My friend Vanessa sent this message from inside Monroe Hall, not the main auditorium at Hofstra, but the spill over room where the audience was allowed to emote during the debate and respond to what the candidates were saying and not saying. Hempstead is a primarily African American and Latino area now, which is suffering even more, if that is possible, as the economy unravels:
So are "Joe the Plumber" and "Joe Six-Pack" the new "code names" for …? The Monroe Theater (not the main hall) where I watched the debate was on fire! We began with what was supposed to be an invocation---instead a dynamic young pastor from Hempstead gave opening remarks re: the appropriateness of the road to the white house passing through Hempstead: #of HIV-AIDS cases, # of foreclosures, unemployment, schools, etc...I think you get the idea: it was a take no prisoners framing of the conditions and Hempstead’s place in this historic event as a microcosm of what’s happening nationally! … None of the interaction in that room could have taken place in the main hall! I was where I needed to be last night!
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By my standards, Obama was not great last night. Once again, he let McCain push out there the idea that lower taxes creates jobs, improves our economy and improves our complexion. One would think that after the debacle we see right now, that no Democrat would let a Republican say those kinds of things and continue to promote the lies of Tricle-down economics without tearing that Republican apart.
On "Talk Left" I responded to a posting that was declaring that Joe the Plumber being a GOP plant. It is alleged that he either is a relative of Charles Keating or a relative of someone who knows Keating. None the less, Obama once again missed a huge chance!
He was my posting, with a few corrections.
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Obama could have hit McCain and Joe the Plumber over the outfield fence. Allegedly Joe wants to expand and for plumbing contractors, expansion is a function of only one thing and that is whether or not the sales are there. He doesn't have to get bogged down in any R&D expenses, no big capital expenditures, no national advertising campaign and maybe he'd have to rent another truck and a some very inexpensive inventory for the truck that could be recycled.
I don't know if Joe has any employees now but let's say he has 1, a helper. So, if his income is now at $250,000 he is paying approximately 35% on that income, which is 20% percent higher than what America's wealthy pays as they pay only 15% on Dividends and Long Term Cap Gains. But back to the 35%, let's say Joe hires a new plumber and a helper and they earn not as much as Joe because it's not their business but let us say they earn him a net income of an additional $200,000. Poor Joe might not hire these guys because on this $200,000 Joe has to pay an addition 4.3% tax bringing his marginal bracket rate (for the new income only) up to 39.4%, as it was under Clinton.
Under Bush/McCain Administrations Joes tax on that $200,000 would be only $70,000 instead of $79,000 after the Obama increase. So, McCain wants us to believe that Joe will give up the additional $121,000 in tax (without state tax) because he is a primadonna and he is mad that he would have to pay that additional $9,000. Bullshit!
Joe's biggest fear has to be a continuation of an economy that is dying, in other words a Bush economy. If that were the case the extra guys he hired would have to sit around with no work to do. That is the problem, not the 4.4% increase. That is the problem with this economy and it was the problem with Bush 41's economy because without the middle and the upper middle class prepared to spend and buy things, there is no expansion, no matter how low the tax rates are and no matter how low the interest rates are.
If lowering taxes brings more jobs, how come Clinton raised taxes and created 20 million jobs and Bush lowered taxes significantly and created less than 5 million jobs and an economy that is ready to explode causing the loss of all the jobs Bush added and more.
Obama should have been ready for that because lowering taxes doesn't work and he still has not convinced anyone of that. It was a poor performance but because of Palin and a guy who looks like a serial killer, he got by with it. Hillary would have killed McCain on this.
They are doing the Joe's accounting on CNN but they did not show the possible expansion and they only confused people by getting them to see that Joe had a million dollars in sales but only came home with $250,000 before taxes.
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