Tennyson Hayes strikes again!
It looks like it may come down to that in the home stretch. Joe explains himself pretty clearly here, and since the Kos Kid hallucination about him being an actor has proven to be just that (a hallucination), they’ll have to find some other way to smear someone else from the middle class who dares to challenge the supposed brilliance of the Chosen One.
Obama’s answer: ‘How many plumbers do you know that make $250,000?”
I’ll take a stabs and answering that one: thousands. They’re the plumber, who- like Joe- save up their money by living below their means and end up buying the small businesses or franchises they work for. They generally serve both as boss and extra hand, until- if they are successful enough- they move into the office permanently. That is the path my uncle took and left a $20 million legacy and hundreds of happy employers behind when he passed on. and donated more in a month to charity than Obama did in a year when he was in the same salary ranges.
Every plumber dreams of doing this; it is the dream that Joe worries about. And, in that, he knows infinitely more about the middle class than Obama ever hopes to. ANd Obama continues to make that clear.
I’d take Joe in the WHite House over Barack any day.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Election 2008, Joe the Plumber, Politics
Are you calling income over $250,000 a year middle class?
Reagan was wrong about trickle down economics, we will see if trickle up economics does any better.
Obama has not offered anything drastic, unlike McCain who has brought taxation further by taxing health care benefits and giving every employer the green light to drop their company paid health benefits.
“Joe the Plumber”, your insightfulness is the equivalent of someone looking out the window and saying, look it is raining? “Look, we have a progressive income tax bracket.”
So Obama raises tax rates on the wealthy up by 2% points and McCain lowers it down by 2%. What is the difference? Neither one of them are offering a fair tax which would be based on consumption above the poverty level. And McCain hasn’t stated how he will balance the budget. Oh yeah, a spending freeze except for military which makes up a third of the budget and if it continues to increase how it has been we will never have a balanced budget. NOT GOOD ENOUGH JOHN!
The way I see it, since Obama is offering a tax break on 95% of Americans, that is the sure fire way to get the most votes. McCain must be counting on big money types like the media to spin the population into voting for him.
Reagan was wrong about trickle down economics, we will see if trickle up economics does any better.
- The education system is an example of the problem with Trickle-up economics. Public has education has lofty “Goals” to educate our youth, but the accountability, via Standardized test scores, puts all the focus on the bottom 1/3 of the class achieve “PASSING” status on Standardized Test scores. The BOTTOM of the class gets the attention, not the TOP Achievers who are left to fend for themselves.
Bottom Line of Re-Distribution of Wealth to the Bottom by taking from MORE from the top
To whom much is given, much is expected”
– Q. What exactly can we expect when we incentivize people to “stay put” at the bottom.
– Q. Why try harder to achieve?
– Q. Who creates WEALTH AND PRODCTIVITY in this nation? A. Its people at the top 1/3, who take risk to start and/or run a company or enterprise. They have the responsibility of steering the ship and creating jobs for those who need to produce income for their families. If they are not rewarded, its much more likely that the ship will sink, and ALL will drowned.
We SHOULD eliminate the “Progressive Tax” and institute the principles of consumption aka “Fair Tax”
“Joe the Plumber? More like Joe the Keating Family Operative
By David Neiwert Thursday Oct 16, 2008 8:59am
I guess it’s no wonder John McCain was so happy to use “Joe the Plumber” as a debate prop last night — he’s a partisan Republican who also happens to be a member of McCain’s old friends, the Keating family.
From Martin Eisenstadt:
Turns out that Joe Wurzelbacher from the Toledo event is a close relative of Robert Wurzelbacher of Milford, Ohio. Who’s Robert Wurzelbacher? Only Charles Keating’s son-in-law and the former senior vice president of American Continental, the parent company of the infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan. The now retired elder Wurzelbacher is also a major contributor to Republican causes giving well over $10,000 in the last few years.”
– Crooks and Liars
Another attempt to convict by relative. a distant relative who is the son-in-law of someone who worked for a company that had someone running it who John MacCain hasn’t seen in decades. A clear line of delineation.
And, like usual, trying to smear the guy, not address his message and concerns.
Will Obama be handing out sepia-coloered shirts after the election if he wins?
BTW: Obama’s ‘tax break’ means sending checks to tens of millions who don’t pay income taxes at all. That is clearly income redistribution.
“And, like usual, trying to smear the guy, not address his message and concerns”
Lord, that’s funny coming from you.
Kind of like you forgot all about Ayers, Rezko, Wright, The One, Arrogant, Greek Columns, Messiah, presidential seal, birth certificate, muslim school, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
And we have also discussed the wildly unfair and counterproductive FICA tax that those millions DO pay.
McCain is the one trying to sell a $5,000 refundable tax credit in order to buy votes. “That is clearly income redistribution” in exactly the same way, but for less honorable purposes..
It is the message given by the Ayers, Rezkos, Wright, et al that is the concern. Have I ever questioned whether these people are authentic in what they do?
Obviously, Joe’s message scares the crud out of some people or they wouldn’t be in such a hurry to prove that he is some sort of anomaly or has some nefarious relationships.
Next time, if your Messiah doesn’t want to be asked difficult questions, he should just stick to shaking hands with his groupies, eh?
[...] And bottom line: it was Obama’s answer to the question that is the issue (and his sanctimonious response about how many plumbers do you know that make $250K, which I’ve already addressed). [...]
Obama was not afraid to answer the question, he answered the question quite clearly. He supports taxing the rich and giving breaks to the middle class and the poor. I don’t really see that as income redistribution. I see that as charging two different prices for the same goods.
If you want to balance the budget you have to raise taxes or cut spending. It makes no sense to raise taxes on poor people because you will not make a dent in the budget and you will lose votes too.
“I see that as charging two different prices for the same goods”
Not necessarily the same goods and certainly not the same amount of goods.
As a tiny example, Donald Trump’s airplane uses a disproportionate amount of air traffic control and resources relative to an airline passenger or to the burger flipper who doesn’t fly at all. Trump is getting more benefit and therefore he should pay more for it.
Those who are benefiting more should pay more in proportion to the value of the benefit.
DaveNate, some of it is not giving ‘breaks’ You can’t give ‘breaks’ by giving money to people not paying into the system and Obama’s plan does precisely that for 10s of millions. That part is clearly redistribution; the rest is not.
[...] Hayes (he of the eloquent graphic design I’ve used again and again) has organized a Galtslist site around the concept and thought one of my approaches [...]