this is a perfect example of the distinct difference of republicans and democrats. Republicans waffle when it comes to their record and now they are running a race on not being republican. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. A republican will be a republican always.
Chris Matthews does not let Republicans slide in this video. I have to give him credit. He tried to hold the democrat to the fire and he came out shinning. He took the fiscal overreach question and said "No, we are just being HONEST." If you make over 250k a year you will get the tax cuts that Bush gave you taken away and if you make less that 250k a year which is almost everyone you will get tax cuts AND WILL BENEFIT. This will actually do a few things one of which will be to give tax cuts to the middle and lower classes which will stimulate the economy. Bush tried doing it with a ONE TIME rebate check. This will be a year over year over year solution, not an attempt to put a band-aid over a gaping wound.
Another is that they are going back to public works projects which will help cure the unemployment problem and get Americans back to work! I said AMERICANS not like Republicans whos policies give Indians American Jobs. They complain about Mexicans taking American jobs, yet when you call a credit card company, ATT, SBC you name it. Any large corporation you call had a person from india that you cant understand answering the call. DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT MEXICANS WHEN YOU GUYS SHIP JOBS OVERSEAS! Obama's policy is to keep jobs right here in America!
Obama is tax and spend, typical democrat and McCain is vowing to make a platform out of reforming Washington spending. That is exactly what this country needs. We need to stop the crazy government spending. Taxing in a bad economy is very foolish. Only a democrat can think that's a good plan. Too bad for us though the average citizen believes what you do Shannon. They just don't have enough knowledge to understand the beaurocratic machine that Washington has been for ever so long. The blame will be placed on the president who failed to stop the house of cards from coming down. It's been heading down for a long long time and there is much blame and responsiblity to go around Washington, but the Democrats are enjoying the ignorance of their base. I am afraid the republicans biggest fault is that of not educating and informing the public more. I don't know what they could have done, considering the majority of the media is in the bag for the Obama campaign, and that's kind of hard to fight.
What are you going to do if Obama does not get elected? Maybe there is a hotline that will help you guys through this inconceivable scenario come November.
Benjamin stop making excuses! If I were president none of this would of happened. Hell if Lane were presidnet, none of this would of happned. Stop playing the Dee Dee Dee Card and saying oh the job is too hard for president Bush..it could of happened to anyone. The problem is it didnt happen to anyone else it heppended to him on his watch with a bunch of republican congressmen and women that voted withhim in lockstep.
No sir, I am not confused as I told everyone years ago the economics of the Republican party were not going to work and now years later I am right. You know who is confused, the man who said our fundamentals are strong cause let me let you in on a little secret. We are close to collapse. There are many scenarios that would put our National Security at risk with regards to the economy and most of them fall on the Republican ticket. We have to act now and elect Obama!
To be honest it is so bad, I dont know if either of them can save the country from a depression. There are real positives about Obamas plan though..Where is Mccains plan?
I finally understand why you are so confused about everything political. You watch Chris Mathews on MSNBC... I watched this entire interview last week and was fascinated at the immature journalist tactics of the all mighty Chris Mathews. I think that it is funny that people think Bush has complete control over our ENTIRE economic prosperities. This is completely ridiculous… It shows that YOU Shannon put too much faith in the Government. Did you know that the government is made up of imperfect human beings? It’s true…
I don’t see why anyone needs to take complete responsibility for their party’s actions… Oh but “The Buck Stops Here…” whoa-ho-ho… good one Chris… Just because someone might be a Democrat or a Republican does not mean they are responsible for the actions of the President. If anything, a Democrat or a Republican can fight to change the policies (in their party) they disagree with…
Watch someone ells Shannon… MSNBC is like watching a teen political presentation…
Didn't Mathews just get demoted or something for his campaign coverage?
No I am really not. I don't know enough about your circumstances or anyone elses to pass judgement. There can always be extenuating circumstances and everyone can fall on hard times for one reason or another. Believe what you want, but I was thinking bigger. I really mean it when I say just the general mindset needs to change. People are being raised to believe that it is the job of their government to give them a comfortable life, but really when we think about our country being founded in the early days, it was all about opportunity and freedom, but life was hard and not so comfortable. I am speaking generally, I promise. Even if I think you are wrong on some of these things, I respect you and appreciate the fact that you even have an interest in these things. I did not at your age.
Lane: Why would I hate you for saying that if you were not directing it to me? But, come on let's be real you know you were. I get it, I am young and it is not the usual norm for a 23 year old to have two kids and a husband. That's fine I can deal with that. I understand that their are young women out there who get knocked up and can't support themselves or their babies(Bristol Palin). I however finished school, got my professional licenses. married first and then planned my two pregnancies. Again I understand that this is not the norm for someone my age, but I graduated hiughschool at 16 and went straight to college. I was pretty much on my own for awhile so I did the usual thing that most people do I just succeeded much earlier than my peers. So you can tough love the highschool dropouts and the girls that get knocked up and then are forced to be a teenage brides, but I refuse to be lumped into the same category of irresponsibility. No offense taken:)
Lauren: Don't hate me for saying this, and I don't really mean this to you specifically, but our government needs to tough love it's citizens into a new mindset. People need to plan, finish education, get careers in order and make sure they can support children before they have them. Again, I don't mean you, or me, I mean generally speaking, because we do have young people making bad choices and we do need to at some point to pull in the reigns and tough love them into being more responsible for themselves. Everyone can fall on hard times unexpectantly, and that's not really what I am talking about. I'm talking about an expectation that I think we need to wean our citizens away from.
