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Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd is heaping praise on President Obama's proposed $3.55 trillion budget with its built-in (lowball) $1.75 trillion deficit — the entire federal budget 10 years ago was $1.6 trillion — and record $1 trillion in new soak-the-rich taxes over 10 years to fund the next step toward health-care rationing and other socialism. The budget "makes critical investments in our economic future," said Sen. Dodd, whose years of deal-cutting with financiers left the U.S. economy in tatters, cost millions of Americans their jobs, and led to trillions in new government borrowing, hundreds of billions in bailouts for irresponsible...

1. District of Columbia % of Households Earning $200K+: 8.4% Total Households: 251,039 Median Income: $50,318 Households Earning $200K+: 21,194 Election Results: Obama: 93% McCain: 7% 2. Connecticut % of Households Earning $200K+: 8.0% Total Households: 1,320,714 Median Income: $64,158 Households Earning $200K+: 105,433 Election Results: Obama: 61% McCain: 38% 3. New Jersey % of Households Earning $200K+: 7.5% Total Households: 3,149,910 Median Income: $65,249 Households Earning $200K+: 235,278 Election Results: Obama: 57% McCain: 42% 4. Maryland % of Households Earning $200K+: 6.9% Total Households: 2,082,458 Median Income: $65,552 Households Earning $200K+: 142,694 Election Results: Obama: 62% McCain: 37% 5....

Barack Obama's Expensive Domestic Agenda Will Cost America's Middle Class - WSJ.comThe 2% Illusionhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB123561551065378405.html?mod=djemEditorialPage"Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end "tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans," and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won't see their taxes increased by "one single dime. This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes...

Shazam! Mayor Bloomberg Finally Understands Who Pays NYC TaxesFebruary 19, 2009 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Mayor Bloomberg, state and city revenues in New York are falling because of the Wall Street collapse. State lawmakers are considering income tax increases for households earning between $250,000 and $1 million. They already pay a 6.85% income tax rate. Mayor Bloomberg, who as recently as six months ago would have supported this, had something different to say about it recently on the radio. It's sound bite number 11. BLOOMBERG: One percent of the people that live in the city, the households that file in the...

Just a few hours after Barack Obama finished his inaugural address and as he was making his triumphant entry to the Oval Office of the White House, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had taken a predictable dive — by 332.13 points to be exact. Next day, the yo-yo went back up, but we're a long way from recovery. Those of you with 401-Ks and retirement portfolios, beware. This is going to be a bumpy ride, and it won't be pretty. Ersatz math Now, let's see if I have this right: President Obama says he will cut taxes for 95% of...

Once you get past the soaring oratory, to experience a speech by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is to be hit with an astoundingly lengthy list of promises. "I don't know how any reasonable person" could think he'd really be able to accomplish everything he's pledging to do, said the mother-in-law of a colleague, a Missouri woman who intends to vote for Obama. Just today in Sarasota, Fla., the Democratic presidential nominee said that he'd: "give a tax break to 95 percent of Americans who work every day and get taxes taken out of their paycheck every week"; "eliminate income taxes...

For the second time in a week, a prominent Democrat has downgraded Barack Obama's definition of the middle class -- leading Republicans to question whether he'll stick to his promise not to raise taxes on anyone making under $250,000. The latest hiccup in the campaign message apparently came Friday morning on KOA-AM, when New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson pegged the middle class as those making $120,000 and under. "What Obama wants to do is he is basically looking at $120,000 and under among those that are in the middle class, and there is a tax cut for those," Richardson said...

Obama spewed more communist cant about taxing the country back to prosperity, taking your money and giving it to someone he thinks is more deserving, punishing business for making a profit, etc. The market knows what he'll do to the economy.

I wondered about Obama's plan to confiscate wealth from "just" those making over $250k a year. I believe this involved requiring those taxpayers to contribute to FICA. If that happens would the social security administration insure that income and calculate benefits on that high income? If so that would explode social security.

Each year since 2005, the US government has levied taxes and then transferred over a trillion dollars per year in social welfare spending. Since 1965, the year the War on Poverty began, the US government has shared tens of trillions of dollars in wealth to fight a poverty rate that remains unchanged, at 14%, from 1964 to today. In this election, Obama promises to “share the wealth.” Barney Frank asserts that there are plenty of “rich people we can tax to recover this money” the Democrats plan to spend – as if you absconded with the funds. Hillary famously said...

