If Joe the Plumber can't save the leaking McCain-Palin campaign from sinking, he may also take to the bottom the appeal of trickle down politics.
Senator McCain and Governor Palin are out on the campaign trail holding up a caricature--Joe the Slogan--as a great American. Instead, they should be calling him the worst kind of shirker, someone so un-American maybe Congresswoman Bachmann should be investigating him.
A truly straight-talking, put-country-first John McCain would have said to Samuel J. Wurzelbacher a/k/a Joe the Plumber something like this:
"Young man, every generation of Americans faces a challenge. When that challenge arrives, some serve, and some look out for themselves. Service comes in many forms -- not just by joining the military, or by working in a factory, but also by offering America whatever is needed, whatever serves the common cause.In World War II, high income earners paid high tax rates. Americans saved materials, everyone had ration cards, recycled essential materials, and pitched in. Families rich and poor sent their sons and daughters off to war.
From Korea through Vietnam, America's elites not only paid high taxes, their children again served their country. In the all-male Princeton University class of 1956, 450 out of 750 graduating seniors went into military service during a period of the draft. At Princeton today, only 9 students out of 1,108 Class of 2006 graduates joined the military.
So Joe, here we are in 2008. America is fighting in 2 countries. Unemployment is up, and we are facing the worst national economic situation since the great Depression.
Look, Joe, we've lived beyond our means, run up enormous debt, and are challenged globally by terrorism and economic threats. Hundreds of millions of American families are totally strapped, earning under $60,000 per year, and can't afford another dime. So I am just asking you to pay the same tax rate that every other American earning $250,000 and up paid on January 20, 2001 -- the day George W. Bush took office. Joe, can you help us?"
But, of course, that's not even close to what you are hearing. In the McCain-Palin mythology, Joe is a "small business owner" who will create jobs if only he can take home earnings over $250,000 without paying higher taxes. (Forget the real Joe, who apparently would earn only maybe $50,000 in taxable income after expenses.) In dollar terms, when Joe's income goes up from $250,000 to $350,000, the Obama plan asks him to pay an extra $3500 in taxes by letting the Bush tax cuts simply expire. Exactly what hundreds of thousands of small business owners and others top earners paid under Clinton during the 1990s, a time of enormous economic growth.
Joe the Slogan sees that under Obama's tax plan, he might have to pay a little bit higher taxes, decides he won't bother buying the business, and supposedly jobs are lost. This is what a candidate for President holds up as a hero?
America provides Joe every platform for success --- a great educational system, a stable economic environment, good roads, robust markets, a respected legal system for collecting debts, and a thousand other benefits that Joe would not trade in a heartbeat for a plumbing business anywhere else in the world. Bless our country, a guy like Joe can aspire to buy a business and get rich.
McCain-Palin are clinging to one last appeal to trickle down messages that have worked in the past: Cut taxes for the top, or you won't have a job. Every time they praise Joe, they tell Americans: When you achieve success, your attitude should be - I don't give a hoot about the rest of you, I've got mine. Is that honor? Is that country first? Is that thanking God for the blessings of being born in the USA?
It is looking like not even Joe can save John and Sarah. If that happens, maybe we will stop hearing the trickle down mantra intoned so loudly by conservative candidates. And at least we will stop hearing candidates talking any more about Joe, "a real American." Real Americans are in it together. But not Joe the Slogan. He's a slacker.
David M. Abromowitz is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org, and a partner in the law firm Goulston & Storrs, www.goulstonstorrs.com.
1. 40% don't pay income taxes, which will increase to 45-50%. Like Obama, we're only talking about INCOME TAXES.
2. Those who will be hit the hardest will flee to tax havens like tax free bonds or other countries. So you can bet that the $250K will be lowered considerably. That's a big reason for the stock market sell off right now.
3. Obama's plan will increase the amount of FICA taxes on those making over $95K. For nearly all it will offset the income tax cut and for most it will be a net loss.
