John McCain accused Barack Obama of class warfare in wanting to roll back the tax cuts George Bush gave disproportionately to the wealthy. Obama is proposing rolling back the tax rates to where they were under the Clinton adminstration for someone who makes over $250,000.
Maybe $250,000 isn't much to John McCain -- after all, his wife made over $4 million last year. But to those of us in the real world, $250,000 is a lot of money. But let's review, shall we, the Republican version of class warfare:
It's no secret that the unspoken platform of the Republican party has been to give more to the already wealthy and large corporations and if some of it "trickles down" to the little guy, well, that's OK. Keep in mind that most corporations pay NO income tax at all. The wealthy generally pay less, percentage-wise, than do their nannies and administrative assistants (even Warren Buffett finds it ridiculous that his admin pays a greater percentage than he does). So it begs the question -- why would George Bush put in tax cuts that went so disproportionately to the wealthy if this is not, in fact, class warfare? Did you even feel a blip in your paycheck when Bush's cuts went in? I didn't.
Now comes John McCain, he of the wife worth $100 million and so many homes he can't remember them all. He charges Barack Obama with class warfare because Obama wants to roll those tax cuts back for people making over $250,000. He calls it a tax increase -- but it's really only undoing some of the unfairness created by Bush's tax code in the first place.
John McCain should go back and review what happened with the savings and loan scandal (i.e., his connection with Charles Keating) and remind himself what happens when the wealthy steal from those less fortunate.
Class warfare is former Republican Speaker of the House Tom Delay jury-rigging Texas Congressional districts to separate out the wealthier areas in one of his many attempts to create a permanent Republican majority in Congress so they can write legislation favoring -- guess who -- the wealthy who voted them in.
Class warfare is John McCain's idea of taxing, for the first time in history, the health care benefits of people who get a paycheck. Sure, he wants to turn around and give you a tax credit to help you pay for a health care plan (which, if you are older and/or have health care issues will probably not cover the cost)... but does he think all this added complexity doesn't come with a price? How many companies will dump their health care plans entirely rather than deal with all the extra costs involved in collecting those taxes?
Class warfare is George Bush asking the middle class to shoulder the burden for a national debt that is out of control because the Republican Congress that has been in power over the budget for most of his presidency has spent money like a drunken sailor on short leave.
The Republicans have made an icon of Ronald Reagan. But Reagan, a staunch proponent of the trickle down economic theory, tripled the national debt during his term. And when his original tax cut (again, disproportionately to the wealthy) created such economic havoc, he put in a huge tax increase, and shifted more of the tax burden to people who have a paycheck (the middle class) and took it away from people who get their income from securities (i.e., the wealthy). Sounds like class warfare to me.
Class warfare, John McCain, is not proposing that the wealthy in this country give their generous "gimme" from Bush up. Class warfare would be not doing so.
The Republicans want to label fairness as socialism. But if the middle class is struggling, and losing jobs, then we stop spending. If nobody's buying anything, then stores close, plants shut down, company stocks lose money, 401(k)s shrink, and everyone is hurt. The middle class is the economic engine of this country, not the wealthy. This is a lesson the Republicans have never learned.
