OMG!!! Barack Obama is a socialist! Keith olbermann comments

Our political dialogue is so pathetic that the major 'issue' McCain is trying gin up in the waning moments of this campaign is what they call the devastating effects of Obama's tax plan on people and small businesses that make over $250,000 without ever being called on the carpet for not stating how much that tax increase is...Suppose Joe does buy out his business, and suppose he works hard, and suppose there are not so many unemployed that business is good. Suppose the business, after expenses, takes in $300,000. What would be Joe's additional tax burden? About $2000...or less than 1% of his total income after expenses. In a $300,000 business that is almost rounding error. Moreover, if he provides healthcare for his employee(s), Obama will give him a $3000 credit.

Let us assume that fortune truly smiles on Joe, and his business nets $500,000 after expenses. His additional tax burden under the Obama plan? ~$10,000. If he had to hire a couple of more workers to do it, and provided them health care, Obama's plan would provide $9000 in credits. Moreover, if he decided to sell the business (say for 2X revenues against a purchase price of $250,000), his total capital gains tax under the Obama plan--ZERO. Under current law that McCain will extend, his capital gains tax would be $112,500.

Guess that must mean that McCain is a socialist. Hey Joe--want to re-think your allegiance?

What about the impact on the economy? In 1993 the Clinton budget raised the top bracket to the same rate as Obama proposes now. The Republican chicken-littlers could not have been more certain that the economy, already in the "Bush41-recession" (when the economy recovers and we are dying for another downturn, just elect Jeb, it's in his DNA), would tank.

But, what actually happened? Only 23 million new jobs, that's all. Damn those pesky facts anyhow!

In the aggregate, of course, the small increase on the top bracket will provide revenue for the government to offset partially expenses for what we desperately need--tax relief for the middle class who have lost real income under Bush/McCain policies, and some of the public investments in infrastructure, in health care, in a new energy economy, in education that have been languishing for the last 8 years.

Some may argue that the tax increase on the upper bracket ought to be deferred until the economy has recovered. That way, even more deficit spending will increase total demand in the economy...such a policy is unwise because of the massive deficits of the borrow-and-spend Bush/McCain economic policies. We live in a globalized economy, and money has a funny way of insisting upon realism. We may assert moral exceptionalism all we want, but the financial world is like Missouri--it says "show me" everyday. In '93 the small tax increase on the upper bracket showed the markets that the US was, finally, fiscally serious. To re-establish credibility in the international system--just one more piece of US legacy Bush/McCain policies have trashed--we will gain more economic mileage by making that small tax increase.

I have previously addressed the stupidest part of the ridiculous McCain economic "program", viz., cutting government spending in a time of cratering private demand. Briefly, the experience of the New Deal in the 1930s is about as close to a controlled experiment as will ever be found in economics--FDR began lifting the country out of the Great Depression by deficit spending, then reversed that improvement by balancing the budget in 1937, and revivified the economy again by increasing spending to prepare for World War II. (See, "McCain's Plan: Not Just Worse than the Alternatives, but the Dumbest Idea Since Putin Reared His Head", October 15, 2008).

Moreover, the public investments FDR made--from rural electrification to soil conservation to public works projects--all redounded to the long-term benefit of the US economy once private demand re-emerged following World War II. Adam Smith, for all us real free market capitalists, would call that creating competitive advantage.

We know, today, with even greater clarity than in the 1930s, what public investments would not only create jobs and thus increase total demand in the short-term, but also provide a competitive advantage to the US when we cycle out of this downturn--renewable, home-grown energy; a reformed, more efficient healthcare system; world-class education; high-speed rail between cities and light rail within them; repairing roads, bridges; making fuel-efficient automobiles.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/4--thats-what-joe-the-plu_b_138147....

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[iamzbacku]

Any doubt NOW! Obama IS a Socialist at best. He has filled his cabinet with Marxists. So, America. How's that 'Hope & Change' going for you.

[SgtBanks1]

@ch1aka2 "Greed s not good" Shut up, just because you're a lazy hippie with no money doesn't mean working class people WITH money have to pay for your home, food and car. Get a job.

[crazymike44]

Question? 6 months ago in the San Francisco Chronicle there was an article on how, Under the Obama administration when the Democrats were still in power in the house and senate, that the Rich pay Less Taxes now than ever in the history of the United States. And this is directly under and supported by Obama!

The rich pay less taxes now under Obama than under Bush!

Hmmmmmm.... Crazy Train!!!

[crazymike44]

Hahaha... you mean this is even a question? Of course Obama is a Socialist, everyone knows that! Is he Denying it now? hahaha...

I live in Left Wing LIberal Territory in Marin County, in the San Francisco Bay area and they all talk out loud in public about changing this country into a socialist country... That's why they like Obama!

Seriously people, is this a question in some peoples minds? Why? Who's denying it? Not the Liberal's. I guarantee it! They will tell you to your face! Hilarious!!

[TheBrandond20]

@BeantownJim isn't that what people wanted someone who give a fuck

[BeantownJim]

Putting a community orginizer in the whitehouse is One Big Ass Mistake America!

[therrydicule]

@devilsadvocate22289 Not really an oligarchy yet, because an oligarchy also mean the presence of a strong caste system and America don't have this right-now. However, since social-mobility have been reduce in the last 30 years or such... that it is to the point where the situation in USA is consider "sever", like in China, Russia and Argentina, if we follow the say of the World Bank... It is a real concern and it could become an oligarchy, but It is not yet one.

[devilsadvocate22289]

@iamzbacku Are you kidding me? Obama is no more socialist than President Bush. If it were up to me, I would've let precious companies like Goldman Sachs burn like all failed businesses. We're not being ruled by socialists, or else WE as a people would be controlling the economy (look up Socialism in the dictionary). No, we are being ruled by an Oligarchy. The wealthiest 1% is controlling us and nobody is caring about it except people like him. Ignorant people like you will make our country burn.

[devilsadvocate22289]

@ellaelizabeth: I wish you were right. One problem though, the rich are already firing us because of the bad decisions they made. People are already working too hard for too little. I don't call that pulling yourself by the boot strap, I call that slave labor.

Besides, if you propose not taxing the rich, then who should get taxed then? We can't fund government projects like the War on Terror and get out of debt without income flowing through taxes.

[TheReasonParty]

As a socialist, I wish Obama was. He is definitely a centrist, and this is bad.

[LoonyLiberal6312]

I'm a socialist and I wish Obama was too, but he's not. And he's not even close. In Europe, he's known to be a moderate conservative. Our "left" and "right" is actually the same thing, which is right-wing authoritarianism. Obama is just slightly less right wing and slightly less authoritarian than the Republicans. We don't have a real left in this country. Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, and Bernie Sanders are the only politicians that are actually on the left at all...

[ch1aka2]

@ch1aka2 Show's how much you know. Which, by your comments, is nothing. You obviously know nothing about me, like I have been employed for the last 38 years, I make a good living doing what I like, and I've never lived off another. So shut your hole, you loser.