Obama claims that his plan would only hurt 3% of small businesses. But this is highly deceptive. He isn’t lying, but the reports that he cites mean something very specific. They do not mean that 97% of small businesses won’t see higher taxes under Obama’s plan than they see today. Nor do they mean that these businesses would not see higher taxes under Obama’s plan than under McCain’s plan. All the statistic means when is that most businesses would not see higher taxes under Obama’s plan than they would see if the Bush Tax Cuts expire as they are scheduled...

• We believe that Barack Obama is a brilliant orator and a man possessed of more charisma than any politician since JFK. • But we also believe that his philosophy of "spreading the wealth around" is an ill-disguised form of socialism that undermines everything America holds dear. • We believe that a "tax cut on 95% of working Americans" when only 63% of Americans pay taxes is nonsensical. • We believe that the Obama campaign's obfuscated funding for ACORN (originally described as "event planning") undermines the integrity of our elections and calls into question the legality of his tactics. •...

..."First and foremost they raised people's taxes - they cared more about the state budget than about people's family budgets." McCotter says. "When you suck the life blood of people's hard-earned savings, you tend to drive the economy down further than it already was." McCotter's concern is that Michigan's plight could be a harbinger for the nation if Barack Obama is elected president and raises taxes on those making over $250,000, as planned. "We've seen in Michigan -- you start off taxing people who are disliked, that has a negative affect on the economy and then you come back and...

Article and slide show of Sarah Palin's visit to Grand Junction, CO yesterday. The paper estimates 10,000 attended, but other sources say up to 22,000.

Senator Obama's tax plans are nearly identical to those of the 1932 Revenue Act, whereas Estate Taxes would jump exponentially, the second highest corporate tax rate in the world would become the highest and personal income taxes would jump substantially for millions of small business owners and workers across the nation. Obama's tax proposals would represent the largest revenue based tax increase in US history and act in direct contradiction to the tax policies of both Reagan and Kennedy. So how successful was President Hoover's tax increase? In the second half of 1932 the economy completely collapsed in the United...

Barack Obama says he plans to cut taxes for 95 percent of American workers. That sounds terrific, but there are three problems. One, it is meant to draw attention from the real core of the Obama tax plan: proposed increases in every major federal tax. Two, the structure of the cuts will create perverse incentives. And three, many of the people receiving “tax cuts” don’t pay taxes to begin with, meaning they’ll be in effect getting welfare. The first point requires but a simple list. Obama proposes to raise the top two individual income tax rates by 25 percent or...

New Welfare: Tax Cuts for Paying 0?

Sen. John McCain's camp on Monday continued its weekend assault on Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan, which it called an attempt to "spread the wealth." Speaking at a campaign event in St. Charles, Missouri, McCain said Obama "wants to spread the wealth around." A chorus of boos rang out as the senator from Arizona continued, "He believes in redistributing wealth -- not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs and opportunities for all Americans. Sen. Obama is more interested in controlling who gets your piece of the pie than in growing the pie." In Colorado Springs, Colorado, Alaska...

A lot of people got really angry with a character named Joe the Plumber in recent days. He not only had the unmitigated gall to ask Barack Obama a question; he asked him a hard and rather loaded one. And that, according to the Martha Stewart Set, is not a good thing. So this low-brow, Chris Daughtry-looking plumber asks Barack Obama whether he wanted to raise his taxes or not. Silly Hillbilly – engaging in serious political debate is for the cool people. Presumably, arrogant, self-selecting, elitist creeps that the Joe The Plumbers-in-Training of the world badly want to stuff...

The widely sung “Ballad of Joe the Plumber” has showcased the plight of America’s small businesses and how their fortunes would dim under an Obama administration. According to new figures, the lion’s share of America’s small-business profits would face higher taxes under a President Barack Obama. The Democratic nominee’s plan to raise taxes on Americans earning more than $250,000 will hit not only Wall Street investment bankers and Hollywood talent agents (not that there’s anything wrong with them!) As it happens, many small-business owners pay taxes as individual and joint filers, not as companies. They very often file as sole...

This Election Day could usher in a crushing blow to the American dream. Within hours of meeting Joe the Plumber, Americans from all over the country flooded my inbox with their stories. Joe the Plumber, as so many who watched the final presidential debate of the 2008 election know, is Joe Wurzelbacher, from Holland, Ohio, who wants to buy a small business but knows it’s going to hurt under an Obama administration’s tax plan. Jarringly, when Joe told Obama of his worry during a campaign stop, the Illinois senator said, “It’s not that I want to punish your success, I...

