Think before you vote on Nov. 4
Barack Obama is a charismatic demagogue. He eloquently engages in populist propaganda in order to obtain your vote. If I hadn’t actually done my own research on the issues of this campaign and just listened to Barack Obama all day, I would have thought that the ‘evil’ corporations, the oil companies, greedy rich people and George Bush were to blame for all of our problems (oh, and don’t forget about those ‘bitter’ Americans who cling to their guns and religion, they don’t help matters either, right Barack?). Fortunately, you and I don’t have to take Barack’s word for it; we can inform ourselves and critically think about what is at stake.
Every time I turn on the TV, I hear Barack complaining about America’s unfair income tax policy. He is right, the wealthiest one percent of Americans pay 40 percent of the taxes, yet only earn 22 percent of the adjusted gross income, while 40 percent of Americans don’t pay any income taxes at all. That doesn’t sound very fair to me. But Obama is an ideologue and is committed to higher taxes even if it doesn’t make sense. He wants to raise taxes on these Americans even more by rescinding the Bush tax cuts and giving this money to people who don’t pay income tax. A long time ago we would call this socialism, but I guess these days it’s somehow justified as fair. Rich Americans are still Americans, and therefore have the same right to freedom and liberty as any American does. Using the force of government to uncontrollably take people’s private property, which they earned by contributing goods and services to this country, and give to people who didn’t earn it, is hardly what this country was founded on. Maybe we should take a hard look into history and remember what made this country so great and that is the American entrepreneurial spirit which freedom and individual liberty allows. When you restrict individual liberty by using the force of government to keep taking more and more of people’s hard earned money, you punish people for contributing to society and take away the incentive for them to work harder. Not only did the Bush tax cuts reduce taxes for all federal income tax paying Americans, it brought in millions of dollars in new tax revenue because the economy grew and people spent more money. A redistribution of wealth does not grow the economy; it moves other people’s money around at the discretion of Washington bureaucrats. I don’t know about you, but this isn’t exactly my idea of ‘change.’ It’s more of the same liberal tricks to steal more of your liberty.
Barack justifies this type of socialism because he says the middle class needs help. Well, actually, the median income of an average American family went up by $272 under President Bush, so it’s not as bad as we think. This leads to my next point. How is Barack going to pay for his enormous spending sprees and not harm the middle class with taxes? Economists estimate that under Obama’s plan we would still be facing a sizeable budget deficit. This means Obama would have to either cut spending to his desired programs or raise taxes on middle class Americans. He also could just ignore the warnings and keep spending his way to American bankruptcy like most Democrats and Republicans are currently doing in Washington, but I don’t think that would bode well for the Barack Obama legacy. When push comes to shove something is going to have to give, and I don’t think the Obama supporters understand that. Barack will not be able to deliver on the hope and change he is peddling. Let’s quit playing the class warfare game and let’s look to keep taxes low for everyone so we can grow the economy which benefits the poor, middle and upper classes. I like that kind of change.
The next thing Barack Obama rails about is John McCain’s plan to lower the corporate tax rate by 10 percent. In fact, if Barack had his way, corporations would be paying even more taxes because he has some wealth to spread around. Sounds good on the surface, right? I mean, corporations here in America are evil and they only pay the second highest corporate tax rate in the world instead of the first, why do they need a tax break? Well, how about to help the middle class? Isn’t that Barack’s main objective? Corporations provide millions of jobs and produce billions of goods and services to our economy. When you tax them, you are hurting the middle class the most. Not only will businesses be forced to cut jobs that are occupied by middle class Americans, they will also pass this cost down to us, the consumers. Who is hurt the most by rising costs? That would be the poor and the middle class. By reducing taxes on corporations, businesses can expand, leading to the creation of millions of new jobs for Americans and it allows businesses to provide good products at a reasonable price for middle class Americans. This is exactly what we need in a struggling economy.
Also, Barack seems intent on raising other taxes even though it might not make sense. For example, let’s take the capital gains tax which is a tax on investment income. Barack Obama wants to raise this tax out of ‘fairness’ while John McCain wants to keep the rate at 15 percent. Obama’s plan is completely reckless and would hurt a struggling economy. If Barack would maybe take a simple economics class he would realize that not only do higher taxes on capital gains discourage people from investing in the market, it actually brings in less money to the federal government. When the capital gains tax was cut under the Bush tax cuts, the federal revenue from capital gains actually doubled because more people had an incentive to invest in the economy. Most people would consider that a win-win situation, but not the ideological driven Barack Obama. Is that the kind of change you’re hoping for? Friendly business policy is not evil, it is beneficial. If Barack wants to help the middle class, maybe he should follow John McCain’s lead.
There are many other issues that need more discussion, but for lack of space I unfortunately cannot discuss them. What I wanted to do is try to open your mind to the main challenge our next president is going to face and that is the ailing economy. I often feel that while students are engaged in this election like never before, they are blindly following a man based on likability and are not choosing to look more deeply into his economic policies as well as other issues. No matter who the candidate is, it is important to cut past the rhetoric of politicians who will say anything to get elected and look at reality. We often hear how Obama will bring change and hope back to America while unifying the country. This seems like a big task for a man who has little experience and no major legislative accomplishments in his career. How can we trust him to get things done when he has truly never done anything? How can we trust him to unify both parties when he was rated the most liberal U.S. Senator in the United States Senate? We are in dangerous times financially and around the globe. This is not time for on the job training. If we look at who has the experience and the actual record of major bi-partisan legislation that would be John McCain. John McCain might not give those amazing teleprompter speeches like Barack, or make people faint in his presence, but the last time I checked the presidential election isn’t another episode of American Idol. It’s about who has the right plan and experience to get things accomplished. So before you cast your vote, take a look at the whole picture and determine what choice would be best for this country.
Now if you plan to support Barack Obama and vote for him that is just fine. If you believe that massive redistribution of wealth, more spending, higher taxes and more government are what this country needs to get back on a path to prosperity that is also fine. Government has always done a great job for us over the years, right? Well, maybe not. Just don’t come back in four years and say I didn’t warn you.
