Politico falsely claims McCain’s tax cuts for the rich are ‘aimed directly at the middle class.’
Politico falsely claims McCain’s tax cuts for the rich are ‘aimed directly at the middle class.’
In an “exclusive” story that appears to have been peddled by the McCain campaign, Politico’s Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin report that John McCain is considering “measures aimed directly at the middle class.” What measures? “Tax cuts – perhaps temporary – for capital gains and dividends.” Brad DeLong writes, “Capital gains and dividend tax cuts are simply not ‘economic measures aimed directly at the middle class’: the middle class doesn’t collect capital gains, or dividends, in any material amount.” Pat Garofalo breaks down the key stats:
As the Tax Policy Center has noted, under the current capital gains and dividends rate, 98.3% of the benefits go to the top 20% of taxpayers. The other 80% of taxpayers see only 1.7% of the benefits of today’s rate. 93.9% of the benefits go to the top 5%, and 84.8% to the 1%.
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Lies are all they have left.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:58 amMcNumbNuts and his republican friends have already achieved a capital gains cut tool . . . it’s called “loss carry forward”.
What a completely stupid idea to call for a capital gains cut when the market is in a state of collapse. It will have no impact at all on the economy and is of little comfort for those who have lost 30 to 40 percent of their gains through the inaction of the republicans to get their banking house in order.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:59 amThe water carrying for the McCain campaign by much of the media is truly sickening and just pisses me off to no end.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:59 am10.12.2008 Daily Kos Tracking Poll: Obama 53, McCain 40
October 12th, 2008 at 12:04 pm“Aimed at the middle class? Indeed one more shot at the middle class and then it can be stuffed, put in a museum and labeled “extinct”.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:08 pmThey just don’t get it. This “tinkle down” meme just is flying with the middle class. I wonder how much of market “selling off” is by citizens who need their investments (mainly retirement) just to survive? Putting people back to work and cutting middle class taxes is what will get the economy going. Helping people refinance their mortgages will help revive the housing market. You’ll get MORE people paying taxes and fewer empty properties driving down property values in neighborhoods. Instead they throw hundreds of billions (trillions) at the very crooks that got us in this mess and tell us it is helping the middle class. WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO GET IT???
October 12th, 2008 at 12:09 pmMike Allen might as well just publish the daily Republican Talking Points in place of his column. He is either deliberately promoting their spin on things, or he is too ignorant to be a political reporter. He reports what the GOP says as if it was the truth. He is a stenographer, not a journalist.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:10 pmBrad DeLong writes, “Capital gains and dividend tax cuts are simply not ‘economic measures aimed directly at the middle class’: the middle class doesn’t collect capital gains, or dividends, in any material amount.”
McCain defined the Middle Class as those of us making less than $5 million, so by that measure, certainly some people making below $5 mil will get cuts.
Families making less than $80k, $60k, $40k, etc.? Not so much.
PEACE
October 12th, 2008 at 12:10 pmWhat do you expect from Politico. Other than a couple of writers, the entire site is filled with right wing sycophants.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:20 pmAt the rate the Republicans are going, there won’t be a middl-class left. Perhaps those are the soon-to-be-extinct ‘middle-class’ that Allen and Martin are referencing? Easy to give tax cuts to a group of people who no longer exist.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:22 pmDr. Hussein Matt Says:
More Reich-wing Racism at a Palin Rally in PA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKUovpF9LWU
Rachel Maddow interviewed a reporter who is traveling with the McCain campaign. She said that it used to be there were a few nut jobs in the audience. She said that today they all look and sound like nut jobs. She also said that the rallies are definitely smaller. It seems that the sane McCain supporters are staying away from the rallies for fear of ending up hurt.
This photo taken at a rally in Philadelphia yesterday is so awe inspiring but also very scary. Too many potential places for an assassin to be taking aim at Obama. I have to admire Obama’s courage.
