30 October 2008
U.S. Candidates, Voters Remain Focused on the Economy
In last days of campaign, economic rhetoric of both campaigns intensifies
Washington — Most Americans will cast their ballots for a new president believing that the critical issue is the future of the U.S. economy and their taxes. But the rhetoric flying in the final days of the campaign might be confusing voters rather than enlightening them.
As the race between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama wraps up, the candidates, their commercials and their supporters seem to be spending almost as much time criticizing the other side as promoting their own economic plans. Each campaign maintains its opponent is out to destroy fairness and the American dream of a strong and prosperous middle class.
The tax debate has settled along class lines, with Obama arguing that under his plan only taxpayers who earn more than $250,000 in net income would see a tax increase. The Obama campaign contends that McCain, who wants to extend a series of tax cuts engineered by President Bush, is most interested in helping the wealthy and big-business interests.
Both individual and business income taxes in the United States are based on net income, which is the total amount earned minus deductions the government has approved. There are separate graduated scales of tax rates for individuals and businesses in which the rate charged increases in steps as the income level rises. The top rate for individuals is 35 percent while the top rate for businesses is 39 percent, although the top corporate rate declines slightly for the largest and most lucrative businesses.
”It’s not change when John McCain wants to give a $700,000 tax cut to the average Fortune 500 CEO [chief executive officer],” Obama says in the speech he is using in the closing days of the campaign. “It’s not change when he wants to give $200 billion to the biggest corporations or $4 billion to the oil companies or $300 billion to the same Wall Street banks that got us into this mess. It’s not change when he comes up with a tax plan that doesn’t give a penny of relief to more than 100 million middle-class Americans. That’s not change.”
McCain and his supporters counter that Obama wants a form of American socialism that would take money from successful individuals and businesses to pay for new government programs. The McCain campaign says that approach would hurt Americans because it will stifle economic growth and companies will pass new taxes to consumers in the form of higher prices for their goods and services.
McCain has sought to drive home his point by using a simple slogan — in this case through an Ohio man, Samuel Wurzelbacher, who has become known nationally as “Joe the Plumber.”
A few weeks ago, Wurzelbacher saw Obama at a campaign event and told him he wanted to buy the plumbing business where he worked but that Obama’s tax plan would penalize him if he was too successful. Obama countered that he did not want to punish anyone’s success, but that “when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.” (See “Final McCain-Obama Debate Most Contentious of the Three.”)
McCain and his surrogates seized on the comment about spreading the wealth as proof of Obama’s alleged nearly socialist intentions that would harm regular people striving to better themselves and increase their income. Since then, McCain’s campaign has had Wurzelbacher make campaign appearances and has produced a television commercial featuring a series of average-looking Americans all stating: “I am Joe the Plumber.”
"This election comes down to how you want your hard-earned money spent," McCain said in a recent speech. “Do you want to keep it and invest it in your future, or have it taken by the most liberal person to ever run for the presidency?"
In his campaign speeches, Obama dismisses McCain’s attacks, while also asserting that government should “ensure a shot at success not only for those with money and power and influence, but for every single American who’s willing to work.”
“That’s how we create not just more millionaires, but more middle-class families. That’s how we make sure businesses have customers that can afford their products and services. That’s how we’ve always grown the American economy — from the bottom-up. John McCain calls this socialism. I call it opportunity, and there is nothing more American than that,” he says.
The rhetoric from both sides, often fiery and sometimes entertaining, has offered little in terms of solid facts to educate voters. Left unsaid by both campaigns is the fact that no matter who wins the election, nothing can be mandated or funded without going through Congress.
Because both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are expected to stay in Democratic control, it would be difficult for a President McCain to push through his proposals. A President Obama’s plans would be more likely to be approved, but likely would undergo serious revisions by Congress.
In addition, America’s new president, regardless of political affiliation, will have to grapple with a slowing economy and a soaring federal deficit.