Hey, Senator Obama, three words … wrong, wrong, wrong! On Saturday, one-tenth of a million faithful Obama-maniacs gathered in St. Louis, Missouri to hear their man claim that his proposed tax cuts for ninety-five percent of American working families are not welfare payments, as correctly asserted by Senator John McCain. Said The One: I'm not giving tax cuts to folks who don't work, I'm giving tax cuts to people who do work. John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for...

Barack Obama is well on his way to buying the Presidency. The effect of  Obama's financial advantage has  now even been admitted by the New York Times,  whose editors and political writers already may be lighting up their victory cigars, like Red Auerbach, the Celtics coach of legend. The state where the Obama campaign has been carpet bombing the airwaves most vigorously this past weekend was West Virginia.  If you watched TV over the weekend in the Mountaineer State, you could not have missed the Obama ads -- an extraordinary buy of $1.2 million per day for 5 days, with ads running...

“My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.” This economic perspective could have been expressed by any of history’s best-known socialists: Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx or Adolf Hitler. Thankfully, it is also a perspective that has been discredited by the collapse of the nations that have adopted it. Indeed, when you “spread the wealth around,” no one has any incentive to create wealth. To the contrary, everyone has a reason to waste it. Imagine...

How would Barack Obama pay for the $800 billion that John McCain claimed in the first presidential debate Sept. 26 in Oxford, Miss., that his Democratic opponent would spend if he were elected president? Obama replied, by "closing tax loopholes." Obama was no more specific in the debate, and tax experts doubt that structural changes without increasing taxes can raise anything close to that amount of money. My office asked the Obama campaign for the details, and it responded with a 19-page single-spaced paper on the candidate's "tax plans." In fact, there was precious little about tax policy in the...

So, what do "the rich" pay in federal income taxes? Nothing, right? That, at least, is what most people think. And Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wants to raise the top marginal rate for "the rich" -- known in some quarters as "job creators." A recent poll commissioned by Investor's Business Daily asked, in effect, "What share do you think the rich pay?" Their findings? Most people are completely clueless about the amount the rich actually do pay. First, the data. The top 5 percent (those making more than $153,542 -- the group whose taxes Obama seeks to raise) pay...

A Small Business is one that: is organized for profit; has a place of business in the United States; makes a significant contribution to the U.S. economy by paying taxes or using American products, materials or labor; and, does not exceed the numerical size standard for its industry. The business may be a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or any other legal form. There is an SBA small business size standard for every private sector industry in the U.S. Economy. SBA uses the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to identify the industries. Size Standards (usually stated in number of employees...

With the nation in the middle of what is being regularly reported as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a new poll found that 74 percent of America's top business leaders fear "an Obama presidency would be disastrous for the country." [snip] Despite the answer, our supposedly impartial press seem totally disinterested in Chief Executive magazine's just-released survey which found some CEOs worried that if implemented "[Obama's] programs would bankrupt the country within three years" Chief Executive magazine’s most recent polling of 751 CEOs shows that . . . McCain is the preferred choice for CEOs. According to...

Let’s be clear – and this is directed almost entirely at those who refuse to accept the fact that Senator Obama is promulgating a tax plan that incontrovertibly translates into welfare payments for those who absolutely do not deserve them – 40% of the American population do not – repeat do not – pay income tax. Period. You can spit up all the leftist harangues you like. You can refute what is unassailable to your heart’s content, but the reality is (I’ll say it again) that 40% of the American population (give or take a fraction or two) do not...

And now, America, we introduce the Great Obama! The world's most gifted political magician! A thing of wonder. A thing of awe. Just watch him defy politics, economics, even gravity! (And hold your applause until the end, please.) To kick off our show tonight, Mr. Obama will give 95% of American working families a tax cut, even though 40% of Americans today don't pay income taxes! How can our star enact such mathemagic? How can he "cut" zero? Abracadabra! It's called a "refundable tax credit." It involves the federal government taking money from those who do pay taxes, and writing...

Obama to Plumber: My Plan Will 'Spread the Wealth Around'Barack Obama told a tax-burdened plumber over the weekend that his economic philosophy is to "spread the wealth around" -- a comment that may only draw fire from riled-up John McCain supporters who have taken to calling Obama a "socialist" at the Republican's rallies. Obama made the remark, caught on camera, after fielding some tough questions from the plumber Sunday in Ohio, where the Democratic candidate canvassed neighborhoods and encouraged residents to vote early. "Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining...