And Shannon if you agree that small businesses are already hurting, what do you think will happen when their taxes are raised? By the way, I have about $12.00 cash right now. I'm rich on paper, but that isn't buying the milk. I'm also trying to hang on to the last few employees and keep milk on their tables as well. Increasing anyones taxes just doesn't cut it for me.
Let's all push for the fair tax. Everyone will pay their fair share and there will be credits back to those that wouldn't be paying income taxes, so that they wouldn't be paying the fair tax either. I think that could work for everyone. Taxing success will never sit well with most conservatives, but we're not the big bad selfish brats you guys think we are.
See you guys, your beliefs are really right on with the democratic platform as far as that goes. We republicans think that for our government to determine a "wealth redistribution" is pretty socialistic. We believe that the government needs to offer a safe home with plenty of equal opportunity. I have no problem with helping those less fortunate, but I would much prefer the fair tax, which doesn't tax success. When you get into wealth redistribution, the lines of the two parties are drawn and the choices are clear.
Lane, I understand your concern, but I of course will agree with the tax hike on the $250K income bracket, becuase I make about $19K a year and I have two small children and .99 cents in the bank. Of course I am moving up on the todem pole hope to one day own my own mortgage business and broker my own loans and eventually gain enough capital to cross over to the lending side of the business. Shannon is right we have to stop the economic hemorrage in this country and yes, I think it is patriotic for you contibute to your country's economy a little more if you can afford it and I can't. Biden is right it is neigborliness. It's not like you are doing it in vain, because you too can reap the benefits of a stronger and more stable economy that will generate more revenue for your business. Yea you may say well it will hurt me and my employees, well everything gets worse before it gets better. It will eventually level off. Now, I know some people say that they should not have to pay for someone else's economic downfalls, it's a free enterprise..blah,blah,blah....but just let this sink in Combined my husband and I make a combined income of about $28K annually. We can barley feed our family or put gas in the one car that we have, which is about to fall apart, might I add.
As prideful as I am and as conservative as my father is (he would just die) I went down to my local welfar office and I didn't even qualify because I made too much money!! What do you know $28K is not considered poor, yet there is a significant gap between that and $250K.
Lane, small businesses are already going under and Unemployment rates are already close to historic highs. Do you know when the majority of last historic highs were? Under Reagan.
http://www.bls.gov/web/lauhsthl.htm
Like I said before those economic policies never work as they choke the spending base of the economy.
I am sorry for you previous hardships and I understand your delimma with regards to capital gains. That is one thing that I would love to keep at the current rate, but it will only go up as high as the Clinton rate with was 18 to 20 percent, so I will have to bite the bullet on my stock transactions. btw everybody there will be alot of selling in dec if Obama is elected. Just a heads up.
I am guessing that you are in the house fixing business which is a tough ole deal right now, but you have to understand that all of this comes straight down to consumers. Daily cost of living went up (cable, electricity, water food) while incomes went down for the middle class which is the biggest group of consumers. Then they were laid off and couldnt buy. The path we are on will not correct itself only implode even more.
Its not as though Obama is doing something wasnt working before under Clinton. Our economy was doing rather well then.
I am not in the 250k range yet, but I have a small software business myself and with the looks of it we will be able to get up there pretty quick. I am just willing to bite the bullet when I get there and pay my fair share for the good of my country. Thats just my take and I am not calling people who dont see it as I do non patriotic. I just know looking at the economic indicators that the next 6 months is crucial that something happens to stop the bleeding. We have to change course and apply a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
Shannon: It's not just income tax on those over $250,000 it is also capital gains taxes that will go up, that's investment taxes. And my husband and I own a small business that up until now has made enough to qualify us to call ourselves rich by Obama's standards. We have worked our butts off and we have not always had what we have now. Of course with the economy being what it is, things are very hard right now and what McCain means when he says that raising taxes at a time when the economy is bad, is the wrong thing to do; small business owners will go under. Even if they don't go under, they will have to scale way down and lay off a lot of workers. There are thousands upon thousands of small business owners that can not take tax increases right now and they will be laying off. Joblessness will go up and businesses will fail. It sounds good in theory to only tax the extremely rich and give breaks to the less fortunate, but the consequences are so much bigger than that.
I have lived through a home forclosure with a small child; had a deputy serve me and I just had to leave, also lost my car that year; it was a very low time for me. I'm only telling you this so you won't think I don't understand hard times; I do. Believe me, I have barely touched on how terrible things got during that time in my life. I can appreciate more than things from another perspective and I just want you to know that.
Things are hard now. My husband gets phone calls from other contractors looking for work. These are other business owners wanting to come and work by the hour. We are all trying to do what we can to get by, but small business owners who look rich on paper and perhaps do make that ungodly sum of $250,000 and above are struggling to make ends meet and pay their employees without having to lay them off.
It's easy to assume that the people Obama is talking about are the spoiled rotten Paris Hiltons of the world; but the picture is so much bigger than that and the consequences would be devastating for so many people. I agree with John McCain when he says you can not tax your way out of a bad economy. There has to be other answers and a better plan.
