Obama: McCain focused on biography over economy

Look at all his tax plan and all of the proposed increases across the full range of income levels.

Doug, you're simply lying. Every independent tax authority that has looked at both candidate's plans agree that you're wrong and that for almost everybody except the top 2%, the Obama plan gives more relief.

I agree. Every person except the top 2% will get tax relief under Barack's plan and to say otherwise means a person either doesn't understand the plan or is lying to favor McCain. To say Barack will raise taxes across the board is simply not true.

Sorry Doug that's not true... tell another lie since that's all you Republicans have left.

If the Bush tax cuts are allowed to roll back, then taxes will go up for everyone. Though some like to ignore this fact, all tax bracket levels were lowered.

Tim- If the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire they will likely be replaced with a different set of tax cuts. Apparently both candidates would offer a plan that is different than the Bush tax cuts. Washington Post has a summary chart .

YES.... too bad you're too busy to actually pay attention since he gave great detail of exactly what he was going to do and exactly how he was going to pay for it.

You would probably do a better job than G. W. Bush and is grandfather J. McCain.

A Boy Scout troop leader probably has a better handle on economics than
Obama.

Where does it stop.

Excellent point Riverman218. The problem with economic egalitarianism is that its eventual outcome is a life of mere subsistence.

A woman who weighs 300 lbs. should not be eating so much.

I am all for universal healthcare, and if I had it my way it would exclude smokers and the obese.

That same woman probably has a 200 lb. obese child too.

God bless America...

So universal health care would eliminate more freedoms? By government force if needed? Where do I sign up?

You do as I say, I know what's best for your life libs crack me up!

The "qualified to lead" argument went out the window when George Bush was elected multiple times in this country. A man who can barely put a sentence together has been running this country into the ground for 8 years. You're mistaking class warfare with people being fed up about the economy and the state of this country. I have no problem with with people with incomes in the millions. I do have problem with the wealthy saying that the economy is strong while people struggle to keep their jobs, pay their mortgages, and pay for gas to fill their cars so they can go to work drawing their middle class salaries. McCain is out of touch with the needs of the average American so he's a bad choice for President.

I am all for universal healthcare, and if I had it my way it would exclude smokers and the obese.

Maybe its getting late and I'm just a bit punchy, but that made me laugh and laugh...

I am all for universal healthcare, and if I had it my way it would exclude smokers and the obese.

Would it really be universal then?

Right you are, d-flux. We are a narcissistic and gullible nation. Here's the Republican party in a nutshell: a number of neocon elitists at the top manipulating a wide base of yokels and hayseeds below them. The top gets to rule the world and reduce their tax burden by exploiting the petty fears and prejudices of their base (the ones with the guns and the bibles...hey, what's another word for 'the base'?). Is it any wonder you can snag a voter in the same way you can sell a country music song? That's my life she's singing about!

I agree. I'm a Christian, and nothing scares me more than Christian fundamentalists. You see people in 20,000 person stadiums preaching that God wants them to be rich. Scary, scary stuff.

Anyone see the movie Jesus Camp? There were kids praying to Bush like he was a prophet.

What is going on in this country?

Jesus Camp was one of the horrifying movies I every saw.

That mother thought she was teaching her son something that would help him in his adult life?

Have you ever been to any of these countries on W Europe? Lower crime, lower poverty, BETTER healthcare, better colleges.

Sounds like hell on Earth...

What do we have here? A nation absorbed in consumerism. Everybody itching to show their friends their bigger house, new Gucci bag, new SUV, etc. Keep my taxes low, I gotta get the new iPhone!

The arrogant teenage spawn of Europe, we always think we know it all.

Since when has Canada, the UK, France, Poland been communist countries???......oh yeah that's right they weren't they were our allies in WW2. Once again read a book.

McCain is attacking? His speech last night was lame and boring. Sarah Palin's speech energized Democrats to donate $10 million to the Democratic ticket. Everytime I see her open her mouth on t.v. I want to give more money to the Democratic ticket. (Please republican party keep her talking)

If you work for a living I hope your job is secure. If McCain is put in office in a few years you might wish you had welfare and universal healthcare.

McCain has supported the majority of G.W. Bush's failed policies of the past 8 years. Does that make him qualified? Lets face it, they both look good on paper. McCain and his advisors say the economy is strong while families are losing their homes, people are losing their jobs, and people are struggling to pay for healthcare and gas. That tells me McCain knows nothing about the economy or maybe he just doesn't care.

I ask that you decline to take social security

I would most gladly opt out if I were able to avoid paying the taxes into the system for all of my life. But that is precisely the point, isn't it? We don't have any choice in the matter.

That is now how protesting an "unjust" program works. You have to actually sacrifice else your just making noise.

else your just making noise

Speak for yourself. I'm a citizen taxpayer who objects to the way my tax dollars are being spent. I have every right to protest the current system. And if it never changes, I'll still have every right to receive whatever measly benefits the system will be able to pay out in 40 years.

The point is, some of us are talking about it now. We're trying to get people to listen up and pay attention to the fact that the current incarnation of Social Security is not the best way to go about taking care of people when they stop working. There are smarter, more viable models we could be employing. But because the issue is so politicized, nobody will listen.

Act or stop making noise. People pay attention to those who act. They ignore those who do not act.

