Are you "wealthy"?
The world got a revealing answer from Sen. John McCain on Sunday's "Meet the Press", though you could be forgiven for missing it.
It jumped right out at me.
Tom Brokaw, giving the equivelent of a big wet kiss of an interview with McCain, brought up the Palin shopping splurge, with the RNC spending $150,000 over the span of a few months on clothes for the Palins, (he left out the fact that Palin's Hollywood hairstylist was the highest paid member of the campaign, even more than the campaign managers, getting over $20,000 for a few weeks work.)
In response, McCain cocked his head and said earnestly, "Look, the Palins aren't wealthy.....", and went on to defend the crazy expenditure.
Well then, we now know that Sen. John McCain doesn't think a couple with a net worth of over $1 million is "wealthy". The Palin's income last year was near $250,000, a quarter of a million dollars.
Now there's nothing wrong with that, obviously. But really, divide your net income last year by the Palin's. How many times what you made did they make?
And to McCain, they're not wealthy at all.
If they made, say, FIVE TIMES what you made, then you could double, triple, quadruple, and quintuple your entire yearly income ... and STILL be considered kinda poor in McCain's book. At least not wealthy.
McCain has quipped before that his idea of being wealthy is anyone making more than $5 million a year. I don't think he was joking.
By the standards of those in the McCain's bracket, the Palin's are downright poverty striken.
This goes a ways towards explaining his frantic and angry denounciation of actually lowering the taxes of everyone making less than a quarter million a year while slightly raising the taxes of those who make several million.
McCain is just defending his base. Those who make more than $5 million a year.
Can anyone explain why misguided Republican die-hards, often making a tiny fraction of what the Palin's make and the exact people who would benefit from Obama's economic plan, are so rabid in their defense of the super-rich being able to enjoy favored status? Why they are so fixated on the idea of protecting the only class in America who have seen their incomes skyrocket over the past decade, while the rest of us have had wages stagnate and buying power plummet?
Yet there they are, railing about the evil Obama tax plan, arguing in favor of a plan that will tax them more and defending the very policies which have created the economic collapse which promises to get many times worse before it gets better.
More of the same. With the same disasterous results.
AND... how 'bout that Joe McCain, HENH! HENH!! HENHH!!
McCain's beligerant and hair-trigger brother (big surprise, huh?) thinks he's so damn important that he can call 911 and demand that they do something to get him through traffic faster, then when the police at the 911 center asks if he's calling the emergency service to complain about traffic, responds, "F*CK YOU!" and hangs up.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Then when the 9-11 supervisor calls him back to repremand him for abusing the service and swearing at the officers, they get Joe McCain's answering machine saying he's busy with brother John's campaign.
But that's not all. McCain then calls back the supervisor to complain about them "reading me the riot act" and AGAIN starts to bitch about a traffic snarl!
Granted, you can't pick your family, but somehow it's not at all hard to see John McCain doing this if he weren't a prominent pol.
Arrogant. Belligerant, with a hair-trigger and uncontrolled anger.
posted by The Inside Dope @ 10/27/2008
10 comments
10 Comments:
I can relate to some of what you say. When I was growing up and I was poor, I used to hate rich people too. Was it envy? Anger at the sheer unfairness and inequity? Perhaps. But you need to grow up and get over it. It is just a fact of life. There will always be rich people and there always will be poor people.
And when I think back to the jobs I have worked in my life that were in the private sector, I was never once was hired by a poor person. How many jobs do they create?
As for Sarah Palin, more power to her. Big deal-this is such a trivial issue. 150K for a nice wardrobe for a middle class person who is seen by millions everyday. Her critics are just jealous because Palin is hot looking. Maybe they wanted a woman who looks old and frumpy and/or dikey.. Well that ain't Sarah Palin! You know what? I am glad that they bought her some designer clothes to compliment her naturally good looks. She looks like the professional woman that she is.
It takes money to dress nice.
It seems like McCain is fixated on everyone in the middle class becoming a small business that makes more than $250K a year and getting a great deal of the middle class to screw themselves over based on this (minute) possibility.
