Obama’s Road to Ruin
October 16, 2008 26 Comments
You have probably seen this video many time by now.
It is the video in which Joe Wurzelbacher, more affectionately known as Joe the Plumber, confronts Senator Obama on his tax plan. You see Joe was planning on purchasing a small business. As a result his income will rise into what Obama calls the “rich”. Under Obama’s tax plan this hard working American would be punished for his hard work.
You will hear a lot of rhetoric coming out of Obama’s camp that he is for Main Street not Wall Street. This is really a false rhetoric that he is shoving down unsuspecting citizen’s throats. When you drive down Main Street in many Midwestern towns you will see small businesses left and right. They line the streets regardless of whether it is named Main Street or not. The fact of the matter is that a large majority of these small businesses will fall into the same income bracket as Joe the Plumber.
It is these small businesses that are excellent sources of local employment. As the bottom lines of these small businesses grow they generally hire more employees. Now what do you suppose will happen if Barack Obama were to implement his tax plan. These small businesses will be required to pay more in taxes. Supposedly to help someone less fortunate succeed, but that is another post entirely. As the tax burden rises on these small businesses because of Obama’s tax plan they will be unable to hire an employee because of the additional expenditure. Now what happens if businesses cannot create jobs? Come on I know that you can do it!!! That’s right the number of decent paying jobs are going to dwindle under Obama’s tax plan.
The short of it is that Obama’s tax plan is nothing more than a socialist fantasy. I will give Obama the benefit of the doubt and will assume that he truly has good intentions with this plan and not a desire to destroy the US. Even though I give Obama the benefit of the doubt on his intentions, I still find the plan to be repulsive. Obama’s tax plan will lead our country down a road that we do not want to travel. It is the road to ruin and it is paved with good intentions.
I just checked- there are 30 pages on Google devoted to Joe the Plumber. And let me tell you, many are less than kind. If Joe has not found out by now, he will be seeing the clear picture of what life will be like since he dared to take on Obama. It sure did not take long for Obama lovers to get nasty about Joe. I should not be amazed but I am. One citizen, expressing his view and in a matter of days he is trashed as a person. This way of Americans pouncing on other Americans for having an opinion is very troubling. I wonder if Joe now has concerns for his safety and what will happen to his business. I have these concerns for him.
This is exactly what I fear with an Obama presidency. Free speech will not be free. There is already a price being paid. There are attacks not by foreign terrorists. As I have noted with Sarah Palin and now with Joe W., there are plenty of terrorists at work and they have USA addresses.
Something to think about….
ditto! let’s hope Joe the Plumber makes enough money that he won’t have to accept the government mandated healthcare Obama spews about.
This article shows a complete lack of depth and understanding of economic policy. Small business are very important to the American economy. This is about wher the article stops getting things correct. First, a raise to a 38% tax bracket is not socialism. It is what we had in the mid to late 1990′s. What this higher rate does is allows lower classes to have more money. This money becomes reinjected into the cycle, because people with less money are more likely to spend, not save. If wealth becomes too concentrated amongst the most wealthy (the top 1% of the American wealthy have more money than the bottom half), the money is saved, not spent, and businesses, suffer. This is one of the major reasons why our economy is relying on credit from overseas rather than our own taxes. This is why Warren Buffet – among others in the American business elite – favor HIGHER taxes for themselves. Why? Because that money will be spent, not saved, and they, as owners of businesses, will eventually profit.
You can continue to call Obama a socialist, and in doing so, display your own ignorance of macroeconomic philosophy. But we need to wise up to the facts. We cannot continue to pay low taxes and spend money we don’t have. We cannot continue to concentrate wealth at the top of our economy when it has proven it will not trickle down.
We need to provide tax credits to employers for creating new jobs for American workers (an Obama plan), to facilitate domestic growth, and make incentives for employes to hire American workers, and not send jobs to China. We need to stop offshore banking, (an Obama plan) which creates tax loopholes for corporations to hide profits, which prevents otherwise properly taxable income from being taxed (and taking money out of the American economy). Take your job as a citizen seriously and learn what is truly best for the American economy.
