McCain: Obama's Tax Policies Are Socialist

CONCORD, N.C. — Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Saturday accused Democratic rival Barack Obama of favoring a socialistic economic approach by supporting tax cuts and tax credits McCain says would merely shuffle wealth rather than creating it.

"At least in Europe, the Socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives," McCain said in a radio address. "They use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candor from Sen. Obama. Raising taxes on some in order to give checks to others is not a tax cut; it's just another government giveaway."

McCain, though, has a health care plan girded with a similar philosophy. He proposes providing individuals with a $5,000 tax credit to buy health insurance. He would pay for his plan, in part, by considering as taxable income the money their employer spends on their health coverage.

McCain leveled his charge before a pair of appearances aimed at restoring his lead in critical battleground states. In both North Carolina and Virginia, where McCain was to speak later in the day, his campaign has surrendered its lead to Obama in various polls. President Bush, a Republican, won both states in 2004.

During a rally outside Charlotte, N.C., McCain returned to the socialism theme, although he did not use the more tart language of his radio address.

He also was sharply critical of the Bush administration, saying it should be more aggressive in buying up the home mortgages of those trapped by high interest rates and falling housing values.

"The administration is not doing it. The secretary of the Treasury is not doing it," McCain told the crowd. "We need to buy up these mortgages, give you a mortgage that you can afford, so you can pay your mortgage and realize the American Dream of owning your home."

McCain stoked the crowd by accusing Obama and his fellow Democrats of assuming they will not only win the White House but expand their congressional majority.

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"Did you happen to see that Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi anticipates a 250-seat majority" in the House, the senator asked. "My friends, we can't let that happen. My friends, taxes will increase, spending and they'll concede defeat in Iraq."

The last Democratic candidate to win North Carolina was Southerner Jimmy Carter in 1976, when the Republicans were reeling from President Nixon's resignation following the Watergate scandal. Virginia has not voted for a Democratic nominee since President Johnson's landslide victory in 1964.

McCain's drop in the state polls follow larger national trends that have given Obama a lead following Wall Street chaos that focused the race on who is best equipped to restore the economy.

On Sunday, McCain was to travel to Ohio, where he might appear with "Joe the Plumber," the Holland, Ohio, plumber Joe Wurzelbacher whom the senator has been portraying as emblematic of people with concerns about Obama's tax plans.

Wurzelbacher became the focal point of the final presidential debate after he met Obama earlier in the week and said the Democrat's tax proposal could keep him from buying the two-man plumbing company where he works. However, reports of Wurzelbacher's annual earnings suggest he would receive a tax cut rather than an increase under Obama's plan.

Obama has said his tax policies would cut payments for 95 percent of working Americans, while increasing them only for families making more than $250,000 a year. McCain has argued that 40 percent of Americans don't pay income taxes, either because they are seniors or don't meet minimum earnings thresholds, so the only way to cut their taxes is to give them various credits.

"In other words, Barack Obama's tax plan would convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington," McCain said in the radio address.

An Obama spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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On the Net:

McCain campaign: http://www.johnmccain.com/

Obama campaign: http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

Comments

[Hirnlego]

the GOP are masters at socialism for those who do not need it. The already wealthy.

USA is going bankrupt and he actually talks about taxcuts? Looney tunes..

[BinKbar]

USA is going bankrupt and he actually talks about taxcuts? Looney tunes.

Well gee, buying votes from deadbeats gets expensive.

[AkronGuy]

And buying large campaign contributions from the wealthy is even more expensive. But the Bushies have been using OUR tax money to do just that.

[Hirnlego]

Oh boy. McCain has had the ultimate makeover. He is not honest in the slightest.

There's one big difference between me and the others "I won't take every last dime of the surplus and spend it on tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthy." [McCain campaign commercial, January More..2000]

"I am disappointed that the Senate Finance Committee preferred instead to cut the top tax rate of 39.6% to 36%, thereby granting generous tax relief to the wealthiest individuals of our country at the expense of lower- and middle-income American taxpayers." [McCain Senate floor statement, May 21, 2001]

"But when you look at the percentage of the tax cuts that"as the previous tax cuts"that go to the wealthiest Americans, you will find that the bulk of it, again, goes to wealthiest Americans." [NBC's "Today," Jan. 7, 2003]

When campaigning in 2000, McCain told a crowd of supporters, "I don't think Bill Gates needs a tax cut. I think your parents do."
http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/article806980.ece

TAXES: In 2001 and 2003, McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts, saying that they would "mostly benefit the wealthy." But in 2006 he voted to extend them and now he wants to double them.