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x280/icebergslim1047/october%202008/phliadelphia-52ndandLocust5.jpg
October 12th, 2008 at 12:26 pmwtf is he considering changes now? The middle class did not seem to matter before, now during an economic crisis and his campaign in the shitter he decides to change.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:26 pmCaption Contest: You snooze, you lose.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:30 pmWhat do you expect from Politico?
The introduction of the website was billed as independent and non partisan, but it was promoted by George Bush himself – and while I read it every day, I assert that it is a decidedly Republican/conservative site. It only reports on unfavorables for Republicans when not doing so would destroy their credibility altogether.
BTW, I saw this on C&L today (from the Saddleback Church)
WARREN: The first question, who are the three wisest people that you know that you would rely on heavily in an administration?
MCCAIN: I think John Lewis. John Lewis was at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, had his skull fractured, continued to serve, continues to have the most optimistic outlook about America. He can teach us all a lot about the meaning of courage and commitment to causes greater than our self- interest.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:32 pmWas McCain pandering a few weeks ago? Or does he really believe Lewis is very wise? Today he condemns Lewis for being critical of the nasty, hateful tone of the McCain campaign.
Oops – Bilbo, I didn’t mean to say the same as you. I just read it. Guess we are thinking alike.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:34 pmSaw this this morning and it occurred to me that I have never met a capital gain or a dividend payout in my life. I can’t say for sure when I slid down into the lower class, but since that’s the new majority, I guess I should just take comfort in being not alone.
Right wing media is on overdrive trying to blame the current financial situation on Fannie, Freddie and CRA. McClatchy does a good job of refuting it, but of course they are the liberal, “reality-based” media so the dittoheads won’t read it anyway. I keep reading comments from reputable journalists and political observers that Neoconservatism is dead. It sure doesn’t feel that way to me. If anything, it’s even more virulent than ever–even if the number of brainwashed adherents has decreased slightly. We are a frighteningly divided country right now. I don’t know how bad things will have to get for the blinders of fear and hatred to come off. If we swirl down into the morass it looks like we’re headed for, Hannity, Limbaugh, et al will have a lot to answer for.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:34 pmdamn – so you are tellin’ me the lying liars that “catapult the propaganda” are not tellin’ use the truth about mclame’s tax cuts.
Maybe we should really be talkin’ about the interests that these folks represent instead of the morons that stand in front of the cameras or the mighty Wurlitzer that dutifully converts these lies into “common knowledge.”
Just an idea…
October 12th, 2008 at 12:46 pmmmanion…one of the commenters on the McClatchy post provided a great complementary link about how the mortgage boom/bust actually unfolds for the home-buyer, bank or lender/mortgage broker. Here’s the link foe everyone:
http://www.rgemonitor.com/us-monitor/253999/plan_b
The implication of the example in the article is obvious, (though not actually stated)–revising the terms of mortgages to prevent foreclosures, on Main Street, will result in economic stability and a reduction of losses. The “Wall St Bailout’ does nothing for the mortgage crisis and as a knock-on does nothing for the current credit freeze, as we appear to be seeing right now.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:51 pmJust so happens I read this after reading Greenwald’s eye opener about Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin “tire-swinging” not just with McCain but with Rove hatcheteer Tim Griffin.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/12/griffin/
October 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pmPolitico is owned and was founded by Frederick J. Ryan, a close friend of the Bush family, and a former Chief of Staff of Ronald Reagan. Ryan is also a business partner of Jonathan Bush, GW’s uncle and GH Bush’s brother. Look up Riggs Bank on Wikipedia or another website (the controversial bank Ryan and Jonathan Bush were part of). You’ll find Riggs helped everyone from right-wing dictators like Pinochet to the Saudi official (Omar Al-Bayoumi) who funded the 9/11 terrorists. There are connections that would make a conspiracy theorists head spin.
The Politico website loses a ton of money. They decided to release a paper copy, and they charge nothing for it. You figure it out. The goal is not to make a profit. It’s a paid propaganda tool of the Republican Party.
Notice how Politico just burst onto the scene, and their pundits get onto any show they choose? What other startup news website gets that kind of access and exposure?
