In his weekly radio address today, John McCain uses the ubiquitous Joe the plumber to all but accuse Democratic rival Barack Obama of being a socialist."Joe, [the plumber] in his plainspoken way, said this sounded a lot like socialism," McCain says in his radio address. "And a lot of Americans are thinking along those same lines.
TPJ: Cutting taxes on the middle-class is a tried and true method of economic growth in this country. A large, strong middle-class has been the powerhouse of the American economy for generations.
It is the backbone and that backbone has weakened severely and the pool dwindled considerably with the failed trickle down economic theory of tax cuts to the rich, across the board deregulation and deficit spending. Barack Obama is proposing the same tax policy that was adopted by President Clinton in the 90's, which was a decade of great economic prosperity.
Republicans who throw the label socialism around clearly don't understand what that means.
Socialism refers to an economic theory of social organization advocating social or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.
TPJ: This means the government owns and operates every industry. Under Socialism all the profits of those industries are shared by all. The Democrats under Barack Obama simply want to return the tax balance back to what it was under Clinton. It's kind of funny that Republicans don't want to go back to the boom economy of the 90's. And didn't McCain support and vote for the $700 billion bailout that has partly socialized the banking industry? He sure did.
If Obama was truly a socialist then he'd be calling for nationalizing every profit made by either the rich or the middle-class. His policy is to give the most tax cuts to those who are the engine of the economy--the working class. It's not like the rich are being taxed 100% like in true socialism and the rich still have their tax havens and deductions. McCain is saying that people who pay no taxes getting money is "welfare" but what then are those rebate checks? They're trying to scare people like they always do. It's dog whistle politics at it's worst.
In response to McCain's fearmongering Obama said to a crowd of 100,000 in St. Louis, "John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for working people 'welfare,'" Obama said.
By the way, did you know that there are some parts of the America that are more pro-American than others? You better make sure you live in the right area of the country or you might be accused of being, oh, say--a socialist. Yeah, so says Sarah Palin:
Sarah Palin said in North Carolina yesterday that she loved to visit the "pro-America" areas of the country -- implying, implicitly, that there were some parts of the United States she viewed as not pro-America. "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans.
That's right big city America--you suck and that goes for mid-size towns too. You're not "very patriotic." You're only "real America" apparently if you are Republican.
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5 comments:
although I do think that Obama is a socialist, I have to say that this is a great blog! you're very well spoken. and you're right about tax cuts for the middle class has been proven to help the economy, but that's because tax cuts helps the economy everyone should get tax cuts.
I like your blog, but in this particular article you seem to focus more on outing republican hypocrisy than addressing Obama's use of socialist ideas. Of course both parties are guilty of supporting socialism, but your claim is that Obama does not.
Considering your definition of socialism, it came to the united states through the prohibition of real wealth (gold) and the adoption of fiat negotiable instrument notes that legally (but not lawfully) discharge obligation to pay. If Americans cannot pay lawfully for goods through a transfer of consideration (value), they can not claim ownership over said goods.
No private ownership and reliance on government policy to discharge legal debt sounds a lot like socialism to me. I don't see either McCain or Obama opposing this system, so I must assume they support it.
Who knows ... maybe someone will read some of these points and tell themselves that they just can't pull the trigger for this dangerous leftist when they get into the voting booth. Others will read this and just have their feelings about how much trouble freedom and economic liberty in this country are in totally reinforced.
One question about Obama that has never been satisfactorily answered is "What has he ever accomplished?" The best his supporters can come up with is "He was elected to the U.S. Senate." So was John McCain ... several times. Besides, take a look at his election. He had two opponents self-destruct with scandal. The GOP had to go to Maryland and talk Alan Keyes into moving to Illinois to run against Obama. Trust me, that win was no sterling accomplishment.
Don't argue with me here. You'll lose. There is NO constitutional right to vote in a presidential election. We're going to learn in a few days just how smart our founding fathers were in this regard.
