Lie-a-Palooza

Ever since the convention, Palin and McCain have been following a single game plan. In her role as cheerleader (yes, that is a patently sexist remark. She forfeited her right to be indignant about sexist remarks the day she entered her first beauty pageant),Palin usually gives what is essentially the same speech she gave when she was nominated. You know, the one that opens with the folksy one liners- the hockey mom crap, the reformer nonsense. (Thank god she finally dropped the “thanks, but no thanks” line, now that she realizes we all know the truth about that grand gesture.) And then moves on to snarky digs at Obama and his alleged lack of experience. Then finally, just to be sure, she peppers the whole thing with blatant lies, like the apocalyptic litany of taxes Obama supposedly wants to raise. “He will raise your income tax, investment tax, business tax, the death tax…” Then, when she’s done and everyone is swooning over the feisty little pitbull, McCain steps onstage and quickly tries to insist “Yeah! What she said!” before everyone files out of the auditorium. Well, I have had enough of the McPalin Show.


This is one of those moments I talked about at the inception of this blog. One of those times when I find myself yelling at the TV, and wishing I could yell loud enough for someone to actually hear me. In the past few days, I have heard so much bullshit coming from the mouths of McCain and Palin, I was compelled to do something crazy. I looked it up. That’s right, I have done something far too few voters ever bother to do, and researched the facts about the accusations being made. I know I am basically just preaching to the choir here, and that those of us who read this blog are all equally frustrated by Lie-A-Palooza. But I also know that we all, unfortunately, have to interact with rationally-challenged folks from time to time. So I am offering you the results of my research so that you have some ammo- some talking points, as they say- with which you might be able to gently guide those poor, lost souls back to the light.


Or at the very least, with which to bludgeon them over the head with so they will stop talking to you.


Part One: Taxes


Income tax:
Obama is going to raise income taxes- but not yours. He proposes an increase in taxes only for families making more than $250,000, with the largest increase going to those making more than $2.9 million. That’s 1% of Americans. For everyone else, taxes will be cut. But even more to the point is the rates at which they will be cut. McCain plans to cut taxes for everybody, and under his plan, that 1% is going to get the biggest break, and the 2.9 million threshold (about one tenth of one percent of Americans) gets the biggest cut of all. Basically, with Obama, the less you make, the less you pay. For McCain, the opposite is true.


Death tax:
First, there is no such thing as a “death tax”. No one pays taxes for dying. What we do have is an estate tax, which is levied on inheritances. And not- as republicans like to erroneously imply- on small businesses, family farms or your grandmother’s china. Currently, the estate tax applies only to inheritances worth over 2 million. As things now stand, that is supposed to go up to 3.5 million in 2009, be repealed for one year in 2010, and then return for good in 2011, holding at 1 million. That is, unless someone repeals this confusing Bush policy. Both McCain and Obama are planning to repeal it, and replace it with a permanent, consistent rate. But again, the difference is in the details. Obama wants the tax to apply to estates worth more than 3.5 million, and at the current rate of 45%. McCain wants the threshold raised to 5 million, and the rate lowered to 15%. So, yes- Obama wants to keep the dreaded "death tax", but so does McCain. McCain is just trying to include fewer people in the tax bracket. But it is worth noting that in 2004, when the tax was on any estate worth more than 1.5 million (less than half of what Obama proposes) not even 3% of all estates were affected. So it was never really that big of a club in the first place, and both McCain and Obama will make it smaller.


Business Tax:
Again, “business tax” is a misleading term, meant only to scare people into thinking Obama’s plan will be the death of the mom-and-pop stores. There is no such thing as a business tax per se. But there are taxes levied on businesses for various reasons. And the truth is, both candidates are offering a variety of incentives for small businesses, as well as some penalties for larger ones. But I’m just here to tell you about Obama, so here are a few of his. He wants to eliminate capital gains tax for “start up businesses”, giving them a chance to get off the ground. He wants to offer tax credits to small businesses who offer health care to their employees, designed to offset about half of the cost to the employer. He wants to enact something he calls the Patriot Employer Act, which would reward companies for increasing full time domestic jobs relative to those that are outsourced; for offering benefits such as health care and retirement packages; and for maintaining headquarters in the US rather than relocating overseas. There will, of course, be some increases as well. Windfall profit taxes for oil companies, hedge fund 'carried interest' taxes and penalties for large companies who don't offer health care, for example. The funding for his health care and education plans has to come from somewhere, after all. But contrary to what McPalin wants you to believe, it will be ExxonMobil and Morgan Stanley, not Ed's Hardware and the farmer in Iowa, who will pay.

coming soon- part two: Drill, Drill, Drill