As a writer who can make unsubstantiated claims, it is easy for you to proclaim Obama a socialist, anti-small business radical. That is, however, not a translation of his policies that informed economists, basic political philosophy, or the history of American economic policy support.
Spend more time reading and less time writing, and maybe what you write might be informed and helpful to the public, rather than inflammatory and misleading.
I am a Democrat, and a conservative, if that means we need to conserve the American economy at the expense of big business.
Obama ’08
Joe, thank you! Wish I had your acumen to discuss this issue on the other right wing websites. Hope you don’t mind if I plagarize your post to that end.
Actually Joe, there is a fairly simple economic principle that can and would go a long way toward helping the economic situation. They can borrow a concept from the average responsible American.
The principle that I am discussing is one that millions of Americans use everyday. The concept of financial responsibility. Whenever the government begins spending more than they take in they want to raise taxes, fees, and other methods of generating more income. Instead they should be on a fixed budget approved by the American people. Then the government should work to keep their spending within that budget. After all the American household only gets a budget increase if they get a raise or a better paying job. This is the economic model that the US government should be using. Not one that allows them to borrow endlessly or to arbitrarily increase a person’s taxes.
As for Americas current tax code. It needs scrapped altogether. It has become much too complicated and bulky to operate effectively. I wonder if anyone, anywhere has a complete grasp on what the tax codes contain. Somehow I doubt it. Instead I think that we should implement the FairTax or the flat tax. These systems would be much fairer for everyone.
As for your assertion that Obama is not a socialist. There you are flat wrong. He is advocating for a redistribution of wealth, a socialist policy. He has been quoted as saying that he wants to “spread the wealth” something that is very socialist at its very core.
So Joe, I think that it is you that needs to read something other than Obama’s campaign website. You might be more informed and helpful to the public.
this is what you say you can put a lipstick on BO and still BO the socialist.
Where does a $700 billion corporate bailout fall on the scale of socialism?
Very socialist. That is one of the reasons that I opposed it.
Hang on everyone, Obama wants to raise the FICA tax , for 2008 the ceiling is $102,000.00, He wants no ceiling. Medicare tax was changed a few years back and there is no ceiling on that. Can anyone tell me what amount Obama puts middle class at re earnings? Small businesses would suffer re increase in FICA as well as anyone in 2009 making more than $102,000.00. Just another back door deal to get more money…that is if he gets in office.
Considering that 40% of people pay no income tax, the “tax cut” Obama is promising is really a “handout”.
To abregar:
Obama is no more socialist than you unless perhaps you refuse to accept social security and medicare.
The VAST majority of Real Americans have accepted income tax and the necessary use of monies so collected to foster the common good via roads, police and fire departments, and the armed forces as well as social programs as mentioned above.
In recent decades “borrow and spend” Republican administrations have led this country into bankruptcy while enriching the top 1st of earners in the US and impoverishing tens of millions. That may be your idea of what is right for America, it certainly is not mine. Unbridled capitalism is certainly NOT the Christian way.
no it’s a buyoff i.e. a bribe
I have every intention to refuse social security and medicare. It is called being responsible and planning for your future.
Cygnet, you misunderstand what a socialist is. It is someone that wants to take money from one person or group to give to another. I keep hearing the word fair with Obama’s plan. Taxing one individual at a higher rate than another is no where near fair. What would be fair would be to tax every individual at the SAME tax rate. Now that would be fair.
NOOOOOO- the vast number of Americans have NOT accepted income tax!
If you are accusing us of not being REAL Americans- well, I can’t change your mind or heart, so think what you will.
Have you looked at your pay check stub lately?
The cost of the military goes up, the cost of rebuilding our roads goes up. I make a great living, part of that is based on the military keeping me safe and the roads being in working order. I make more, I benefit more, I should pay more. Why shouldn’t I?
Well Peter, you do pay more. As your pay increases you pay more taxes.
The income tax is based on a percentage.