4. Obama's plan will also raise taxes on gasoline, natural gas, electricity and home heating oil which will offset nearly all those remaining income tax payers and be an increase for most.
5. Obama's tax plan to raise taxes on business's will be passed on to the consumers and will be a net increase on the standard of living for all working Americans.
6. The only one's who MIGHT see a benefit will be those American's on welfare.
7. Obama's bill, the $845 Billion a year Global Poverty Act passed in the Senate in 2008 will insure that the rest of the world's poor will benefit.
But please, I hope they go. I already know that Great Britain, Sweden, France and Canada have no rich people. All gone. All the rich fled to lawless countries to protect their riches as fast as possible due to the government structure and high taxation in those countries. Yes, I know Vogue once in awhile interviews some British superrich or some French superrich, but please, we all know that's a lie. No self-respecting rich person would stay in those socialist countries!
Your socialist/Marxist education has taught you nothing about free enterprise. I didn't say they personally would flee the country, I was refering to their money and investments. Those super rich people living in socialist countries have their money invested in the US markets. Why else are American markets by far the largest?
If you hate rich people so much, why don’t you go live in a socialist country and let us capitalists continue living in the most successful economy in the world. I’ll pass around the hate for you.
You don't seem to mind the super rich liberals like George Soros, Ted Kenedy, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi and others who have their money tied up in trusts and protected from taxes. They want to deny anyone else the ability to become rich the old fashioned way, by working hard.
I heard a comment here mention Joe is not his real name, that he is not a licensed plumber, and that he is a plant for the McCain campaign. His middle name is Joseph, so going by Joe is suppose to be a lie?
Joe is an apprentice to be a plumber, which is a trade not a profession. Tradesmen like plumbers, electricians, or carpenters go by their trade names unlike professional lawyers, doctors or engineers. I know several engineers who call themselves engineers without being licensed. The allegation that he is a McCain plant is highly unlikely because Obama was in Joe's neighborhood.
Though Joe doesn't make $250K, he aspires to be. He dosen't believe that those making $250K will be taxed higher. The Obama campaign only talks about income taxes. He fails to mention that FICA taxes are will be raised on those making over $95K which will offset the income tax deduction. Then there's the increase in gasoline and energy taxes. By the time you figure all the tax hikes, only those getting a tax break will be those who don't pay INCOME taxes. This is what Joe and other aspiring small business owner’s fear about Barrack the Redistributor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ69X1qt4sQ
Starring Donald Duck as the worker on payday, Scrooge McDuck as the voice of fiscal responsibility, and a zoot-suited demon duck who tells Donald: "Spend it, bud! After all, it's YOUR dough."
Watch it, and then contrast it with the McCain ad here:
http://osborneink.blogspot.com/2008/10/of-patriots-and-taxes.html
Much like the Feudal aristocrats of The Middle Ages and the Phaoroahs of Ancient Egypt, they believe the serfs deserve their lot.
How Joe the Plumber ever became a symbol for Republican values defies gravity.
Sarah's and Cindy's ward drobe alone cost more than Sam Worzelbacher will make in a liftetime, and yet he believes they are on the road to Washington to "clean it up" and correct all the waste, greed and overspending brought about by the Democrats.
People are losing their homes while the McCains maintain 7-13 expensive ones. And on one of them, like Joe the Plumber, didn't bother to pay property taxes.
Could this be what they mean when they say they will lower your taxes? Advise you not to pay them?
But the Joe the Plumber campaign actually produced modest results among the serfs, who bought into it hook, line and sinker.
So we think we have the perfect plan and it might also feed the poor: NO INHERITANCE AT ALL!
Then we will ALL know that the wealthy deserve to be wealthy. They'll have proved it by getting all their wealth back again. So simple and I'm sure ALL the conservatives would agree. And liberals would agree that it's all about hard work and what one deserves. The plan would get 100% of the vote -- after all, what's not to like about working hard, getting what one deserves through hard work, getting paid better for being better?
