The Trickle Up Effect

Did you watch the final Presidential debate on Wednesday?

I was stunned by John McCain's efforts to paint Barack Obama as a big-spending, big-taxing liberal and accuse him of wanting to take away American's hard-earned money.

Yes Obama would increase taxes for the wealthiest 1% of our country's population, but this is because of the Bush administration's fiscally-irresponsible tax breaks for the highest income Americans and who needs to bring up dropping a bundle on a war? Now we see where that has gotten us. The irony of McCain's accusations is that Obama would cut taxes for 95% of the population and give bigger tax relief than McCain would give to 60% of Americans.

As I listened to the debate, I started to wonder -- does it really all come down to taxes for some voters? And if so, what about domestic and social needs such as fixing our national healthcare system and lowering health costs, re-valuing early childhood education, improving our schools, making college more affordable, fighting for pay equity between women and men, eliminating gender discrimination, strengthening domestic violence laws, building clean energy and using renewable resources, and living with hope that we can rebuild our country with strength from the bottom up.

I think Barack described our situation well when he said, "When that dream of opportunity is denied to too many Americans, then ultimately that pain has a way of trickling up."

Are we stuck in the trickle up effect?

But wait a minute, is this really all about taxes? Why has the conversation run aground in the debate over taxes when it should be sailing in deeper water -- meaning what do these candidates really represent to us?

Obama for me and I know many others has been celebrated as a voice of hope and possibility. From what I can tell, McCain supporters see him as a representation of safety, familiarity and paternal security.

Instead of getting narrowed in the debate over taxes, this to me is the real debate -- do you want hope or do you want a false sense of security? For some of us, it's an easy choice.

Comments

[docuguy]

How can we come to understand if trickle up or trickle down works? Let"s cut to the chase. A purely market-driven economy leaves people behind. If there is no profit to be made on a child or on a homeless person that child or homeless person will be abandoned. So what then? You can depend upon the kindness of nice people but there doesn"t seem to be enough of that going around. Government, funded by taxes, might need to step in to fund education for children or keep people from dying. And if the government isn"t properly funded to step in, then Republicans who advocate lower taxes must take responsibility for the void they will create.