The Statesman has a good summary of Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s tax proposals. They write:
In general, McCain’s tax cuts “would primarily benefit those with very high incomes,” while Obama “offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers,” according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.
McCain’s policies would aim to stimulate the economy and investment, but at the cost of future deficits. Obama would try to help low-income workers but would create new subsidies for seniors already favored by current tax laws, while also fueling deficits, the center concludes.
Where is George Bush? I know he’s a lame duck President, but at least try to show some leadership. I feel like we’re a country in a frenzy with nobody in charge right now.
First, I became bored because we heard about the exact same questions that were discussed in the last debate! Should we talk with dictators? Should we act if we know where Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan? Is Obama giving a tax cut or tax increase? What priorities will there be given the financial crisis? These are the exact same issues discussed last time!!!! There are tons of issues out there Americans care about that I can’t believe were not discussed…
Like education! I’m surprised that Charlie Gibson is surprised that his focus group of college students had questions about education! How out of touch is the mainstream media? The private student loan industry crashed months ago. And Stephanopoulos is surprised that nobody asked about William Ayers? Hello!? Get out the bubble.
How about some questions about equal pay? disabilities? John McCain’s proposal to cut Medicare? What’s the plan to help those still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Gustav and Ike? How will the decline in America’s incomes impact crime in people’s neighborhoods? What are we going to do about health care/PTSD/GI Bill for the troops? What about unemployment insurance? Gas shortage in the Southeast? Hello!!!!!!!!!!!? NBC picked and chose the questions so they had some control over making sure some of these issues were discussed.
Why did John McCain think that the guy had never heard of Fannie Mae?
I don’t know about putting my health care records online as McCain discussed.
My favorite moment in the debate was when Tom Brokaw was formulating a question about strategy in Afghanistan and Barack Obama walked to take the question by the jugular as McCain kind of stood back near his chair in the background. He was so eager to answer. If he was as inexperienced as McCain makes him out to be, he wouldn’t have jumped to tackle the issue. That visually showed that he is highly knowledgeable and confident in his ability to be commander-in-chief. ABC showed a bit more of the body language during the question but here it is from MSNBC:
Final Verdict: Why oh why did we get a debate re-run and not a broadened discussion of the issues affecting everyday Americans?
I hear ya, Virginia! We need all the brainpower we can get from our leaders in working toward solutions to these economic, health care, gas, and educational crises we’re struggling with right now. The rest of the world needs us tackling these issues as well.
Posted by sagereader
Posted by sagereader
Posted by sagereader
