Early votingEverybody has to pay taxes for schools and roads and all that.
The question is who should pay more? Should the people who earn $40K, $50K, $60K pay more or should the person making $250K and higher pay more?
McCain supporters (and all republicans) believe, like Bush, that the people and corporations making beau coup bucks should pay the least taxes. The logic is they create the jobs for the rest of us and that they earn their wealth, therefore they should pay less in taxes. They believe the more money they make, the more they should keep.
That's what I call greed. Why should the middle class pay a disproportionately higher amount of taxes? Not everybody can be a business owner.
What have the wealthy corporations done with their tax breaks? It hasn't benefited the economy as a whole as far as I can tell. Take a look around.
The question is who should pay more? Should the people who earn $40K, $50K, $60K pay more or should the person making $250K and higher pay more?
McCain supporters (and all republicans) believe, like Bush, that the people and corporations making beau coup bucks should pay the least taxes. The logic is they create the jobs for the rest of us and that they earn their wealth, therefore they should pay less in taxes. They believe the more money they make, the more they should keep.
That's what I call greed. Why should the middle class pay a disproportionately higher amount of taxes? Not everybody can be a business owner.
What have the wealthy corporations done with their tax breaks? It hasn't benefited the economy as a whole as far as I can tell. Take a look around.
The Bush-McCain tax cuts aren't really for small businesses, as McCain touts. They're for big business.
But McCain can't campaign on that. He can't say: I'm going to decrease taxes for big business! Can you imagine how that would go over?
People would see through that, so he pretends that he's campaigning for small business, so the average Joe in Pennsylvania is impressed or hoodwinked, depending on how you look at it. The majority of small businesses don't make more than $250K.
Obama wants the tax structure to be fair so that the middle class can catch up. Incomes have gone down while the price of everything has gone up. Bush's tax structure has helped create a bigger divide between those who hold all the wealth and the rest of us.
McCain wants to extend the Bush tax cuts and then some. Republicans believe that the so-called job creators trickle down the wealth, therefore it's better that they get reduced taxes so that they can create more jobs.
The other argument is that they deserve reduced taxes because they earned more wealth. They worked hard.
Doesn't the person making $50K earn it too? Don't they work as hard?
Here is a side by side comparison of Obama and McCain's tax plans and what they mean to your salary.
CNN does a fact check on McCain running around saying Obama wants to take from the rich and give to the poor.
But that's not what it is. It's realigning the tax structure so that it's fair, so that the middle class can keep more of their money.
But McCain can't campaign on that. He can't say: I'm going to decrease taxes for big business! Can you imagine how that would go over?
People would see through that, so he pretends that he's campaigning for small business, so the average Joe in Pennsylvania is impressed or hoodwinked, depending on how you look at it. The majority of small businesses don't make more than $250K.
Obama wants the tax structure to be fair so that the middle class can catch up. Incomes have gone down while the price of everything has gone up. Bush's tax structure has helped create a bigger divide between those who hold all the wealth and the rest of us.
McCain wants to extend the Bush tax cuts and then some. Republicans believe that the so-called job creators trickle down the wealth, therefore it's better that they get reduced taxes so that they can create more jobs.
The other argument is that they deserve reduced taxes because they earned more wealth. They worked hard.
Doesn't the person making $50K earn it too? Don't they work as hard?
Here is a side by side comparison of Obama and McCain's tax plans and what they mean to your salary.
CNN does a fact check on McCain running around saying Obama wants to take from the rich and give to the poor.
But that's not what it is. It's realigning the tax structure so that it's fair, so that the middle class can keep more of their money.
This is what Obama means when he says spread the wealth around. That's a nuance lost on many who'd rather cry socialism or communism, which is not what it is. When the radical right cry Socialist! Liberal! Communist! it's all part of the plan to paint Obama as the unAmerican scary guy.
CNN: Obama explained his tax plan during the roughly five-minute exchange — telling Wurzelbacher that the tax rate on the portion of his income that was more than $250,000 would be increased from 36 percent to 39 percent. But he also mentioned that his plan includes a 50 percent small-business tax credit for health care and a proposal to eliminate the capital-gains tax for small businesses that increase in value. Obama said his tax plan, which he said focuses on bigger breaks for people making lower incomes, would be good for the economy. "If you've got a plumbing business, you're going to be better off if you've got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you," he said. "Right now, everybody's so pinched that business is bad for everybody. And I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."
Wurzelbacher said, "The reason I ask you about the American Dream, I mean I've worked hard. I'm a plumber. I work 10, 12 hours a day and I'm buying this company and I'm going to continue working that way. … I'm getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American Dream."
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, October 16, Wurzelbacher said he had misunderstood Obama's plan and that the company he wants to buy makes well less than $250,000 a year — which Obama says means his taxes would not be increased.
The Verdict:
Misleading. McCain's remark was an oversimplification of a five-minute-long conversation. Obama replied in great detail about his tax plan, and the "spread the wealth" remark was one small part of the conversation.