Whether or not last night's much-improved debate performance helps John McCain rally in the polls, at least voters finally got a clearer sense of the policy differences. For our money, the best line of the night was Mr. McCain's Freudian slip of referring to Barack Obama as "Senator Government." Neither candidate is offering policies that meet the serious economic moment. But Mr. McCain would let Americans keep more of their own income to ride out the downturn, while Mr. Obama is revealing that his default agenda is to spend money and expand the government. APCribbing from Hillary Clinton's playbook, Mr....

Please copy, paste, and circulate ACORN and its questionable voter registration methods are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to disreputable and possibly illegal election tactics. They include arguably illegal and possibly rigged--with winners selected before the entry deadline, misuse of tax exempt church resources for electioneering, and foreign contributions. Here is a convenient list of links for further details. Acceptance of contributions from foreign sources, and in excess of the $2300 individual contribution limit Obama's Illegal Foreign Contributions and (Possibly Rigged) LotteriesGazan contributions flagged by Federal Election Commission, Obama Never Reported Obama Received Illegal Contributions from...

Dropping dramatically in the polls, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Hussein Obama today trotted out an old standby line for struggling left wing pols — the false accusation that, if elected, the Republicans will cut the federal health care program for the aged and poor, Medicare. “Sen. McCain would pay for part of his plan by making drastic cuts in Medicare – $882 billion worth,” Sen. Obama (D-Ill.) told a crowd in Roanoke, Virginia, today. “$882 billion in Medicare cuts to pay for an ill-conceived, badly thought through health care plan that won’t provide more health care to people, even though...

So what if Obama is elected? After four years, Americans will realize they've been sold a bill of goods by the left-wing media, and vote him back out again. Then we can live happily ever after. Right? Wrong. Four years is more than enough time to inflict permanent damage on this country, given the large majorities the moonbat messiah is likely to have in both houses of Congress. The Wall Street Journal warns that if Dems get BHO in the White House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, we will enter "a period of unchecked left-wing ascendancy." Among the...

Under Obama's Plan, Joe the Plumber Would Keep .39 Out of Every Dollar After $250,000 Obama and Joe Biden keep repeating that they don't know many plumbers who make $250,000. Joe the Plumber noted that he wasn't talking about his current income; he was talking about the income he hopes to make if and when he runs his own business. Yesterday I heard a bit of audio from The View, and Joy Behar (I think) declared that Joe was "fantasizing." Remember that the next time you hear a salute to the American Dream. Whoopi Goldberg charged that Joe and the...

Obama and Joe Biden keep repeating that they don't know many plumbers who make $250,000. Joe the Plumber noted that he wasn't talking about his current income; he was talking about the income he hopes to make if and when he runs his own business. Yesterday I heard a bit of audio from The View, and Joy Behar (I think) declared that Joe was "fantasizing." Remember that the next time you hear a salute to the American Dream. Whoopi Goldberg charged that Joe and the others have a problem with progressive taxation, and that's not quite right. The system is...

The Democrats have a dirty little secret that they don’t want you to know. It is that their mantra of Bush’s “Tax Cuts for the Rich” is unabashedly false. The rich paid a higher percentage of the total tax bill under the Bush plan than under Clinton. In fact, the expiration of the Bush tax cut savages the low- and middle-class voters. This case has been made and fact-checked with the ever-liberal Snopes.Com. The Tax Foundation used “tax table” rates between the Bush and Clinton tax plans to shows a huge difference for low income taxpayers, sometimes even a 100%...

If you live in a battleground state, you've probably seen the ads: Barack Obama promises to cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people and no family earning less than $250,000 will see their taxes go up by one dime. John McCain, on the other hand, is portrayed as a ruthless tax hiker who wants to tax health benefits for the very first time. Go to Obama's website and there are "generous tax cuts for low- and middle-income seniors, homeowners, the uninsured, and families sending a child to college or looking to save and accumulate wealth." There is...

Regardless of where you live or what your occupation is the story of Joe the plumber should be a wake up call for the middle class of this nation; not because of the socialist undertones of Senator Obama's 'Spread The Wealth' policies, but rather because of the reaction of his campaign, his surrogates and the fringe-left media to anyone that questions "The One"... ...But my favorite is from the SF Chronicle, a know left-wing publication, yet a nationally printed publication:

Last night, during Austin Hill's radio show on 630 WMAL in Washington, DC, a caller named Max from Arlington (VA) called in suggesting that Americans grab their plungers (a sanitized one, please!) and march at the Washington Mall with plungers in hand and in support of John McCain and Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber -- and to reject the Democratic Congress and also Barack Obama and his absurd tax policies. I thought it was an excellent call and a great idea! E-mail Austin at the link provided if you're interested in this.