Obama is a product of the Chicago political machine. Several times during his political career Obama had a chance to either cast a vote or make a statement against the corruption that permeates Chicago's machine. Never – not on one occasion – did he do so.
The fact is, Obama has benefited from corruption (Tony Rezko?) but has never fought it.
Do you know how Obama won his first election in Illinois? He had campaign operatives go to the voting office and work hundreds of hours pouring over petitions to have his opponents thrown off the ballot. I guess that means that this is the first real election battle he's ever been in!
I guess it's just me, but all this time I thought that the government used its power to seize property ... i.e., to tax ... in order to fund the necessary and appropriate functions of government. Now, under Obama, we've learned that one of the appropriate functions of government is to take from those who have and give to those who have not. I prefer a different phraseology: Take from those who achieve, and give to those who achieve not. Karl Marx was of a like mind.
Obama's "spread the wealth around" mantra means that he believes that we do not leave our homes every morning to work for ourselves and our families. We leave our homes to work for the government. We belong to government, not to ourselves. The government will determine how much of the money we earn we deserve to keep .. the rest goes to people the government believes to be even more deserving of the fruits of our labors.
Obama's candidacy would have faltered before an educated electorate. Why do you think Democrats love government schools so much? Do you want examples? I've got examples.
Obama says he's going to give tax cuts to 95% of Americans. Americans don't realize that over 40% of their numbers don't pay income taxes; and since they don't realize that, they aren't asking themselves how Obama can give a tax cut to someone who doesn't pay taxes.
Obama has effectively change the definition of "tax cut." From now on any government handout to any worker is a tax cut. Changing this definition may well be one of their greatest accomplishments in this election and that new definition will cause us problems for decades.
Obama constantly rants about those dirty corporations who shipped "our jobs overseas." An educated voter knows that those jobs belong to the employers, not the employees. Workers look for jobs. Employers with jobs look for workers. Pretty simple, really.
Obama also tells us that 95% of small businesses out there will not have their taxes increased. The only reason this line works is because our government educated voters cannot grasp the idea that it isn't the percentage of small businesses hit with tax increases that counts; it's the percentage of small business employees represented by the unfortunate 5% that counts. Tomorrow thousands of workers – perhaps tens of thousands of workers – employed by what we call "small businesses" will cast a vote that, a year or so down the road, will cost them their jobs.
Over the weekend Obama promised to bankrupt the coal industry if they tried to build any more coal-fired power plants. Can any of you think of a time when any president has ever made an overt threat to bankrupt a large American industry?
Obama says that his "cap and trade" policy for controlling greenhouse gas emissions is going to cost electricity prices to "skyrocket." Oops ... there goes some of that middle class "tax cut." Guess he'll have to transfer some more wealth to help his constituents pay the increased price.
There are literally millions of Obama supporters out there who think that once Obama becomes the president their lives are going to become sweetness, roses and light. One woman at an Obama rally
Remember Obama's 30-minute infomercial? If a foreigner with no knowledge of our country or our people were to see that program they would think that America was a country mired in abject misery and depravation. Thanks, Obama, for the nice positive message.
How long after the election, whether Obama wins or loses, do you think it will take for that America-hater Jeremiah Wright to surface?
The top 10% of income earners in this country pay over 70% of all income taxes. The top 1% of income earners earn around 19% of all income, but they pay almost 39% of all income taxes. When these people don't want to give up a larger share of their earnings Obama call's them "selfish."
When someone is content to sit on their butts and wait for Obama to transfer some wealth from someone else to their pockets they are not "selfish."
Every one of the points I am bringing up here is "hate speech" to an Obamacon.
The great Democrat goal is to have more than 50% of the voters living, at least in part, on the efforts of the minority of voters. When we pass that tipping point ... and we're nearly there ... game over.
