured terrible humiliations."

"What I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn't love and have faith in them — and that's our legacy," she said.

If this is truth, american are in big trouble!

Glenn Beck: The $53 trillion asteroid:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Let's say a giant asteroid was headed toward Earth right now and experts say it has a good chance of ending civilization as we know it. Let's also say that we've known about this asteroid for years but even as it gets closer and closer our leaders do nothing.

"Don't worry," they tell us, "The next administration will figure something out."

With the future of our country at stake, would Americans really sit back and tolerate that kind of inaction? Of course not -- we'd be sharpening our pitchforks and demanding answers.

Well there may not be a space asteroid heading toward us, but there is an economic one -- and the threat to our future is just as severe.

You might think that I'm talking about the recession (sorry: potential recession) or credit crisis, but I'm thinking bigger. Much, much bigger.

Let me give you three numbers that will put this economic asteroid into perspective: $200 billion, $14.1 trillion, and $53 trillion.

$200 billion is the approximate total amount of write-downs announced so far as a result of the current credit crisis.

$14.1 trillion is the size of the entire U.S. economy

And $53 trillion is (drum roll please) the approximate size of this country's bill for the Social Security and Medicare promises we've made.

While no one will ever mistake me for Alan Greenspan, it seems to me that the third number is quite a bit larger than the other two. It also seems very few people care.

According to the latest Social Security and Medicare Trustees report (and I use that term loosely since it has the word "trust" in it) released earlier this week, the economic asteroid will first make impact in the year 2019 when the Medicaid trust fund becomes insolvent.

Only an immediate 122 percent increase in Medicare taxes and a 26 percent increase in Social Security taxes can prevent (or more likely, delay) its impact.

Realizing that Americans have become pretty much numb to these kinds of ridiculous sounding proposals, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson tried to up the ante this week. "Without change," he said, "Rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues, and threaten America's future prosperity."

Now, I know we're all worried about important sounding things that none of us understand, like CDO's, SIV's, and Credit Default Swaps, but did you hear what our Treasury Secretary just said?

"Rising costs will ... consume nearly all projected federal revenues ..."

Translation: Every single tax dollar that is sent to Washington will be used to pay for just these two programs.

That means no money is left for anything else. Nothing. No Department of Defense or Homeland Security, no Department of Energy, no Department of Justice, no Environmental Protection Agency, no Internal Revenue Service. Actually, knowing our government, they'd probably keep the IRS going somehow.

Of course, none of this is exactly breaking news. Our leaders have known about this rapidly approaching asteroid for years now and they've done nothing but debate it. At the same time, I'm a realist. I understand that this stuff is "the third rail of politics," but our leaders' negligence on this issue is damn near criminal. No, correction, it is criminal.

Americans aren't afraid of the truth. In fact, we crave the truth only slightly more than we crave a leader who will actually give it to us. But part of the problem with this issue is that numbers followed by 12 zeroes aren't very relatable to the average American. Instead, try this on for size.

A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years. And 53 trillion seconds? 1.7 million years.

In an article that will appear in an upcoming issue of my magazine, Fusion, former Comptroller General of the United States David Walker tries a different tactic. He writes that our unfunded promises translate into "an IOU of around $455,000 per American household."

Wow. Does the size of our debt hit home now?

The America that I know doesn't sit around waiting for someone to rescue it from disaster. Besides, who do we expect to swoop in and save the day? Congress? The president? Please -- they're not only the ones who put the asteroid into space, they've also been making it bigger with irresponsible spending on everything from prescription drugs to billions in rebate checks and bailouts.

Bruce Willis and Tommy Lee Jones? They're more likely to be on Social Security than to save it.

And that leaves only us: We the People. Like every other crisis we face, it's up to us to save ourselves.

But how?

Be honest, no matter what side of the political aisle you're on, it's obvious that our financial deficit is dwarfed only by the deficit of trust we have in our leaders.

I'm willing to do the right thing for our future, I'm willing to sacrifice, but not when I believe that our leaders will do nothing but make the asteroid even larger.

Race has become an issue in this year's presidential campaign, which prompted a much-discussed speech last week by Sen. Barack Obama, one of the two remaining contenders for the Democratic nomination.

Miss Rice declined to comment on the campaign, saying only that it was "important" that Mr. Obama "gave it for a whole host of reasons."

But she spoke forcefully on the subject, citing personal and family experience to illustrate "a paradox and contradiction in this country," which "we still haven't resolved."

On the one hand, she said, race in the U.S. "continues to have effects" on public discussions and "the deepest thoughts that people hold." On the other, "enormous progress" has been made, which allowed her to become the nation's chief diplomat.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national "birth defect" that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country's very founding.

"Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding."

As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that."

"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today," she said.

From what I have read of this interview
it is just what I have always thought about obama-he does not have a clue.
and I loved the way he tried to deflect.
We are going to be in big trouble if he gets into office. He does not know what to do. We need someone who can speak of solutions to the problems firmness and conviction. He does not know what to do.
He is the Black Geo. Bush (w)

It beehoves me why Andrea Mitchell dug up old tapes or writings on Rev. Wright 10 days after the fact, when she did not do the First Reporting on Hillary's Bosnia Fabrication, although she was on the trip with her, and only reported on this after it became public knowledge that there was no sniper fire and after Hillary had told this tall tale, 3 times. So why is Andrea so compelled to keep bringing up Rev. Wright, when we are electing a President, not a Reverened! Is she a Hillary surrogate instead of an unbiased reporter? Makes you wonder. Hillary states she would not meet with her enimies, yet she met with Richard Mellon Scaife, her arch enemy who accused her and Bill of murders and conducted a witch hunt against her during their White House Years. Did Andrea report on that? And, then there is speculation that Hillary might have exagerrated her story about Chelsea's jog near the Twin Towers on 9-11. Has anyone took a look at the video done by Date Line to see what Hillary really said, not the transcript put out by Media Matters but the actual video? Where is the reporting on that? Then there is exaggeration about Nafta, Ireland and there are more to come, the unraveling of Hillary. In her desire to make Barack look unelectable, it looks like, instead, the Chickens are Coming Home to Roost!