Honestly, I’m rather surprised that Joe Wurzelbacher and his rope-line dialogue with Barack Obama has managed to stay in the news for as long as it has. I knew when I first heard the exchange that it went badly for Obama. I didn’t expect Joe the Plumber to be the main topic of the last presidential debate. And I certainly didn’t expect Obama supporters to keep the story alive by their rabid character assassination of a man who did nothing more than ask a question — at random. Now, we have people crawling over his tax records, his voter registration,...

This article is an acid example of awful and inaccurate editorializing against ordinary Americans by the leftwing Old Media on behalf of Obama's duplicitous minions. HOLLAND, Ohio - Joe the Plumber's story sprang a few leaks Thursday. Turns out that the man who was held up by John McCain as the typical, hard-working American taxpayer isn't really a licensed plumber. And court documents show he owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes. "Joe," whose name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, was cited repeatedly in Wednesday night's final presidential debate by McCain for questioning Barack Obama's tax policy. This is an excerpt. Click...

Dan Franklin is a plumber for Lafrance Plumbing in Syracuse. He's been following the presidential race very closely. He laughs when "Joe the Plumber" is mentioned, but says he has a great point. Lafrance Plumbing makes more than $250,000 a year, and would have to pay higher taxes if Senator Barack Obama is elected, and implements his tax plan. For Lafrance, lowering profits, is not an option. Click the video icon to see Jon Dougherty's full report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Small business owners, the kind Joe the plumber hopes to become, will need an expert from another profession — a good accountant or perhaps someone with a crystal ball — to know whether Barack Obama's tax plans will help them or send money swirling down with the Drano. Is John McCain right? Would someone owning a company that makes more than $250,000 a year pay higher income taxes under Obama, as McCain claimed in making Ohio plumber Joe Wurzelbacher the man of the moment in Wednesday night's presidential debate?

As of last night, the tax burden on small businesses has become one of the central (if not THE central) issues of the 2008 presidential campaign. In a year when wars both foreign (Iraq and Afghanistan) and cultural (latte-sipping media elites versus hockey moms) dominated the headlines, how did this happen? Strangely enough, we can thank one man: Joe Wurzelbacher of Ohio, or as he is better known, "Joe the Plumber." His feelings about Obama's tax plan were basically the centerpiece of last night's debate. Wurzelbacher's complaint is that if he bought the small business he works for, he would...

Even The New York Times now is saying that Barack Obama's unswerving call for tax increases -- to impose more "fairness" -- is the wrong prescription for the current crisis in the U.S. economy. "The big issue for each candidate is not spending, per se, but how the crisis will affect their promises on taxes," editorialized The Times last Tuesday. With the U.S. in the midst of a financial meltdown, The Times recognized that Obama's proposed tax hikes would only push the U.S. economy into a deeper hole: "Mr. Obama has said that he would raise taxes on the wealthy,...

One of Barack Obama's most potent campaign claims is that he'll cut taxes for no less than 95% of "working families." He's even promising to cut taxes enough that the government's tax share of GDP will be no more than 18.2% -- which is lower than it is today. It's a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he's also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income...

During his career in the Illinois Senate, Barack Obama never saw a tax increase that he didn't like. CBS News Jan 17, 2007 - 'Obama occasionally supported higher taxes, joining other Democrats in pushing to raise more than 300 taxes and fees on businesses in 2004 to help solve a budget deficit. The increases passed the Senate 30-28.' Fox News Feb. 27, 2008 - 'A new report says he supported more than 300 tax hikes during his eight years in the Illinois State Senate'. Yet, these reports do not even begin to demonstrate the fiscal irresponsibility practiced by Obama. Facing...

Want to set a conservative’s hair on fire? Just mention redistribution of wealth and watch the fireworks. It happened Sunday when Barack Obama was canvassing a neighborhood in Toledo, Ohio. Fox News cameras were there and captured the conversation (which is now all over the Web) between a self-employed plumber named Joe Wurzelbacher and Obama. More taxes? Wurzelbacher explained that by working hard (10-12 hours a day) he was in a position to buy a business. If he bought a truck and expanded the business, he wondered if his success would be greeted by a penalty in the form of...