CNN Fact Check: Is Obama a Socialist?

Excerpt CNN report "Fact check: Obama said he would 'spread his wealth around'?":

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, during a speech on October 16 outside Philadelphia, recounted the story of "Joe the Plumber," a man who held a conversation with Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama and who became the surprise star of the candidates' October 15 debate when McCain gave an account of the story. McCain said the man told Obama, "'Look, I've been working all my life — 10, 12 hours. I want to buy the business I'm in, but you're going to raise my taxes.' And you know what Senator Obama had to say to Joe? He wanted to spread his wealth around. He wanted to spread his wealth around."

 Good Old Barack "Karl Marx" Obama.  He's out there to grab working class families' money so he can spread it around.

Lets just ignore the mighty reverse socialism that the Bush camp just did engineer for the wealthy in the last few weeks, now named a "Main Street rescue package" though Main Street, they warn,  won't feel the relief for years.

But CNN shows that Obama's statements to Joe illustrate that he has a much better plan than McCain's words imply, and would give  the plumber a tax break, not an increase.

Obama explained his tax plan during the roughly five-minute exchange — telling Wurzelbacher that the tax rate on the portion of his income that was more than $250,000 would be increased from 36 percent to 39 percent. But he also mentioned that his plan includes a 50 percent small-business tax credit for health care and a proposal to eliminate the capital-gains tax for small businesses that increase in value. Obama said his tax plan, which he said focuses on bigger breaks for people making lower incomes, would be good for the economy. "If you've got a plumbing business, you're going to be better off if you've got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you," he said. "Right now, everybody's so pinched that business is bad for everybody. And I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

BTW, for anyone unclear on the concept, what a business makes is not what a business owner earns.  There are lots of business expenses, especially when that business has two employees, and needs a lot of equipment and some basic office supplies and computers (not to mention special progaming) for billing, payroll, and accounts payable.

Now, if after all that, Joe would have ended up in the top 5% of income earners after all the business and personal deductions then Senator Obama shows how much better it would be if other people had a bit more money to pay him.

It's the old saying.  Please pay me now so I can pay Mario the Grocer, so he can pay Alice the mechanic, so she can pay Tom painter, so he can pay Nadia, the owner of the paint store, so she can hire you to fix her sink.  (Okay, in the old days all the names were all male, and seemingly white -- like Alice's caterpillar, I improved it).  

Right now, a lot of our money is being siphoned of through laws, war, and favoritism into a reverse socialism straight into the pockets of the wealthy, powerful, especially if they are monetary supporters of the Republican party and its candidates. Eric Prince who runs Blackwater a relatively new business that makes billions off the government each year and gets de fact immunity for their killings in Iraq comes from an extended family that not only has given millions to right wing groups, but did so early, and in fact floated the money for the groups that started enforcing Republican loyalty by American fundametalist Christians.  

I'm ready for a change.

And to be honest, I liked JFK, and his reduction of 90% tax on the wealthy was probably necessary, but during the primary, while reading about the destruction of FDR Glass Steagal act, I noticed that the first moves to destroy the regulations on banking came when wealthy people got that tax break opening up big chunks of money they could use to buy up bits of the news media and otherwise manipulate our political system.  I now do not think it's just chance that Nixon become president 8 years after JFK took office.  

Now that Americans have seen how bad it can become, and with the rise of non mainstream news, I'm hoping the middle and working classes will have a chance for a power surge.   It will take vigilance in keeping informed, while rejecting the articles that are planted in the news through the power that the wealthy still have over the apparatus of the media. 

BTW, I read elsewhere that Obama's proposal would actually hit singles at $200k while hitting families (I assume heads of households and joint filers) at  $250k.  Joe would qualify as a head of household since he would seem to pay for the majority of the support of the son who lives with him.  (I'm guessing there.  Mom could be a high powered lawyer somewhere who sends Baby Daddy a check each month, but I go on the information I have.)  Anyway, the point is that  Joes probably wouldn't owe more taxes in his position as even he seemed to indicate.

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, October 16, Wurzelbacher said he had misunderstood Obama's plan and that the company he wants to buy makes well less than $250,000 a year — which Obama says means his taxes would not be increased.

CNN's conclusion:

Misleading. McCain's remark was an oversimplification of a five-minute-long conversation. Obama replied in great detail about his tax plan, and the "spread the wealth" remark was one small part of the conversation.

tags: barack  obama  john mccain  joe the plumber  mainstream news  

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