Friday, October 31, 2008

Saturday Quick Hit

A TALE OF AUNTS

It has recently been discovered that Obama has an aunt on his dad's side that is living in Boston in Public Housing. Not that we need to know everything about the candidate's families, but I find it odd that Obama has been campaigning for over a year and the media is just now reporting on that. But the story is really interesting considering Senator McCain has an elderly aunt of his own, who he houses in a condo he owned in California. You would think the media would sensationalize a story like that: one candidate lets his aunt live in public housing and calls for more taxes so the government is able to take care of the poor, while another candidate, who pays for a home for his aunt to live in, calls for less government intervention. You can't make that stuff up. It certainly allows us to see where the candidates draw the line where personal responsibility stops, and the government takes over, which is after all what is important.

TAXES

I am trying to get a handle on Senator Obama's tax plan. Originally he stated that only those earning over $250,000/year would see a tax increase. Then he lowered that to $200,000/year. Three days ago, Senator Biden clarified that it would only be those earning more than $150,000/year who would be taxed more. This morning, Governor Richardson of New Mexico , currently campaigning for Obama, said the candidate's tax plan would call for increased taxes on those earning $120,000/year. I suppose it could just be little slip ups, but if that is the case I'd expect it to happen at larger amounts too, not just incrementally smaller earnings.

I suppose the lesson is to not trust a politician when they promise to tax one person and not another. If they demonstrate a love of taxes as policy, it might be just a matter of time before they get around to taxing you too. That's probably why the Wall Street Journal, when referring to Obama's economic plan, headlined the story "The Tax Man Cometh."

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