For McCain and Republicans, facts remain scary things
A little satire from Bob the Banker who makes $280,000 a year, Bob the Banker speaks out
That leaves my taxable income at $213, 766 under Obama, $213,433 under McCain. Now we have to factor in the bracket cutoff, which for 2009 is $208,850. Anything below that figure for married couples filing jointly is taxed at the fourth tier, 28 percent. Any income above it, until you get up to near $400,000, is taxed at the fifth tier. And this is where the raving income-redistribution scheme of Barack Robespierre Obama kicks in.
As you can see, my taxable income is about $5,000 higher than the cutoff. McCain is going to tax that $5,000 at the current rate, which is 33 percent. But Obama’s crazed plan calls for raising that rate to — get ready for it — 35 percent.
And here’s what this means. Under McCain, my total tax bill would be $48,254. Under Obama, it would be $48,511.
That’s a difference of $257. I’ll say it again: Two hundred and fifty-seven dollars.
That’s not two hundred and fifty-seven dollars I, or America, can afford.
[ ]…Take my Jaguar. Do you have any idea how much it costs just to have that thing tuned up? It’s like a BMW repair bill on steroids. We’re talking $500 just to open the hood.
The hard times are taking a toll on my family life, too. My wife has had to completely cut out having her colors done, and her personal shopper is threatening to walk if we keep cutting back on her hours.
The attitude maybe satire, but the numbers are real. Between the bailout/rescue and America’s aging infrastructure that measly 257 dollars would be well spent or think of it as an investment, Is aging infrastructure slowing the U.S.?
For roughly a century, the United States has had the world’s biggest economy. One of its strengths has been its infrastructure, from the rails and telegraph lines laid in the 19th century to the airports and fiber-optic networks of today. But as the United States struggles to stay ahead of China, is its aging infrastructure slowing it down?
In almost every area – from waterworks to bridges and dams, highways to mass transit – many experts have answered “yes.” A report card by the American Society of Civil Engineers, issued in 2005, gave the nation C’s and D’s in 14 of 15 categories, with an “incomplete” added for security.
Some of these deficiencies have very real costs to economic growth. The poor condition of roads, the engineers estimated, costs $120 billion a year in repairs, operating costs and time wasted in traffic – that’s equivalent to a full percentage point of the economy.
“There’s a tremendous need,” said Larry Roth, a professional engineer who is deputy executive director of the engineers’ group. “Not only are we not keeping pace with growth, but we’re not keeping pace with the maintenance that’s required. As a result, our infrastructure is simply crumbling.”
The infrastructure crisis has something in common with the housing/financial crisis. It would costs about 800 billion over five years to get the nation up to where it should be. Only a billion more then the occupation of Iraq has cost. Though infrastructure expenditures aren’t a dead end quagmire like Iraq; well unless you’re Halliburton. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that for every billion dollars spent on infrastructure 47,000 jobs are created. I realize it would be close to political suicide for Obama to change his top end salary cut off at this point, but he really should have, considering the bottomless pit of debt we’re headed for, lowered it to no tax increases for those making over $170,000 rather then the $250,000 figure. Half of all American households, that’s households not individuals, make less then $56,000 a year.
Republicans – the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is an extension of the Republican party – don’t even know or are lying about who pays payroll taxes, There They Go Again …Talk about being out of touch with working class America.
Conservativeve ostrich Ed Morrissey writing over at HotAir seems so ut of touch, so determined to shield himself from economic reality, one wonders if he didn’t send in this whimsical screed from another planet,
Video: Barney Frank wants more taxes, posted at 8:25 am on October 21, 2008 by Ed Morrissey,
Suddenly, with Barack Obama pitching almost a trillion dollars in new spending, leading Democrats see nothing wrong with deficit spending. Why? Because the rich will pay for it, silly!
Ed isn’t worried about Joe the Plumber, he’s worried that Bob the Banker will have to trade in the Jag for a Cadillac. In 2012 Ed hopes to be appointed Guardian of the Elite for the Palin administration.
These colors don’t run wallpaper – they don’t run from the facts.
The Right has quite an affirmativeve action program of is own. Every time you turn on the radio, watch Fox, read a editorial page you’ll find a Republican that has been convicted of something. The Republican good ol’boy network shows no shame in that. Don’t worry if, like Scooter Libby or G. Gordon Libby, if you betray your country they’ll find a nice cushy job for you somewhere. A tradition that John McCain also believes in, McCain Employing GOP Operative Accused Of Voter Registration Fraud
John McCain’s campaign has directed $175,000 to the firm of a Republican operative accused of massive voter registration fraud in several states.
According to campaign finance records, a joint committee of the McCain-Palin campaign, the RNC and the the California Republican Party, made a $175,000 payment to the group Lincoln Strategy in June for purposes of “registering voters.” The managing partner of that firm is Nathan Sproul, a renowned GOP operative who has been investigated on multiple occasions for suppressing Democratic voter turnout, throwing away registration forms and even spearheading efforts to get Ralph Nader on ballots to hinder the Democratic ticket.
In a letter to the Justice Department last October, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said that that Sproul’s alleged activities “clearly suppress votes and violate the law.”
That Sproul would come under the employment umbrella of the McCain campaign — the Republican National Committee has also separately paid Lincoln Strategy at least $37,000 for voter registration efforts this cycle — is not terribly surprising. Sproul, who has donated nearly $30,000 to McCain’s campaign, has been in the good graces of GOP officials for the past decade despite charges of ethical and potentially legal wrongdoing.
Unlike ACORN who reports ethics violations, Republican operatives collect voter registrations, but just throw away the ones that register Democrat.
Ken Adelman, unlike the very Conservative Colin Powell, is a serious drinker of the hard Right kool-aid and even he can’t bring himself to vote for the reckless hothead McCain, First Colin Powell, Now…
When the economic crisis broke, I found John McCain bouncing all over the place. In those first few crisis days, he was impetuous, inconsistent, and imprudent; ending up just plain weird. Having worked with Ronald Reagan for seven years, and been with him in his critical three summits with Gorbachev, I’ve concluded that that’s no way a president can act under pressure.
The Long Goodbye 