Next McCain will propose cutting inner city education based on the 0.00001% of inner city males who become professional athletes.
I find it funny that Palin still drones on about how "Todd and I are hurting right now". The Palin:Me proportion you mention is almost 2.5 here and I am not hurting. Not great but I'm doing a hell of a lot better than a lot of other folks I know.
I should have expected a stupid response like that from you Nico.
My views have NOTHING to do with my feelings towards "rich" people. Nothing whatsoever.
But what you're too ignorant to figure out is that a country isn't healthy when there are a tiny fraction of the population who control nearly all of it's wealth.
You truly sound like you'd make a great peasant down in some banana republic in South America!
How can you be such an incredible sap, sitting there like some masochist while the rich run away with your wallet, saying, "Thank you sir! You are wealthy and therefore can take whatever you want. Here, let me carry that bag of money for you."
The gulf between the wealthy and the middle class is the widest it's been since the Great Depression (wake up) and it's gotten progressively wider during the Reagan/Bush era.
And idiots like you sit idly by, duped by some goofy ass ideology which has brain-washed you into thinking that it's heresy to ever criticize anyone's wealth, and that it's somehow American to steal, con, bribe, and rob your way to enormous wealth, and that's A-OK, because we worship wealth and folks like you have gotten so twisted that you equate wealth with personal worth and merit.
So you can't possibly think ill of anyone with money. They have money!
You scream like a pussy when you're asked to cough up a dime for some other human being, but don't bat an eye when billionaires rob you and millions of other lower middle class taxpayers with grossly inflated no-bid contracts, and millions of other scams to loot the treasury.
McCain himself said on MTP Sunday, that if taxes are lower in Ireland, "WHY NOT" move your corporation there?
Gee. Did it ever occur to any of you folks who put money ahead of even country that maybe the reason not to do that is that the few percent extra profits might not be worth throwing thousands of Americans out of work???
Apparently this hasn't ocurred to McCain. He says, "Why not??"
Nico, you can climb up inside the wealthy who own 80% of this country and have nearly all the power, but you're sure the hell not going to improve anything as long as you're a simpering lap dog, lick-spittle who thinks it's a crime to even discuss the economic inequality in this country, and can only respond with glib and unintelligent bullshit about "class warfare" and accusing anyone who feels that the wealth of the country should be more equitably divided among those who actually produce the wealth in the first place somehow "hates the rich".
If that's all you've got, don't bother.
This morning I was listening to Greta Van Susteren on the radio. She is a legitimate, mainstream journalist, not a crackpot by any means.
Anyway, Greta said that Obama's plan calls for sending tax rebates to people who don't even pay taxes in the first place!! That is 60 million people, she said. Now, if they are too poor to make the income threshold to pay income tax, that's one thing. That is fair enough. But giving them money that they never paid in in the first place?
But tell me, how is this not a huge welfare handout? How is this not redistribution of wealth?
This aspect of Obama's tax plan is not widely publicized. But it is very real.
I consider myself working class and I do not mind paying my share of taxes. And I do not deny that my taxes are pissed away by the government in a variety of ways. But this is wrong. This is a huge welfare handout and I have a problem with it. In effect, Obama and the Democratic congress will take my money and hand it over to people who don't work at all. A lot of times, these are people who sit home on their ass, watching tv, smoking cigarettes and cranking out kids. Why should they get my money? Is this Obama's "new politics"? You might like this idea but I think it is bullshit.
I would sooner see my taxes subsidize the military or a company that creates jobs, or does something to help the public good... than I would hand it over to a bunch of derelicts.
Not ALL of the 60 million are derelicts, some are "working poor" and some are just misfortunate and they are just too poor to pay taxes. But who is going to make that judgement? 60 million, they said. Now I understand why Obama has such wide appeal.
Nico,
This is one reason you're so woefully uninformed... or should I say, misinformed.
First of all, Greta Van Susteren is NOT some oracle who never gets things wrong. She's a hack lawyer who got her start commenting on the O.J. trail and then underwent radical cosmetic surgery in order to become acceptible to be a host on FOX, the most ridiculous imitation of actual news ever.
