It seems to me that the main stream media that is "in the tank" for Senator Barack Obama is trying to undermine him. It is understandable given Fox News' stance that they would subliminally link Senator Obama with OJ Simpson (fear black men). What is shameful is the attempt to compare last weeks polls with this week's polls showing a large surge. The adjustments made to these polls make no sense as their base criteria were changed.
The biggest undermining of the day has to be the CBS video above attempting to show the difference between Obama's tax plan versus McCains. Moreover, CBS used a subliminal message in its description of the difference between Obama and McCain's.
Three scenarios are presented. A family making less than $32,000. a family making just under $64,000, and a small business owner who makes $213,000.
The first bothersome issue is making the family with the lowest income a black family who even though they did not pay income tax would receive a tax credit. While on the surface it should not matter, I am sure many at CBS have heard older white voters who have expressed their doubts about voting for Obama because of an irrational belief that as a black man he would have policies that only help blacks. The fact is as we all know there are many more whites and others in dire straits than the entire US black population. The impression left by the piece is that that family did not pay any taxes. Note that as a self-employed person he pays not just 7.5% in Social security and Medicare taxes that the average worker pay, but 15.5%+. So he is not getting a free ride but some relief.
The second issue is the family making $213,000 thousand a year. The piece gives the impression that their taxes would go up. This is lazy journalism. They needed to have found a person making over $250,000 to actually show someone who would have paid more taxes under Obama. Note in order for the more affluent family's taxes to increase, they would have to be a bit more affluent. The reporter said "If Gilbert's business improves, his income could push him into the 33 percent bracket, which under Obama's plan would jump to 36 percent of income". In other words oops, even a family whose income falls in the top 5% of all US incomes, would still not pay more taxes under Obama's plan. Moreover, when one speaks of a new tax bracket it is the marginal increase that is taxed at the higher rate and not the entire income. In other words, if you make $260,000.00, only $10,000.00 is taxed at the higher rate.
Now the middle class is the largest group in the country. Realistically speaking, one can never expect big tax breaks for this group. It has never happened under any administration because the country cannot afford it. Middle class people should simply expect the government to work as efficiently as possible to keep us safe, keep interest rates low, maintain a good infrastructure, and create regulations for good health care and working rights.
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