Tag Archives: obama

Different Tax Plans, Different Futures

Obama has a bad record when it comes to taxes:




Continue reading on Cato-at-liberty

2. Transcript of Democratic Debate





Marching Towards Socialism














The Youth Vote



“Tangibly?” asks Brooke.

“Well, yes — tangibly.”




I ask about John McCain.




“McCain’s a broken ladder,” Brooke tells me. …

Source: Byron York: Mile High Youth for Obama

Is this who you want determining the future of America? Could these young adults actually debate any of the issues? Do they know what “change” Obama is promising? Or, are they just part of the celebrity cult of Obama?

Obama’s Attack of Palin

The Weekly Standard says this:

Barack Obama’s spokesman says that Alaska governor Sarah Palin is too inexperienced to be vice president:
Jen Rubin calls the “town of 9,000” line “bittergate II”; Sonny Bunch writes:
Because Palin has exactly as much experience as Obama–arguably more, since she’s an executive. The only difference is that she isn’t running for president.
And here’s the official McCain campaign response:

“I worked out with Obama”








Source: In the gym with Barack Obama: BILD reporter gets up close – Bild.de

My goodness! The infatuation with Obama is insane. Honestly, this reads like a satirical article in The Onion. The phrases, “Obama (with toned arms and a strong back)” and “He breathes deeply in and out and takes a sip of water from his 0,5 litre Evian bottle” sound extremely contrived. What’s more, I think the Bild reporter was German. I’m glad the Germans approve.

Obama’s Tax Increase


It’s pretty simple. If you have an adjusted gross income of between $85,000 and $100,000 or so, Obama won’t raise your marginal tax rates. If you’re anywhere else in the income scale, you’re not so lucky.


Source: http://www.american.com/archive/2008/august-08-08/the-folly-of-obama2019s-tax-plan

Comparing the two candidates’ statements on the invasion of Georgia

Senator McCain’s statement:


Contact: Press Office Friday, August 8, 2008


ARLINGTON, VA — U.S. Senator John McCain issued the following statement regarding the current conflict between Georgia and Russia:



Senator Obama’s:

Statement of Senator Obama on Tensions in the Caucasus Region Between Georgia and Russia Chicago, IL | July 23, 2008





“McCain needs only 213 words to get to the point and put out an actual coherent, step-by-step plan. [Obama has a lot of words but nothing of substance.] McCain knows that he can reliably put out a press release on foreign affairs without having to spend an introductory paragraph explaining to his supporters what the Hell is going on.”
(from http://www.redstate.com/diaries/redstate/2008/aug/08/comparing-the-two-candidates-statements-on-t/)
Continue reading

Obama and Taxes

Above the Law figures just how much an Obama presidency will cost you (that is, if you are making over $164,000):

The effect is enormous. Betsy’s marginal tax rate goes up from an already ridiculous 42.5% to 51.4%—not including the new 6.2% marginal tax on your employer. Subject to how she structures her withholding, Betsy’s take home pay drops an average of $515 a paycheck—less in the early months of the year, but much more in the later months of the year. Add in the effects on her bonus, and Betsy loses nearly $20,000/year in take-home pay.

I added a third column: how big a pay cut would you have to take to receive the same take-home income? The answer is that Obama’s tax increases have a bigger effect on your income than a law firm cutting New York salaries by $34,000.

Now, I’m not anywhere close to making that kind of money right now. I still have another 2 years of medical school to pay for and then another at least 5 years of around $40,000 a year during residency. So the earliest that I’d start earning this income would be around 2015. However, I still feel that the best stimulus for the country is to reduce taxes and limit spending of the non-essential federal programs. Here’s a good article called Ten Myths About the Bush Tax Cuts that explains how the tax cuts stimulated the economy and promoted growth. The key balancing point for the correct tax rate is theorized by the Laffer curve: “This curve illustrates ‘taxable income elasticity’, which is the idea that government can maximize tax revenue by setting tax rates at an optimum point and that neither a 0% tax rate nor a 100% tax rate will generate government revenue. At one extreme, a 0% tax rate means the government’s revenue is, of course, zero. At the other extreme, where there is a 100% tax rate, the government collects zero revenue because (in a ‘rational’ economic model) taxpayers presumably change their behavior in response to the tax rate: either they have no incentive to work or they avoid paying taxes, so the government collects 100% of nothing. Somewhere between 0% and 100%, therefore, lies a tax rate percentage that will maximize revenue.”

Here’s something interesting. National defense spending (including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) as a percentage of the GDP is actually 1.5 percentage points below the 45-year historical average.