[Ged2012]

The GOP thinks that it isn't socialist to give a tax break to the wealthy.

McCain's reasoning is stupid!

[northstar11]

'MY FRIENDS TAXES WILL INCREASE ,SPENDING AND THEY WILL CONCEDE DEFEAT IN IRAQ "

and the sky will turn dark , and rats will fill the streets and there will be disease and pestillence everywhere,and there will be no food , and ....and ...and..god will disappear

oh my god, we cant let the democrats have a majority.

[Whinger]

How dare the huddled masses get a tax break, only the ultra rich deserve that, GOP socialism!

[AnselAnvil]

Shame on you Senator McCain...Shame...Shame...Shame...You say you're not President Bush, but you've resorted to the same hateful tactics that Bush used against you in South Carolina...If you're going to fight for America...Fight an honorable fight...don't sink to the level of the Nixon plumbers...stop fighting for McCain first...Place Country First...If you decide to not follow your own conscience then shame on you Senator McCain...Shame.

[Rhia]

Republican mantra: Don't spread the wealth, but please share some blame with us.

[vgirl1]

McCAIN'S CAMPAIGN LANGUAGE IS RACIST.

He may be trying to keep it under the radar, but it continues to boil up into the mainstream. IT IS HARD TO KEEP HATE UNDER WRAPS.

[genia]

He would pay for his plan, in part, by cutting medicare, medicaid
WTF?
how utterly republican. ....Squeeze the old, sick, poor.
Pizzes me off.....
I think this should be brought up....exposed. They are out there painting themselves as plain folk working hard for plain folk.
Well, I for one...don't want seniors who are poor to do without. What kind of society doesn't take care of their elderly?

[cuniverse]

Mc Cain is showing the rest of the world how to use Character Assassinate and Psychological sleaze of half truth in the most ugliest of manner without weighing the consequences
Republican’s greed has overridden order and good Governance IF350 million America assume home owners Banks loans $1mill. each,they all defaulted to Freddy Mack THAT WOULD NOT BE $7bill Anderson Cooper CNN John Mc Cain again misinforms the public One culprit CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS a type of unregulated insurance scam Most banks and financial institutions set up "orphan companies", often under charitable trusts, that did not appear on their published balance sheets.
That's one reason why apparently well-capitalized solvent institutions collapsed. Their true liabilities had been hidden for years in the shadow system and charitable organizations off shore companies while making huge profits
Charity and shadow systems didn't get any cash - their was a special-purpose vehicle allowing the Banks to trade complex securities without having to meet stringent capitalization requirements of a normal bank. Money was cheap you could buy a billion-dollar firms putup less than a $100mill of real capital - the rest borrowed from banks eager to loan huge amounts of credit they were generating through their shadow banking system. It was a hell of a party. (Conservative deregulation gurus like John Mc Cain knew it ,allowed it ,and benefited from it ) I think our country sinks beneath a yoke, it weeps it bleeds and each new day a gash is added to her wounds”…..Macbeth

[ContraEgoiste]

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?STORY_ID=12342127

The Economist

AS THE financial crisis pushes the economy back to the top of voters’ concerns, Barack Obama is starting to open up a clear lead over John McCain in the opinion polls. But among those who study economics for a living, Mr Obama’s lead is much more commanding. A survey of academic economists by The Economist finds the majority—at times by overwhelming margins—believe Mr Obama has the superior economic plan, a firmer grasp of economics and will appoint better economic advisers.

~~~~~~~

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/magazine/24Obamanomics-t.html?pagewanted=3&ei=5124&en=0a676fbd7849a186&ex=1378267200&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

James Heckman (Nobel Laureate, Professor of Economics at The University of Chicago) on Obama
“I’ve never worked with a campaign that was more interested in what the research shows.”

~~~~~~~~~

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Influential_Conservative_Republican_Economist_Endorses_Obama

Dr. Larry Hunter, PhD - Longtime ultra-conservative economist talks about why he supports Obama.

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Prominent economists who support Obama:

