Tag Archives: barack obama

Tax Rates Wouldn’t Be Such A Big Deal If People Actually Understood The Tax Code

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I’m having an interesting online conversation in response to a YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsa4uLmTw0M&lcor=1&lc=3OOQtti0eix24lBV9PulW3gvqPxFr7QVvRwepXiZ2TI&lch=email_reply&feature=em-comment_reply_received

The comment that caught my eye (and has since been removed) was “I pay 25% and I think people making $250,000 should do the same”. And the conversation went downhill from there…

Me: I’d love to pay the same 25% tax rate you pay. Unfortunately, my rate is 33%. If Obama gets elected and has his way, we’ll be paying 39% or more. Please tell me which part of the progressive tax code you don’t understand. I’d love to have an opportunity to explain it to you.

Them: Oops my apologies I did the math wrong on my paycheck. 36% is what I pay. My apologies for my bad figure. So your progressive tax theory has a hole in it!

I’m completely speechless… but the whole “I make less money and pay more taxes” argument is starting to make a lot more sense.

Do yourself a favor. Teach yourself something about the tax code before you start spewing nonsense. For this year’s rules, you can start with Forbes.

The October Surprise? Not!

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If Obama should lose this election, many will say it was because the economy was weak and because the president is black. Actually, it will be because he fought it as a failed progressive rather than a successful centrist.

[snip]

Every voter who chose Obama in 2008 still wants him to succeed. But not all are convinced he can, and that’s partly because he has stopped trying to be the president he said he’d be. The need to fix Washington, the need for a bridge-building, post-partisan presidency was uppermost in centrist voters’ minds when they elected Obama, and he’d made that the core of his campaign. Washington is still broken – more so than before – and Obama is no longer even trying to mend it… The president’s error wasn’t that he refused to compromise. It was that he compromised so reluctantly, denying himself ownership of his own policies and making every accomplishment seem like a defeat.

Clive Crook Obama’s Blunder Was in Ceding Political Center to Romney

I’ll take that understatement and raise you one fact: Obama never tried to be the president he said he’d be.

Fact-Check: Arming Syrian Rebels

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Mr. Obama said that the administration was mobilizing support for the opposition there but that it wanted to make sure that “we’re not putting arms in the hands” of people who could eventually turn them against the United States or its allies in the region.

Fact-Check: Arming Syrian Rebels

Good. Glad to see Fast And Furious wasn’t completely lost on the current administration.

Independents Play A Major Role In 2012

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To give a bigger sense of why this is such an important number for Romney, consider this: In 2008 Obama won the national popular vote by 7.2 percent overall. If you assume equal turnout in 2012 as 2008 (39 percent Democrats, 32 percent Republicans, and 29 percent independents) but take Obama’s 8 percent win with independents and give it Romney, that 7.2 percent 2008 margin drops to 2.6 percent. If Romney can get Obama’s lead down to 2.6 percent before they even chip away at the giant turnout advantage Democrats had in 2008 (or win over some Democrats to Romney), it is going to be almost impossible for Obama to win.

Josh Jordan Obama’s Independent Problem

Really?

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We have seen that it’s possible to overcome the politics of division and distraction; that it’s possible to overcome the same old negative attacks that are always about scoring points and never about solving our problems.

Barack Obama after winning the North Carolina primary May 2008

The Truth About GM

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For months, I’ve been wondering why no one wants to challenge how the politicians spin it. During the Vice Presidential Debate, Biden said:

“Romney said, ‘No, let Detroit go bankrupt.’”

According to the Washington Post:

This statement is drawn from a headline — “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” — on an opinion article written by Romney for The New York Times. But he did not say that in the article. (He repeated the line, however,on television.)

Although “bankrupt” often conjures up images of liquidation, Romney called for a “managed bankruptcy.” This is a process in which the company uses the bankruptcy code to discharge its debts, but emerges from the process a leaner, less leveraged company.

Ultimately, along with getting nearly $80 billion in loans and other assistance from the Bush and Obama administrations, GM and Chrysler did go through a managed bankruptcy. But many independent analysts have concluded that taking the approach recommended by Romney would not have worked in 2008, simply because the credit markets were so frozen that a bankruptcy was not a viable option at the time.

Biden also overstated the Obama administration’s role in saving the auto industry, glossing over the fact that the outgoing George W. Bush administration first bailed out General Motors and Chrysler.

There you have it. See Wikipedia for all the gory details.