Bailout Watch 17: Motown to Party Like a Barack Star
The Detroit News reports that democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has launched a TV campaign in Michigan "accusing" his republican competitor of not supporting federal bailout bucks for Motown's hometown heroes. Damn straight. Oh wait.. "The McCain campaign said the ad was misleading, pointing to the fact that McCain now supports a loan-guarantee proposal. McCain questioned the need for the guarantees during a Michigan campaign stop this month, but later announced he supports them." And if that's not craven enough (and it is for me), here's how The Detroit News described the "re-tooling" program: "The loan guarantees would make it easier for the cash-strapped domestic auto industry to borrow money as they go through the expensive process of transforming their factories to produce more fuel efficient cars." If it looks like a done deal, and sounds like a done deal… mark my words: it's a done deal.
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Today's NYTimes CBS Poll asks: "Is it more important to provide health care coverage to all Americans or hold down taxes?" Result: All votors: Provide health care: 67 percent; Hold down taxes: 27 percent. Bottom line is that if we the people want to spend our taxes on health care rather than on funding evangelical colleges, no-bid contracts to Halliburton, unnecessary wars, pork, and all the other wasted things that government spends money on; it is up to the voter. Call it socialism, buddism, aboriginalism, nudism or whatever. It is our right. All governments regulate profits by taxation. That is far different than nationalization. If you do you understand the difference between these two things, I feel sorry for you.
The misconceptions about Obama's economic policy are startling. Some of the things stated here are half true but the conclusions extrapolated from them are simplistic, untrue, and occasionally outlandish. z31 - do you really think Obama's economic policy is to "tax everyone?" "...he is proposing tax cuts for most families that are significantly larger than those McCain is offering, along with major tax increases for families making more than $250,000 a year." "The Tax Policy Center, a research group run by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, has done the most detailed analysis of the Obama and McCain tax plans, and it has published a series of fascinating tables. For the bottom 80 percent of the population — those households making $118,000 or less — McCain’s various tax cuts would mean a net savings of about $200 a year on average. Obama’s proposals would bring $900 a year in savings. So for most people, Obama is the tax cutter in this campaign." "If there is a theme to the Obama tax philosophy, it’s that the tax code is not quite as progressive as you think it is. Most of the public discussion about taxes tends to focus on the income tax, which taxes the affluent at a considerably higher rate than anyone else. These quotes are taken out of an excellent article written by David Leonhardt (great writer, one of my favorites). I won't link the article but if you want to read it in its entirety (it's a bit long but is also very concise and covers quite a bit) just google the author's name. Although Obama apparently shuns the term, there's no doubt in my mind that he clearly ascribes to contemporary Rawlsian-redistribution philosophies. But by no means does he want to "tax everyone," that's simply the opposite of the truth. He would be a tax cutter for the vast majority of Americans. If you don't like that, or whatever other reason you don't like Obama (his youth, the church he attended, his big ears, etc etc) that's fine. After all, that is your prerogative in a democracy. But please don't hate him for things that simply aren't true.