Editorials, etc.
20/Oct/08
The Real Plumbers of Ohio,
an editorial by
Nobel Prize
winner Paul Krugman in today’s New York Times, gives
an excellent review of the current state of the US
economy and the effect on real income by the majority
of Americans. Among other things, he notes that
McCain is using the classic Republican winning
strategy of silent majority -- appealing to white
males who don’t want social change.
McCain has made Joe the Plumber “the centerpiece of his attack on Mr. Obama’s economic proposals.” By the way, it turns out that Joe Wurzelbacher is not really a plumber and makes far less that $250K per year. He would get a big tax break under Obama’s plan, but will vote for McCain. I am totally baffled by his thinking.
Turns out that Ohio’s plumbers have done terribly under the Bush administration. Their real incomes have fallen in the last eight years. Equally problematic, they have had increasing problems getting health insurance. Lately, things have gone even further downhill for them.
McCain says that the middle class under Obama’s plans would reap economic disaster. Joe the Plumber obviously believed it. Krugman sums it up, “I don’t want to suggest that everyone would be better off under the Obama tax plan. Joe the plumber would almost certainly be better off, but Richie the hedge fund manager would take a serious hit.”
The GOP has cynically gotten many to believe the lie that they are the party of the working class when it could not be further from the truth. I could not believe it in 2004 when Ohio, which had suffered badly under the Bush administration, managed to vote for him and thereby sending us into four more years of disaster. I fear they may do it again. Can they really be that stupid? Or is it the water?
The Republicans are now accusing Obama of being a socialist. (Oh my God, not one of those!) "It's kind of hard to figure out why. Warren Buffet endorsed me. Colin Powell endorsed me", the Raleigh News Observer reported. He also noted that, "John McCain thinks giving folks a tax break is socialism. I call it opportunity."
The Kansas City Star reported that Obama takes on taxes, tough times in KC speech. They reported that he has edged out McCain in local polls lately. (While that may be true in Missouri, it is not in my old home state of Kansas.)
Obama’s message was that his and not McCain’s was the campaign of values. “Obama’s message Saturday was all taxes and economy. Casting the tax debate as a ‘values’ issue, Obama said his Republican opponent is ‘out of touch’ for equating welfare with the Illinois senator’s plan to cut taxes for middle-class families. ... ‘That’s right, Missouri — 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 working people ‘welfare.’”
McCain has made Joe the Plumber “the centerpiece of his attack on Mr. Obama’s economic proposals.” By the way, it turns out that Joe Wurzelbacher is not really a plumber and makes far less that $250K per year. He would get a big tax break under Obama’s plan, but will vote for McCain. I am totally baffled by his thinking.
Turns out that Ohio’s plumbers have done terribly under the Bush administration. Their real incomes have fallen in the last eight years. Equally problematic, they have had increasing problems getting health insurance. Lately, things have gone even further downhill for them.
McCain says that the middle class under Obama’s plans would reap economic disaster. Joe the Plumber obviously believed it. Krugman sums it up, “I don’t want to suggest that everyone would be better off under the Obama tax plan. Joe the plumber would almost certainly be better off, but Richie the hedge fund manager would take a serious hit.”
The GOP has cynically gotten many to believe the lie that they are the party of the working class when it could not be further from the truth. I could not believe it in 2004 when Ohio, which had suffered badly under the Bush administration, managed to vote for him and thereby sending us into four more years of disaster. I fear they may do it again. Can they really be that stupid? Or is it the water?
The Republicans are now accusing Obama of being a socialist. (Oh my God, not one of those!) "It's kind of hard to figure out why. Warren Buffet endorsed me. Colin Powell endorsed me", the Raleigh News Observer reported. He also noted that, "John McCain thinks giving folks a tax break is socialism. I call it opportunity."
The Kansas City Star reported that Obama takes on taxes, tough times in KC speech. They reported that he has edged out McCain in local polls lately. (While that may be true in Missouri, it is not in my old home state of Kansas.)
Obama’s message was that his and not McCain’s was the campaign of values. “Obama’s message Saturday was all taxes and economy. Casting the tax debate as a ‘values’ issue, Obama said his Republican opponent is ‘out of touch’ for equating welfare with the Illinois senator’s plan to cut taxes for middle-class families. ... ‘That’s right, Missouri — 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 working people ‘welfare.’”