October 12th, 2008 at 2:29 pmTo be fair, I think the people pulling McCain’s strings actually consider anyone under the top 1 percent to be middle class. It’s all relative.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:03 pmMike Allen is in the tank and enjoys the tire swing. He is an asshat for McSame and cannot be taken as a serious journalist.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:23 pmFunny that with as many professionals that seem to be in this room that most have forgotten what they should have learned in their Macro Econ class…A strong democracy cannot survive without a strong middle class. So let’s stop and think here, is it bad that there are starving people in the world and that bankruptcy is becoming a major issue, yes! However let’s not forget how people got in this position, no one held a gun to their head and told them to max out their credit card or, for the most cases, no one forced them to have unprotected sex inevitably leading to many children. All of the arguments for the poor are so weak. Should we offer assistance, yes but am I willing to take my tax money that I have worked so hard for and give it to a mother of six children, that is on disability, which is a ploy, because she is too lazy to work, NO!
People argue everyday on the news that there are no jobs in America and that unemployment is rising, well wake up tell people to get off their cans and go be a welcome person at Wal-mart or a cook at Mc Donald’s in the interim. I say this because I myself had to find work putting on roofs until something better can along, why because the American person will survive.
Now I see some of you calling McCain, McBush, McNumb Nut, or whatever but please answer me this do we not everyday take our WW2 Vets for fighting for freedom, even when they were drafted? This war is no different; yes I will agree that Iraq should have been handled a little better and ended quicker, but let’s not forget they promised those boys in Normandy and Bastogne they would be home before Christmas. When has Obama volunteered for this country he so dearly loves? McCain never volunteered for the Air Guard or anything less, he served as a Navy Pilot a fighter pilot I may add.
Change is good and there are things that should be changed but remember, sometimes life is like a game of Jenga, if you make a change at the wrong time the world could come crumbling down on top of you!
October 12th, 2008 at 3:25 pmmmaddox2648 Says:
McNumbnuts should be your name. You are a greedy, self centered little person who has not suffered the consequences of the GOP. I was in Vietnam at the same time McSame was. That does not give him some right to destroy our country no more than nitwits in your party thought John Kerry who was a war hero as well as anyone else deserved anything.
If you are some expert on Macro Economics you should realize that to fight endless wars, you must pay for them. If you read the paper or an occasional website you should realize that since Reagan the USA has been cutting taxes for the top 5% and forcing the burden of the wars they encourage and start to the middle class by borrowing from foriegn investors. The GOP self centered way has failed. If you don’t believe me, take a look at that 401K that you have been putting money into. You are not as well off as you were before Dubya Bush was appointed POTUS by the Supreme Court after KKKarl Rove stole the election in FL in 2000 via Katherine Harris.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:34 pmSorry to tell you, TP, but you need to get your facts straight. Politico is absolutely right.
You just have to remember that McCain has definited a comfortable living standard as $5 million.
October 12th, 2008 at 4:24 pmWho the heck has capital gains? Wasn’t anyone paying attention to the stock market last week?
October 12th, 2008 at 5:19 pmThey don’t want to get it. It takes a lot of “hard work” and weazel-ly legislation to keep the financial elite, elite and so fabulously wealthy that it is unfathomable to most people. You don’t get a difference in wealth as dramatic as the one we have now by being just so much smarter than everyone else put together, or working that much harder.
McCain knows who he is working for, it’s just a matter of putting the right spin on it so that it looks like he’s doing the middle class a favor.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:39 pmmmaddox2648 Says:
Beat it, concern troll, no one here is buying your ignorance-laden post.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:42 pmWhat irks me, is how they’ll have a guy running in 2012 on the failed principle of “Trickle down economics”. They constantly relate economic downturns to everything BESIDES that.
Fannie and Freddie were what SHOWED the economic crisis, not what STARTED it. Because when you think the morgage crisis sarked the economic crisis, you’ll keep thinking that trickle down economics will work.
***IF we learn one thing from this crisis, it better be that trickle down economics doesn’t work and neither does the free market.
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