And if the government (read that Dems and Repubs) would quit spending money so wastefully they would have the money needed to take care of things.
Cygnet— I dont think the alliance wants to “borrow and spend”. See their posts ripping the bailout. WE NEED TO CUT SPENDING!!!
Erick………the buyout bill was socialist. Most people put on blinders to that one, but both candidates voted for it, so I guess call it a wash.
Maybe all you folks crying “socialist” out there should try looking up the definition first:
1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done
So until the government takes over the farms, the utilities, the businesses, your property, etc., this is all just so much smoke being blown up your a@@ by the Republicans.
Government has always “spread the wealth” by the means of taxation, laws and, yes, earmarks. And, if you don’t believe Halliburton and the rest haven’t been made wealthy by no bid contracts, or tax breaks & loopholes for major corporations that, according to the GAO, have paid little or no taxes, I’ve a few bridges to sell you.
Read the economic history of this country or pick up a few recent newspapers. Go back to the Great Depression and the Banking Crisis of 1933. Read about the Glass-Steagall Act.
For abregar – be sure to let us all know when you refuse SS and Medicare. If your company’s policy is like mine, that policy will be reduced to supplemental insurance once I’m eligible for Medicare.
Anyone here heard of David Walker, former head of the GAO? You’d all do well to check out his website. If we don’t get the finances of this country under control soon, we’re all going to be paying a he!! of lot more taxes just to keep basic services running.
Obama’s tax plan will destroy the Social Security system.
Obama says his income tax plan will lower taxes for 95% of Americans. There is just one problem with this, 40% of Americans already pay no income tax. Obama’s response to this is that these people pay Social Security tax. Well, that’s not income tax, but a contribution to their retirement plan. So if he wins and implements his tax plan, for the first time in the history of Social Security, 40% of the people who will get retirement benefits will have paid nothing for them. Social Security will then loose all pretext of being a retirement plan, and will become a national welfare program.
This will cause Social Security to lose public support in a massive way. Leave Social Security contributions out of income tax plans. If you take some peoples income taxes to pay others Social Security taxes, Social Security will be destroyed forever.
http://strategicthought-charles77.blogspot.com/2008/10/obamas-tax-plan-will-destroy-social.html
Everyone fails to mention that we got an even more “progressive” tax system under Bush.
Bush gave us an income tax system where married couple making $15k a year would pay 10% income tax. Under Clinton that was 15%. Now, if that same couple had one child they would pay NO taxes under Bush and yet still have to owe taxes under Clinton.
I’m so surprised by the misinformation out there about the Bush tax cuts. The Bush tax cuts were good because they were across the board and sparked investment (not because they are more progressive). The problem is that they are inherently UNFAIR (read progressive) just as our tax system has ALWAYS been because as one becomes successful they are increasingly taxed at a higher rate for being productive.
Check out the facts for yourself:
2007 schedule rates.
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=164272,00.html
1999 schedule rates.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i1040tt–1999.pdf
The only fair tax is one that taxes everyone at the same rate. You wouldn’t go to a restaurant and order a meal and expect the prices to change according to how much each person made would you?
The problem with the tax argument in general is it is only a symptom of the root problem. OVERSPENDING and INFLATED government. Frankly, both parties are 100% at fault for that. Cut Welfare, Cut SSI (which is not insurance anymore it is a retirement fraud system), Cut the dep. of Education, Cut the IRS and replace with a cheaper system to run.
I’m going to hurl..!
We need Joe for president…He realizes what it is like to work hard and try to succeed…Obama is stupid.
So, you terminated the above video due to what you say is terms of violation..! Whose? Yours? Did he have you thinking its ok to be dishonest…!! Obama is the devil.!
Laura, that kind of talk is NOT acceptable on this blog. I’m asking that your comments be moderated out.
At the request of one of our contributors, two of Laura’s comments have been deleted. As for 1st Amendment rights, Laura has the freedom to say whatever she wants on her own blog, just not on ours. For the record, one of Laura’s comments was never approved due to total disrespect of another human being. Please clean it up.