Obama promises a tax cut for anyone who makes less than $200,000, and will not raise the taxes of those who make under $250,000. For those making more than that, about 5% of the population, a tax raise. The McCain campaign has predictably called this "raising taxes," and in an economic downturn, they claim, this could lead to disaster! The criticisms of Obama on this issue have become one of the main tenets of the McCain campaign. In the debate, McCain threatened that this policy would encourage (rich) people to move abroad, or at least their assets abroad. On the campaign trail, he has called Obama a socialist, and has harped on Obama's words to "Joe the Plumber" about "redistributing" his "wealth." I believe Obama has not responded effectively to this attack. Follow me...
What Republicans, and others (perhaps Obama?), don't understand, or at least do not articulate well, is that this is not redistributing wealth. Asking the very rich to pay more taxes is not for the purpose of "redistributing" it. The very rich disproportionately benefit from state services, the basic business climate, and resources of our country. THEY TAKE FAR MORE THAN THEY GIVE, even with higher tax rates. Whether it is benefiting disproportionately from an educated workforce, benefiting from the large consumer class in the US that serves as the "market," benefiting from the highways and airports, benefiting from market regulation, benefiting from copyright and patent laws and enforcement, benefiting from the oil, coal, gas, rocks, and minerals beneath our country's soil, benefiting from the most fertile soil on earth, benefiting from the abundant forests, benefiting from the R&D in technology that is paid for by our military budget, benefiting from tax breaks and incentives, benefiting from government bailouts for failed businesses, benefiting from our nation's tarriffs and protections, benefiting from our nation's foreign policy of protecting "our interests" abroad, benefiting from the airwaves that are owned by the people, benefiting from the U.S. Constitution and the enforcement of law that has tremendous "buy in" from our people and has ensured stability, etc., etc., the rich benefit immensely.
In other words, asking the rich to pay more taxes (of course, this is aside from the fact that many avoid paying taxes, and should probably serve jail time) is asking them to EXPLOIT the rest of us a little bit LESS. The disparity between the rich and the poor in this country is a gaping hole, and has been increasing dramatically during the Bush years. Making the the rich pay their fair share is NOT REDISTRIBUTION, it is offsetting, or slowing, their financial RAPE of the rest of the country!!
As counterintuitive as it sounds, especially in light of the recent financial meltdown, the rich actually benefit from paying taxes, since the state is rendering (however imperfectly) crucial services.
And despite what John McCain says, if the rich move to Ireland, or some other country with lower tax rates, they simply will not benefit from the immense resources of the United States. Their leaving may simply allow someone else to make money in the US.
The problem for Obama is that if he does not rebut these attacks from McCain he is left vulnerable to the charge that his message of "unity" is a mirage. They can argue, with some credibility, that he actually promotes an "us against them" mentality. Not something I think Obama agrees with.