Idiots abound in this political season as always and since I'm an equal opportunity critic, I'm citing some gripes I have with both of these idiots, McCain and Obama, their cheerleaders, and sadly, the US public.





Idiot Analysis: Obama and McCain Tax Plans and assorted Financial Matters





First, here's a great snapshot of how the tax plans stack up by income:









Then, consider...



Obama's tax plan has several problematic components:

• First, he is proposing a redistribution of wealth. If you cut everyone's taxes or raise everyone's taxes, that's one thing. To increase taxes on wealthy individuals and small business owners, and then cut checks to people who don' even pay income taxes, that's called welfare. The rebuttal is that only a small percentage of small businesses make over 250K/year. Well, how many small businesses making 40K per year actually employ other people besides the owner and their family? When you raise taxes on a small business with say, 500K in income in a recession, guess what...they're going to lay off an employee to stay afloat. Bottom Line: In this worsening economy, you shouldn't be raising taxes on anybody!


• Obama proposes an increase in the Social Security payroll tax for families making over $250,000 a year. This means that the net present value of the "investments in their future" into Social Security will actually result in a net loss by the time they start to collect. What a sham! You pay into Social Security your whole life and take a loss on it?


• There are a lot of benefits and handouts to lower income Americans that are payed for by none other than middle-higher income Americans. These include the "Savers Credit", the "Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit" and increasing payments to low income residents via the "Earned Income Tax Credit".

In short, you work hard, you work more, you work longer...you spread the wealth.

The McCain message is off as well:

• He did a horrible job articulating this $5000 tax credit for health insurance and a tax on everything after that. I worked hard to earn a job with a company that has decent health insurance. I have no idea what it costs my company, all I know is that I pay around $100 a month to insure my entire family. If this plan is valued at $15,000 per year (which continues to increase at 8-10% per year), now I have to pay tax on that? I still don't totally understand it and it hasn't been explained well.
• McCain claims he'll veto all pork and "make them famous". We know he won't. He can't veto a bill that's important to the base because it has a small earmark tied to it. He's making statements he can't live up to.
• The fact that the McCain camp has resorted to a gimmick...Joe the Plumber, to spread their message is truly sad. Joe's already talking about a possible congressional run, but during the interview I was listening to, he didn't even know when the next election was and when he'd have to start a campaign. What a total circus.
• McCain, like Obama has been promising the world in order to win votes. He's pandering. Our national debt clock just ran out of digits and he's planning on continuing our pace in Iraq and Afghanistan while cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans more so than is reasonably necessary. Something's gotta give, but he's not telling us what it is.
• I'm shocked by some of the statements McCain makes as a Republican. He thinks we should bail out risk takers and speculators on their mortgages and that they were victims in a "Wall Street drive by shooting". This is purely for sound bites and he's pandering. He voted for the bailout bill, which essentially nationalized several financial institutions, instead of allowing them to fail, inviting moral hazard. What happened to John McCain?

Idiot Biden, Idiot Palin:



Biden's statements on Obama's presidency inviting a "test" from foreign powers was one of the worst gaffes I've seen from the Democratic ticket this entire term, and the McCain camp is truly seeking to capitalize on it.



Palin, while appearing confident, witty and rebellious during her speech at the Republican National Convention, has interviewed horribly. She alluded to some sort of international experience because you can see Russia from some obscure beach in Alaska. She should have just fessed up and said, "I have virtually no international experience. And neither does the actual Democratic presidential nominee, but at least I've governed before". She was not quick on her feet and the ticket took a huge plunge in the polls following her interviews which may be impossible to recover from.




Idiot Analysis: Bigotry and Sexism in America



We've all heard the various theories about how the polls are showing favor to Obama now, but come election day, McCain may surprise due to the Bradly effect. Well, that was 1982 and we've come a long way. Next, theories about how the risk of assassination is higher with an Obama presidency because of his race (although recently, they busted some novice skinheads for something else and they later fessed up to a planned rampage hoping to eventually assassinate Obama).



Anyway, racism does still exist in America and you hear some really disturbing, hurtful things, including from people we associate with. In front of a national audience, a woman stood up to tell McCain in his town hall speech that Obama is an Arab (I think maybe she doesn't know the difference between the Muslim religion and Arabs? There are plenty of Christian Arabs and non-Arab Muslims...and news flash, Obama is partially of African descent, not from the Arabian peninsula), and there are plenty of ridiculous statements made on blogs and message boards revealing what people feel anonymously that they can't bring themselves to say in public. It's a sad reality.



Meanwhile, the sexism in the country is appalling and even more shocking is the fact that liberal women are some of the worst offenders because Palin is seen as a threat to some agenda topics they hold dear. Let's see, 1) An effigy of Palin hanging from a noose is proudly displayed in none other than California and where's the press outrage? It was up for 4 weeks until it even made the national news and it's already back paged. Imagine the outrage if a nutty conservative fan did the same for the Democratic presidential candidate? 2) How can a woman with 5 kids handle VP? Well, how many men have been asked that same question? 3) Look how much the RNC spent on her outfits...Well, while it sounds like a lot of money, she was on the road weeks at a time, she had to dress to kill to pull off the game and play with the big boys in their multi-thousand dollar suits (who nobody questions) and where was she supposed to come up with the dough for the outfits, out of her own pocket? Clearly, if she wasn't invited into the VP slot, she wouldn't have had to go on a shopping spree; just didn't seem to be criticized both ways. Look how much money Acorn received for allegedly facilitating one of the biggest voter registration frauds in history.



Idiot Analysis: The Press



These days, you can't watch Fox without seeing references to the "nefarious" dealings and relationships Obama had years ago along with O'Reilly screaming in liberal guests' faces and finally, that Hannity and Colmes, where Colmes is clearly just a token liberal voice meant as a guise for "fair and balanced" talk, but it's clearly a right wing Hannity show; if he were too vocal, he'd probably be out a job. Then, you flip to MSNBC and see Chris Matthews getting chills up his leg each time he sees Obama, Keith Olberman claiming to be a journalist while he's really just a lackey for anything anti-McCain with no critique whatsoever for anything liberal, and finally, that odd bird-looking woman who came from the Air America which kept losing money even though George Soros tried to buy the 2004 election with his riches, so MSNBC scooped her up to further the agenda. I forget her name, but she has short hair, looks like a bird, always looks just a little bit sideways instead of at the camera and of actual import, she does an entire show each night on criticizing McCain, his speeches, his gaffes (never see Obama's played there), and most nauseating, pure hatred for Palin.



Some other ridiculous press behavior:

• Obama gets a pass on Bill Ayers relationship by the NY Slimes. They totally glossed over it. Previously, an alleged sexual relationship (which turned out to be false) between McCain and a lobbyist garnered serious media attention.


• Palin hammered during her initial interviews even by "nice" interviewer like Couric, while Biden gets a pass. When Biden is finally asked a tough question by a local reporter, he laughs off the question and Obama camp boycotts the channel.


• The initial media reaction to Palin as VP was pure pop candy, they loved her glasses, they loved her wry humor during the convention and they loved her looks. The media couldn't get enough of her. I envision the Republican base wouldn't have found Leiberman to be quite as sexy and energizing.

Don't forget, there's still time to bet on the election outcome of other worldly events...nothing like it.

Related:

I Make 300K per year and I'm Struggling...Whaaah

Distribution of Wealth in the US...or lack thereof

Sources:

Washington Post

Politico

Cable Television

If you enjoyed this article, make sure to Subscribe to this feed