So Let's Make the Economy the Issue, Then

Barack Obama claims that all of our emphasis on his friendships and associations with terrorists and other characters of ill repute are simply designed to take attention away from the economy.

His supporters claim the economy is Obama's 'strong suit.'

OK, so, let's make the economy the issue, then. I welcome the debate and the chance to expose Obama for the charlatan he is on economic issues.

One, he claims that under his plan everyone in the electorate will be in no higher tax bracket than they were under Ronald Reagan.

This is nothing but sheer smoke and mirrors. Reagan inherited tax rates that were astronomical, and thus, he began to lower them. But he had a Democratic Congress to deal with during many of those years.

Reagan succeeded in lowering the tax rates significantly in spite of Democratic opposition, but he never stated that the process should stop there. Reagan believed in the premise of incrementalism, meaning that you make changes one step at a time, particularly when you are faced with heavy opposition. Thus, you lower the rates in increments.

Reagan never ceased working to reduce the tax burden on Americans and decreasing the size and scope of government.

George W. Bush continued with the Reagan principle by passing 2 major tax cuts during his nearly 8 years in office. Obama wants to allow those tax cuts to expire in 2010, which will mean that Americans will experience the largest single tax increase in American history.

On top of that, he wants to change the tax rates so that those within certain income brackets will pay even higher taxes, bringing them back to the levels of the Reagan years. This is going backwards, not forward. Reagan would be all for implementing more tax cuts once he succeeded in lowering taxes during the first step in his incremental plan.

Thus, Obama is lying about taxes and falsely using the legacy of Ronald Reagan to supposedly bolster his plan's acceptability. Those of us who were part of the Reagan Revolution see through the smoke and mirrors. Obama is no Reagan.

Two, Obama would raise these tax rates at a time when the economy is in no position to withstand it. In a weakening economy the last thing on earth you want to do is to increase the tax burden on the electorate. Such an idea is entirely asinine and preposterous...and dangerous to the nation's economic stability.

Three, one of the tax increases that is central to Obama's plan is an increase in the capital gains tax--the very thing that could get us out of the present crisis if capital gains were decreased or eliminated entirely. The people who create the jobs and wealth in this nation would have billions to pour into the banking industry if the capital gains tax were cut. Obama wants to put the squeeze on them, thus insuring a sustained economic nosedive.

Four, Obama has proposed ONE TRILLION DOLLARS' WORTH of new government programs. How does he propose to pay for it? He has never said. Rather, he claims he will give 95% of Americans a tax cut. How? Where is the money going to come from?

If 95% of Americans are going to be paying less, then there is absolutely no possible way to fund a trillion dollars' worth of new government programs. The stark illogic of such thinking is stunning. Obviously, if we are going to add new programs that cost a trillion dollars, somebody in the country is going to be paying truckloads in more taxes.

Is all of this money going to come from corporations who will have their taxes increased? Let me see, now. The economy depends on strong companies that hire workers. If you load them up with extra taxes you can kiss goodbye more jobs and more prosperity. The extra tax burden will be passed onto consumers, and average workers will suffer by potentially losing their jobs.

Thus, the economy continues to spiral downward.

Finally, Obama says that anyone making over $250,000 per year will face tax increases...to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars to pay for his massive expansion of government. What he does not tell you is that millions of small businesses are sub-chapter 'S' corporations and 'LLCs' where the owners include the profits of their businesses in their personal income statement.

This does not mean the owners make $250,000 per year but that the business made $250,000. This will place small business owners in a higher tax bracket, bankrupting many of these businesses that employ 80% of America's workforce.

In short, the Obama economic plan makes absolutely no logical sense. It is a prescription for a disaster of draconian proportions.

And yet, someway, somehow, mysteriously most Americans, according to the polls, 'trust' Obama more on the economy than they do McCain.

Americans act as if they are the proverbial drowning man reaching for anything he can get his hands on to pull him out of the water. In this case, they are like a drowning man clinging to a razor blade if they actually believe Obama's plan will work.