Social Security would have been fine if the Republicans had not raided it for the last 30 years while it was making massive surpluses. It would have made it over the baby boomer hump and benefits for you and me would have been quite fine. But what happened was that SS was raided, it was given Bonds (not IOUs), and now the feds have to pay from the general budget to replace the funds that it took. Bad management does not make it a bad program.

Suck it up.

Your Social Security is paid to help a broken program some Democrat established years ago and other Democrats fed off of years later for other programs.

You better be building a nest egg outside of Social Security because your Democrat sold the bill long ago and will never provide you with the goods.

I am sorry but our Social Security is our penance we must pay for the generation ahead. The "Baby Boomers" made such a surplus the Dems could not help themselves. And now we are paying for it.

Do you have IRA accounts? I hope so, because with all the taxes I pay and the support I will have to give my parents I sure as heck do not want to carry your butt too!

@BMS

benefits for you and me would have been quite fine

Wrong. You obviously haven't done your homework. It is true that the T-bills will have to be paid back out of general funds, and this does add to our overall non-payroll tax burden, but that is just a double whammy to the taxpayer. The projected benefits outlay will be far greater than revenue somewhere near the middle of the century. And by revenue, I'm speaking of payroll taxes, as well as the principal and interest on the T-bills currently held in trust for Social Security. So even if the trust fund was held in plain old cash, it wouldn't change the facts of the matter.

Bad management does not make it a bad program

Quite right. But start with a bad program, add bad management on top of it and you get something really terrible: a financial black hole.

And just stop with the self-righteous blather, "Act or stop making noise". It doesn't even make any sense. Since I won't even be eligible for SS benefits for nearly 40 years, my ability to "act", and thereby get people to pay attention will be a little irrelevant by that point don't you think?

Calling it a bad program does not make it so. All of its problems are traced back to bad management. I did a pretty good job iof explaining why it was managed poorly and how that caused its problems.

Your projected benefits are based on Bush's magical numbers where there is no growth in the working population and a few other nut job things that allow the numbers to look at bleak as they are.

companies are shipping jobs over seas because of cheap labor. Don't tell me they are shipping jobs overseas because Americans are too dumb to do them

greed is at the core of our economic woes.

k eldridge First, companies move jobs because of oppressive taxes, regulations, and over-priced union wages forced by the barrel of a gun thanks to the democratic old-boy's system. The same system I might add that created the ponzi scheme (social security), from big chief moron FDR, the lying pariah, only to be raped & plundered by the likes of your hero ted (hiccup) kennedy, and the other usual liberal suspects.
I NEVER said American workers are dumb, don't misquote me you weaselly punk. American ingenuity is the premier national resource of the world if your facist liberal govt. regulations get the hell out of the way.
Greed is at the core of our economic woes, but it is the greed of the socialist democrats pandering to their special interest buddies that suckle off of the government teat that causes the collapse, in addition to the idiotological rules forcing banks to lend money to low-income people (who have no means or intentions of paying back),and inner city programs that produce no return on the original investment that was extorted from them in the name of "fairness against racism", and classism.

Calling it a bad program does not make it so. All of its problems are traced back to bad management.

I just don't understand why people put on blinders when it comes to SS. Bad management isn't the issue. The basic construct of the program is such that it avoids making use of the most powerful tenant in finance: compound growth.

The return you would receive if you could invest your SS contributions into private equities far outstrips the benefits you will ever receive from SS. For someone making $50k/year, they would receive around $850,000 in total benefits if they lived for 20 years after retirement. Compare that to the 4-5 million they would have banked if their SS contributions had simply been invested in index funds during their working lifetime.

Your projected benefits are based on Bush's magical numbers

Uh, wrong again. The CBO is responsible for putting out numbers and projections regarding SS.

Those projection slook pretty stable. perhaps lifting the cap on taxable income would fix the problem. Oh, and you do realize there is a difference betyween "cash on hand" and "annual revenue" right? the cash on hand, had we not spent the surplus of the last 35 years would have made up for the deficit easily beyond the projections.

We can "fix" Social Security by simply removing the income cap.

the cash on hand, had we not spent the surplus of the last 35 years would have made up for the deficit easily

Wrong again! The fact that the trust fund is held in T-bills vs. cash doesn't make any difference to the changing realities of our population makeup. Think about it this way, if next year your expenses are going to be 55k and your income only 50k, it doesn't matter if the savings you are going to use to pay the difference is held in a CD or a mutual fund. Your income, or "revenue" it still lower than your expenses. The way your savings is held doesn't change that reality.

We can "fix" Social Security by simply removing the income cap.

While we're at it, why don't we just go ahead and give all our money to the government? Then, they can sort it out and decide how much to give back to us to live on.

While we're at it, why don't we just go ahead and give all our money to the government? Then, they can sort it out and decide how much to give back to us to live on.

Wow Tim, talk about a democratic panacea! I think you cracked their code!

Haha! Yes well, it does seem that nearly every solution Democrats put forward includes raising taxes, doesn't it?

You're a punk for qouting me as saying something I never posted. Show me where I called American workers stupid. Your misinformation is very polished. The liberals you play pattycake with must be very proud.

When Obama, sends you your check in the form of a tax cut, please endorse it to me, that's of course if you aren't making more than $250 million dollars a year.

Typical Classism.