Me so smart :)
He LIED. He doesn't make $250k a year, his employer's business doesn't even make that after expenses are accounted for. They'd all be better off under Obama, but he doesn't see that because he's trapped in the wingnut reality distortion field.
He LIED. He has no real plans to buy the business, and frankly no mission of doing so when he can't even find $1,100 or so to pay off what he owes the state. He might want to get that plumber's license first, as well.
He LIED in his question. Then got found out. Liars deserve to be vilified, whether it's John the candidate or Joe the plumber.
The only thing I can say in Joe's defense is that McCain was the one who thrust him into the limelight without warning. Assuming, of course, that he wasn't some sort of campaign ploy. JMc brought him into the public eye, where he was examined and found wanting. Obama had nothing to do with that.
In the U.S. everybody has a the opportunity, Obama is rich he came from a modest family.
I don't see how it is any more patriotic to pay more taxes to beaucrats who waste so much or give it to some one who did not earn it.
The wars should have been won already and the bulk troops should be home but we have not fought a war to win since WWII we are to worried about hearts and minds. War is a horrible thing but the enemy should be crushed and he's will to fight will be lost.
Hey Brother, can you spare dime?
Why would you say Obama is rich? Does he make over $250K per year?
What makes this doubly hypocritical is the distribuition of $3200 per citizen in Alaska from taxes on the oil companies. No other state in the Union has any such distribution.
Those words were spoken by JFK on Jan 20th 1961, during his inaugural speech and being made about the cultures around the Globe, and yet, how powerful those words are (and how sad it is) that nearly 50 years later we need those same words to ask the rich to pay a few more taxes….for the good of the Nation.
The whole speech is worth a read, especially during these times.
http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm
If you don’t want to read it; watch or listen to it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaugural_address_of_John_F._Kennedy
I guess if a Walmart Store Sells $500 Mil per Year, They Make $500Mil per Year.
This was an excellent article - summed up the hypocracy of the GOP in general. Vote, vote, vote. The world is watching and hoping.
Yes, we pay higher taxes but we get so much for it. Yes, there are problems with the National Health Service, but at least we HAVE a system (unlike the US), and all the crap the right spews about having to wait 6 months to see a doctor is just that: crap. If I need to take my kids to the doctor, I can do it the same day or the following day and it doesn't cost anything. Kids under 16 get free prescriptions and the cost of prescriptions for those who do pay is a flat £6.75 (about US$11.00 at the current exchange rate). I can't say enough good things about the NHS, even taking its shortcomings into account.
Also, our higher UK taxes mean that university tuition is a fraction of what it is in the United States. It's £3,000 (less than US$5,000) per year - and that's for ALL universities, even the top ones. I did a degree in the States and another one in England, and my British one gave me a better education but cost far less than my American one.
If this is socialism, then I'm all for it. It's worth paying the extra tax.
For some reason, trickle-down took hold from Reagn and has been popular ever since. Few remember that most of human history is trickle-down: Chief to followers; king to subjects; lords to peasants. Trickle down = whatever the rich have left or decide to pay trickles down. The middle class rose when the poor rose up against trickle down, but I don't think anyone studies that anymore.
Trickle-down is an economic model that assumes that the wealthy can disburse wealth to the peasants. Though in this country with its Calvinist roots, wealth has become a symbol of God's favor, which leads to the acquisition of wealth as personal validation, and stops people disbursing it to the poor. To soothe their consciences, the wealthy developed the notion of "the deserving poor," fabricating myths about the poor "wasting" their charity on drugs or crime or whatever vices could fit into the myth.
Bottom line: most rich people get rich because they're greedy bastards who aren't about to let a penny trickle down out of their grasp. And the rich will pay lawyers thousands of dollars to develop "instruments" to keep from paying any more tax than they have to.
"Trickle-down" as sold to the voters by Reagan, Phil Gramm, Art Laffer and the rest of the neocon crowd probably worked well--in the 18th century when Adam Smith was alive. Not so much these days. We should be able to say so without fear of being called "socialist."