In every election since 1952 Democrats have told the voters "vote for the Republicans and they'll take your Social Security away." In every election after 2008 the Democrats will say "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay taxes." Then if Obama wins again, in every election after 2012 Democrats will say "Vote for the Republicans and they'll make you pay for your own Social Security and Medicare." How long before we hear: "Vote for the Republicans and they'll make you work for a living!"
Obama will definitely destroy your right to be armed outside of your own home for your own protection. The question is whether we count the time until he accomplishes this in days, weeks, months or years.
Do you see now why politicians, especially Democrats, aren't fond of the FairTax? Without playing his tax scam and wealth envy card Obama would have been toast by Super Tuesday.
Surveys in Israel show that 76% of Israeli citizens want McCain to win. American Jews will vote for Obama by pretty much the same percentage. What do Jews in Israel know that Jews in America do not?
Peter Nicholas is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He has been traveling with Obama for almost the entire campaign. Nicholas writes "After all this time with him, I still can't say with certainty who he is." Nicholas doesn't know him, but so many voters are so sure they do.
Obama wants a national civilian security force that, in his words, is "just as strong as our military." Who would they serve under? What would their mandate be? Would they be unionized? (oh HELL yes!). Would this be like the Soviet Union under Communism where neighbors ratted on neighbors for anti-government statements? And what does he mean "as strong as our military?" Would this national civilian security force have nukes? Tanks? Fighter planes? Are we just talking about a glorified national police? (Show us your papers!)
Obama has talked about reducing spending on our military. One leading Democrat Senator has suggested a 25% spending cut on defense. Do you feel comfortable with that? You do know that all of the savings would be spent on buying votes, don't you?
Do you home school your children? Obama has called home schooling a fraud. Put him in office and you'll be putting your kids back in government schools for their indoctrination.
Do you run a small business? If Obama wins start planning immediately to lower your work force. The best way to do this would be through efficiency measures and temporary staffing agencies. Not only is Obama going to make it easier for your workers to unionize ... he's going to expand onerous measures such as the Family Leave Act. You will end up paying your employees a good portion of their salary to lay out for weeks on end.
Maybe you shop at Wal-Mart. Get ready for higher prices. Obama's instant unionization bill will surely result in the unionization of Wal-Mart's workforce. In fact, as much as Democrat politicians hate Wal-Mart, it's safe to say that Wal-Mart is target number one. The result? Higher prices for you. If Obama can call a government handout a tax cut, we can call higher prices a tax increase. This will be Obama's tax increase on the poor and the middle class.
Jonathan:
Thanks for the compliments. I would love to give everyone a tax cut but unfortunately we can't do that because of deficits. So we must focus on the people who need the money the most and where it will be most effective, which is the middle class.
And the middle class are the workers in this world who keep the companies going. As well as keep consumer spending high and consumer spending is key to our economy.
Green God:
I'm not saying that neither candidate doesn't have some socialist ideas. However, I am saying that there is a difference between having some socialistic policies (social security, medicare, public education) and being a true, full out Socialist.
Thomas:
Having a history degree, I think I know socialism pretty well and Obama is no socialist.
Well, we shall see tomorrow who's argument is the better. I think it will be Obama because I think the majority of Americans can see through the McCain fear and smear campaign of calling Obama a socialist and a terrorist.
Independents for example support Obama by 10 points. They are a very cautious demographic and I don't think that it is credible to think that every single independent voter and all other Obama supports are being duped by Obama that he's some closet Leninist.
What hasn't been mentioned here is one simple fact:
Americans don't stand for pure socialism. That's the only reason why your argument that Obama isn't a true socialist works.
You have to introduce things, bit by bit, so that it pretty much goes unnoticed, or in such terms that seem absolutely necessary to solve a crisis, i.e. the recent financial calamity.
That is what I'm afraid of. Republican or Democrat leadership aside, this has been happening for quite some time, and each time our liberties are taken away, it's always for "the greater good," if you will.
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