Brad Delong, Berkeley macroeconomist
Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel laureate
Edmund Phelps, 2006 Nobel laureate
Ray Fair, Yale macroeconomist
Dan McFadden, 2000 Nobel laureate
Robert Solow, 1987 Nobel laureate

~~~~~~~

Prominent finance people who support Obama:

William Donaldson, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair 2003-05
Arthur Levitt, SEC chair 1993-2001
David Ruder, SEC chair 1987-1989
Warren Buffet

~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://hburgnews.com/2008/02/07/local-economist-endorses-obama/

Local Economist Endorses Obama

[Independent-for-Obama]

Ever since the 1913 Income Tax, which only was collected on incomes over $500,000 of 1913 dollars, it has been used to take more and more money from people who can less afford it to avoid taking it from those who can. Obama's tax plan isn't socialist but is fairer. Someone has to pay for government. We can't continue to borrow money to do it as the Republicans, Reagan and Bush in particular, have done.

If something isn't done along the lines that Obama is wanting to do, we will devolve into a country without a middle class. All we have to do is look to our southern neighbor to see how well that works.

[CharlesJ]

McCain's tax policies are communist. Make the rich and well off richer, and make the middle class poorer. Keep us down and out, keep us struggling daily, wondering if we will have food on our tables, keep us putting off that doctor and dentist visits because we cant afford it. Sure sounds communistic to me, as that is the reality of a communistic country.

[ContraEgoiste]

Do they even understand what McSame is saying or think they are against? Or do they just mindlessly believe what they are told? They should take a look around them. Everything they own is the product of someone else. Everything they know is something they learned from someone else. Your very existence is entirely dependent on being a member of a SOCIAL construct. Unless you plan to give it all up and go live in the wilderness. And this even means the clothes on your back, because unless you grew the raw materials yourself, weaved it into fabric and sewed your own garments, you are wearing the benefits of living in a society.

It's pathetic how these people have been brainwashed into fighting against their own interest and have been scared into building a bogey man. It is pitiful to see how easily they are duped into believing that anything that advances, progresses and continues to evolve our human collaboration and secures our wellbeing, in other words our social construct, is the same as Communism. They have been trained, no, scared into this knee jerk reaction, because the ones holding the power don't want them to wake up and realize what it is that they are supporting, and that it is their own enslavement.

- continued -

[ContraEgoiste]

- continued from above -

These people don't realize that they have what they have because they live within a society. That our knowledge is the sum of all the knowledge before us, and that this is only possible because the construct of society. That the reason we have evolved to the point we have is because the collaboration of community, whether this was first formed around hunting parties or agriculture. That the "great" industrialists whom they worship could only become so because they live(d) within the structure of a society. That they can only build their empires within the structure of a society, and in many cases by exploiting the graces of society. That their wealth and power has any meaning only because their worth is acknowledged and agreed upon by the rest of society. That our greatest thinkers, inventors, et al, reached their conclusions by building on the work of those before them. And were able to understand what they knew because what they learned from those before them and the accumulation of knowledge that occurs in a S.O.C.I.E.T.Y. And they were smart enough to acknowledge this.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton

"He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god." - Aristotle

"No man is an island." - John Donne

- continued -

[ContraEgoiste]

Yes, I preferr socialism for the masses instead of corporations and the wealthy. Yes, I'm for the growth, enlightenment and progress of humanity as a whole. Yes I'm for the evolution of society and creating a better world in synch with its environment. I pity these people because they think that the application of a label that in their very limited understanding think is adverse. They have no idea how meaningless and humorous it is, specially coming from intellectually challenged individuals who are arguing for their own enslavement.

The millionaires they so much love DO NOT WORK! They don't produce anything, period. They just wait by the poolside for their dividend check to arrive. The strength, backbone and the ones that produce in this country are the middle and lower classes. And so they deserve it.

~~~~

My apologies, this is a re-post of an answer to someone else, but I thought it was apropo.

[SouthPrairie]

The American people are ABSOLUTELY getting fleeced by SOCIALIST MARXISTS. However they are being fleeced by CORPORATE SOCIALISM. It is the brand of socialism that rewards corporations that send our jobs overseas. It is the brand of socialism that expects workers to work at wages that require them to attain food-stamps in order to feed their families. It is the same brand of socialism that requires employees to go the EMERGENCY room of healthcare facilities in order to have a fever treated due to the fact that the immoral corporations do not provide adequate healthcare, or they immorally make sure that their employees are part time and therefore not eligible for benefits. And these are the same corporations that EVADE TAXES BY SHIPPING THEIR MANUFACTUING JOBS OVEARSEAS.

Yessiree, corporate Marxism and socialist corporate welfare is the name of the game in Republican leadership.

It is absolutely a SIN for AMERICAN TAXPAYERS money to go to AMERICAN TAXPAYERS. No f***ing way folks. Our tax dollars are going to go to the corporations that funnel campaign $$$$s into the candidates that are willing to dance to the corporate puppet masters.

THINK ABOUT IT AMERICA!

Corporate socialism is the name of the 21st century attempt at politicizing every aspect of our American power broker system—IF THEY HAVE THEIR WAY!

But we are not as ignorant as they think we are.

Obama/Biden '08

[Maimonides]

But we are not as ignorant as they think we are.

Yes, we are!