Obama wants to spread the wealth around. Now that we’ve seen several “Joe the Plumber” ads, we’ve seen these people comment on how they don’t want their hard earned money to be given to the government. So do these people actually make $250,000 a year? A study on the website Payscale.com (http://www.payscale.com/index/US/State) has shown me that many Americans earn less than $100,000 a year for their job. This does not incluede small businesses or corporations. From what I’m seeing, Obama wants to tax the corporations that earn several hundred thousand to several million dollars a year. I feel that they should at least contribute a bit for helping out the government. Most of the time, it’s the little man that’s doing all the work, and the corporation heads that receive the benefits. I don’t feel that we should stick to many plans that would lead to socialism such as universal health care, but I do think that we should at least give a little bit back in helping the government take care of us. For those who feel they deserve to keep it all, well, maybe we shouldn’t put money towards the roads that drive you to your offices, or the police departments and fire departments that keep our streets safe, or the schools to keep our children educated so that they can learn to manage for themselves.
Archive for the 'ECONOMIC ISSUES' Category
The first thing I saw when I awoke early this morning to finish a paper, bleary-eyed and drowsy, was an article saying Wachovia (the bank I have been with since I established a savings plan at age 11, as well as credit and checking accounts later), had fallen and was bought by Citigroup.
After leaving to Richmond for the day, the first thing I saw when I got back $30 for gas and still bleary-eyed was a new article stating that the House rejected the $700 billion bailout. As a result, the DOW plunged to its biggest single-day drop in history, 777 points. Putting all personal panic aside, this election is absolutely crucial and monumental in deciding who will hopefully pull America out of this crisis. In addition, how President Bush handles this may in many ways define his second term. This is a high-stakes election year, and Americans have to know what they are voting for.
Both candidates strongly maintain that the other’s tax and economic plans would further wound the nation. When questioned what they would “give up” to fix the economy in last week’s debate, neither candidate could really say what they WOULD give up-just what they couldn’t give up. According to Obama’s website, he would first “jumpstart the economy” by providing $50 billion to help the jumpstart as well as allow Americans to keep their jobs. He also would enact a “Windfall profits Tax to provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families” (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/). He then goes on to detail how he will create new jobs focusing on technology and the environment, protect mortgages, change bankruptcy laws, and more. Does it all sound nice? Absolutely. Is it possible both in fiscally and practically? I’m not sure.
Is McCain’s policy better? At this point, I think it is. He lays out not only what he wants to do, but how it will work. It’s too complex to go into extensive detail, but all the components can be found at his website section devoted to this: http://www.johnmccain.com/Issues/jobsforamerica/. He too has a plan for immediate relief for American families.
It’s interesting to compare both plans and realize that Obama and McCain both want to accomplish the same things-energy independence, relief for American families, rework trade agreements, etc. They just have different ways of accomplishing the same thing. And every voter, with the easy availability of these plans, should educate themselves in this crucial time in American history. The financial crisis will in some way affect everyone.
The polls seem to be slowing down once again for McCain. He’s now down about 4-5 points on average. The big event last week was obviously the economic crisis so the question is whether or not the shift was due to this. If so, that doesn’t bode well for the McCain camp at all. He’s been quoted as saying he doesn’t know much about the economy and the Democrat’s have been pegging him as fiscally reckless so in short he’s got a lot of work to do.
Another issue that has come up is how this economic “bail-out” is going to affect the next presidency whichever candidate it may be. The 700 billion dollar proposal is 700 billion that the government doesn’t have. Bush can spend it but it’s our next president that’s going to have to pay for it and the issue is how our candidates will continue making promises to the American people about tax-cuts, health care plans, etc when our government is already dangerously low on funds. It’s an important question and will almost certainly be asked in the upcoming debates. The first one on Friday is foreign-policy based but I wouldn’t be surprised if the topic is frequently shifted to the economy. Foreign policy is largely considered McCain’s turf so this would have been a big opportunity for him to shift the focus of the campaigns back to that. But after last week’s events I think McCain can count that out. Everyone agrees that the country is in a really bad way and I think all of these personality politics that we’ve seen dominate recently will finally take a back seat to the issues.
I’ve linked to a couple great Bill Maher clips from last Friday with some really good (slightly biased) campaign commentary. Enjoy if you dare. J
The great financial crisis that has affected Wall Streat is giving a big challenge to both presidential candidates, that in their latest speeches have dealt with such a topic. Trying to reassure Americans, they have carefully explained their economic plan and said how they intend to solve the situation.
But what I consider particularly interesting is the way Republicans are handling the issue.
During the campaign they have said the economy has made great progress under the last President, that America is just suffering from a “mental recession” and they have simply talked of “tough time”. Now, as facts are glaringly obvious, they have sharpened their tone and today, in his visit to Florida, McCain has explicitly affirmed “The American economy is in crisis-in a crisis”. I think it’s hard to understand and believe to the Republicans’ assertions and their shift in tone. Furthermore, McCain went on claiming that he still think “the foundamentals of our economy are strong” and then accused Obama of “pessimism, deflatism and weakness”.
I wonder how McCain can attack his opponent using these words when the American economic situation is so clear.
On the other hand Democrats answered the attack strengthen the “McCain doesn’t know what’s going on” position that they had already taken. Obama added “McCain is disturbingly out of touch with the American reality and therefore he asked: “What economy is he talking about?”
I am looking forward to seeing how the situation will evolve and which tone both parties will adopt.
McCain cedes Michigan
So, it seems that McCain is abandoning his efforts in Michigan after new polling data suggests that Obama has a double digit lead over him, the result of Michigan being perhaps the hardest hit state of the latest economic crisis. Michigan was one of the swing states that McCain was hoping to obtain and with its 14 electoral votes was a critical part of his campaign strategy. McCain’s campaign says that the money that was to be invested in the state instead will go to several others- Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Minnesota- but as this excellent Newsweek article points out, McCain does not have any better chances winning in those states than he did in Michigan. Indeed, it seems that the McCain camp has decided on a single election strategy which involves winning several swing states (all of which Obama is currently polling higher in), and then taking a certain district in Maine, a scenario which seems particularly unlikely.
Of course, a lot can happen in a month, but the McCain camp seems desperate, as indicated by it’s increasingly nasty rhetoric (such as Palin recently accusing Obama of “palling around with terrorists”- a charge both scurrilous and seemingly pandering to the false rumors of Obama being some sort of closet Muslim and/or foreigner).