That's your first mistake. Believing that a Fox host regurgitating Republican talking points is somehow legit and you can take it to the bank.
Obama's plan, you say, gives tax breaks to people who don't pay taxes.
FALSE.
These people may not qualify to pay INCOME taxes, but they pay plenty in payroll taxes, and several other deductions taken right out of their paychecks every week.
Don't be so foolish as to think they somehow don't pay taxes at all. They're paying in far more than they'd get back from an Obama plan.
And I don't want to hear "redistribution of wealth" ever again. It's such a stupid-ass sham that it's beneath giving it further dignity.
Sarah Palin BOASTED about how the resources of Alaska were owned COLLECTIVELY by Alaskan residents, and how she jacked-up taxes and fees on oil companies and gave every resident a nice fat check. And that's whether they worked or not, let alone payed taxes!
What's THAT Nico? Socialism? Communism? It's damn sure collectivism at it's finest.
And as far as "redistribution of wealth", how can you blindly IGNORE the fact that the very wealthy have been busily redistributing BILLIONS from the public straight into their profits and bank accounts??
I don't have the time or patience to go through the facts of the matter here. You seem immune to that kind of thing anyway, preferring to swallow simple-minded propaganda instead.
But if you're at all interested in what's actually happening and has been happening for the past 8 years in our economy, perhaps instead of a Fox news shill, you might get some information from an actual economist, who happens to be the son of one of the most respected and famous economists of this century, John Kenneth Galbraith.
Copy and paste this into your browser's address bar:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10242008/profile.html
Or click here, and watch Moyer's interview with this guy.
You owe it to yourself to get the facts, not the FOX.
You, of course, are free to disagree with this guy, but the facts are clear.
Example: The U.S. ranks 4th in the gap between rich and poor, the "distribution of wealth" you're frothing about is misplaced. It's WAY out of whack in the other direction to the point where it endangers our entire economy, and we are seeing now, and will continue to suffer, the consequences.
The income gap in the United States is wider than every country on earth besides Mexico, Turkey, and Portugal, and getting wider all the time. It's worse than it was in the days of the robber barons before the Great Crash.
Don't you learn anything from history?
This troubles you not at all?
While the rich get incredibly rich, do you see any of it "trickling down" on the rest of us? Hell no! The idea is delusional to start with, has never worked, and has been, and currently IS, a complete failure and fraud.
If it worked, we'd be going great guns right now. We're not. The wealthy took their largess and their welfare and KEPT IT. Duh! Big surprise there.
They hide it offshore, avoid paying ANY TAXES or very little, and invest it in plants that take U.S. jobs out of the country.
They spend it demolishing old mansions in places like Palm Beach and erecting new even flashier mansions, which they then occupy maybe a few weeks a year, if that.
It's obscene wealth, not a million or two, but HUNDREDS of millions.
And dupes and rubes like you, Nico, are why they get away with it.
You have the nerve to whine and bitch and moan about a dime of your taxes going to someone who doesn't work.
And worse yet, you're willing to throw your vote to essentially going down this same path, allowing the wealthy and corporate interests to use our government for THEIR purposes, NOT the people who provide the funding and who's interests it is supposed to serve!
Here's a quote from the 30 nation OECD, or Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
"Rich households in America have been leaving both middle and poorer income groups behind.
That has happened in many countries, but nowhere has this trend been as stark as in the United States."
But by filling your head with distractions and lies, the right wing has convinced you and many other dupes, as amazing as it seems, TO BLAME THE POOR AND UNEMPLOYED (code words, of course, for "blacks" or minoritys) for every bad thing that happens!!!
Can't you see how utterly foolish this is to beleive?
The very rich and powerful interests who have been ROBBING YOU BLIND have got you pointing the finger at the very Americans who have the least to do with it, and no power whatsoever... the POOR.
And in doing so, convincing you to focus your resentment, not on these people and interests who have literally taken over the government and gotten it to serve their financial bottom line and bulging bank accounts, to blame poor minorities!!!
It's simply insane Nico.
Think about it.
