L.A. Times Article about Obama's Much-Needed Tax Reform Plan

The L.A. Times has a great article this morning about President Obama's tax plan and the resultant freak-out from Republicans who are apoplectic that their rich people's gravy train is being scuttled. As author Michael Hiltzik explains in detail, Obama's plans merely start to set right the affluent-skewed tax policies put into effect by Ronald Reagan. It wasn't always like this, where the rich get all the breaks and everybody else just takes it.

Republicans love to call Obama's ideas a "Class War". How come it's only a class war when the beleagured middle-class seeks some redress from the special treatment the Republicans lavished on the highest wage earners? The real "Class War" was the upper class turning the country into their private bank, extending special privileges to themselves and damn the rest of the country, individuals and infrastructure alike.

I'm sure you all are familiar with the Republican motto "I've Got Mine, Fuck You!" -- have you ever known it not to be true? Surely you remember that footage of George Bush at a dinner of fat cat money bags, standing up at the podium and loving referring to them as "my base". These guys didn't even TRY to hide their bias. These "Pocketbook Republicans" turn my stomach and surely need, at this desperate time, to be reminded that it's time to pay their fair share.

So President Obama is trying to make things right again. Please read Hiltzin's article and send it around to people who just might not get it, just might not remember a time when people paid their fair share and it wasn't only about the rich getting richer.

I am so proud of President Obama for taking this step. He's getting a lot of flack for trying to change things, but we must support him in this!

Good Column from Canada's "The Globe and Mail"

Excellent article from this past Friday's The Globe and Mail newspaper, by columnist Neil Reynolds, entitled "Obama's tax message has a Reagan resonance." In it, he points out the shocking differences in Obama's tax plan and McCain's, and why Americans ultimately rejected the latter. Not that taxes were the only issue, but the contrasts between McCain's pledge to not raise taxes, but actually substantially lower taxes on the rich, and Obama's to offer tax cuts to help the middle class, point out the clear bias that the Republicans have towards the wealthy. Their tax cuts -- skewed almost entirely towards the rich -- were defended again and again by both McCain and Palin, in a sickening display of perfidy towards the vast majority of their base who would not benefit from the Republicans special largesse to the big income earners.

Just as a for instance, and I'm quoting Mr. Reynolds here: "For people in the top 0.1 per cent of category, the 147,000 families with incomes in excess of $2.8-million, the Obama plan provided a tax increase of $701,000; the McCain plan, a tax cut of $270,000." By what reason, except the inexorable bias of the Republicans to provide special treatment to the wealthy, could McCain justify lowering taxes on people with that level of income? It's obscene, and though many midd-class Republicans continue to believe that the the party leadership has always had their best economic interest in mind, just do the math.

Read the article. It gives a succinct history of the U.S. tax rate ups and down, and should be required reading for anyone who may come up against a Republican apologist who's still fuming that McCain won't be getting into the White House. It also paints Obama as a well-read student of history who knows how to use the past to plan a better future.

History on the Side of Obama's Economic Plan

For a detailed yet emminently readable assessment of the differences between the economic policies of Obama and McCain, and what history has to say about the probable outcome, check out this terrific article in the New York Times by Alan Blinder, a professor of economics at Princeton.

The issues discussed include the overall growth of the economy and the incredible income inequality which has been exacerbated by recent policies.

This is particularly pertinent since McCain is out on the campaign trail lying about Obama's plan to raise taxes -- the Democratic plan would only raise them on incomes over $250,000 -- versus the Republican plan to keep in place indefinitely the current Bush tax code which offers preferential rates to the very wealthy and penalizes the middle class. It all boils down to math, kids, and unless you're a multi-millionaire, the Republicans are screwing you and giving a boost to their billionaire buddies. How does it feel to be played like a chump, anyway?

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