The sainted capitalists are taking over $8000 from every household in the country, middle class and poor, and you're whining your fool ass off about the prospect of a dime of you taxes going to someone who doesn't make enough to pay income taxes??
Lord help us.
By the way Nico, are you aware that while both candidate's tax plans would increase the deficit by literally trillions, that McCain's plan giving the very wealthy a huge tax break would put us $1.5 TRILLION dollars further into debt than Obama's plan which skews towards the middle and lower classes??
The effect of McCain's plan would add approx. $5.1 TRILLION to the national debt, while Obama's plan would raise it by $3.6 trillion according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.
Read it for yourself.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411749_updated_candidates.pdf
Some dufus CNN reporter yesterday said the difference was $2.5 trillion, and he was skewing the story towards McCain, saying Obama's plan would balloon the deficit by $2.5, though "McCain's plan would do the same", increasing debt by $5 trillion.
Since when is $2.5 trillion "the same" as $5 trillion? Great reporting.
http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?PageID=97
All I know is that the National Taxpayers Union, gives McCain an A and Obama an F. And when the NTU analyzed their spending plans, Obama's was much much worse.
The NTU is the organization is the most credible organization that we all look to for this kind of thing. They analyze this stuff on down to the most wonkish detail.
www.ntu.org
I have a problem with taking our tax dollars and handing it over to those who don't make enough to file federal taxes. I am not talking about Wal-Mart cashiers who pay payroll taxes. I am talking about the dirtbags who do not work at all. The un-skilled and unemployable whom the rest of society has to support. When Obama is on tv tonight, he can explain why they should get my money.
I hope he goes for a slice of reality. He can sit in the living room of such a person, someone with a broken-down couch. The heat cranked up to about 80 degrees. Let's call him "Joe Welfare". Joe sits with a bottle of MD 20/20 in one hand and a cigarette in their other. A roomful of kids run around screaming, another one in the corner playing a PlayStation. Cheetohs bags are strewn about. Obama tells him that "Hope is on the way".....along with our wallet.
But I digress. Go back and look at the NTU website.
Nico,
What's this "we" Kemosabe?
I'm sure all the rabid ideology-before-common-sense conservatives might consider that blatantly anti-tax outfit an unbiased source, but no one with any sense does.
This isn't rocket science. Why try to gum it all up?
Obama shifts tax burdens away from the lower and middle class and back to the very wealthy where it was before the Bush tax cuts drove our economy into peril.
McCain's still favors the rich and gives them a disproportionate share of tax breaks.
Again, it's not rocket science. Take your pick. You want our tax code to overwhelmingly be skewed towards the already wealthy and powerful? Or do you want more money in the hands of people making under $200,000 a year?
It's not that tough.
Nico,
You're a hard core dupe, you know that?
You've let the right wing propagandists create a COMPLETELY FICTIONAL person for you to blame all the government (and your own) woes on!
How honest is that?
It's not in the slightest.
You focus your energy and ire on some mythical person you imagine EVERY FREAKING TIME someone suggests you pay taxes.
This person doesn't exist except in your minds and the minds of millions of stingy and mislead conservatives.
Seriously, if you took the government spending as a pie chart, JUST HOW MUCH OF YOUR TAX DOLLAR DO YOU THINK GOES TO SOME WINO LIVING IN A CARDBOARD BOX??
It's so small as to not be worth mentioning!
People like the your imaginary (and be honest, in your mental picture, this person is black. Don't lie.) scenario DON'T get any benefits. They don't have addresses, they probably ran out of benefits years ago, and more than likely THEY'RE FREAKING DEAD by now from either being robbed and murdered on the street or dying of exposure or by just drinking themselves to death.
And you sit there with anger and resentment towards THAT PERSON, yet are too deluded to realize that person IS NOT THE PROBLEM!!!!
How many of the bums of your imagiation do you think you'd have to line up and give the maximum benefits possible before they'd equal what your Republican government hands out to corporations IN A DAY??!!
The line would stretch from L.A. to NYC and back about 15 times!
Get serious Nico. Break out of that right wing fantasy and let some sunshine in.
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