Short and sweet: Obama’s tax plan

Some days I just don’t understand how, this late in the game, there can be anyone left who is undecided about the Presidential race. I mean, it’s been going on for close to two years!

Other days, I remember to give the benefit of the doubt to folks who are not political junkies like me and so haven’t been paying attention as closely as I have.

But by now there’s a lot of information out there — the TV ads that have begun to show up in the last month or so, the 24/7 cable news, and of course the candidates’ web sites (and the Obama campaign even has its own TV channel, 5890 on Dish Network) — so
they’d better hop to it, for early voting starts NOW.

This space was dedicated a week ago to comparing the two candidates’ health care plans, followed on Friday by a comparison of their proposals for dealing with the economic crisis.

You could say the best was saved for last. Taxes.

Let’s talk about “Joe the plumber” for a minute.

Samuel Joseph Wurtzelbacher, a registered Republican who rocketed to fame in the third Presidential debate, told Obama, in a rope line, that he was poised to purchase his bosses’ plumbing business but that doing so would bring him income “in the $260,000 to $280,000 range” which he figured would increase his taxes under the Obama plan.

Whether or not he was a “plant,” as some suspect, it made a great talking point for the debate, so I’m glad this conversation took place right there in front of everyone, and I don’t agree with the media frenzy about his license or anything else personal.

It turned into a great hook for the candidates, and gave Obama the chance to point out that (a) based on what he is making at this point Joe would benefit from Obama’s proposed tax cut, and (b) that his tax rate would increase only on the amount of income above $250,000.

In other words, the first $250,000 would be tax-increase free! Still, if I ever get lucky enough to earn that kind of money, I don’t think I’ll mind at all paying another 3% or so on the $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000 extra.

This being politics, of course, part of Obama’s answer on the rope line was morphed by the McCain folks into something vaguely sinister.

Obama said to Joe, “If the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. If you’ve got a plumbing business, you’re gonna be better off if you’ve got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you. And right now, everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody. And I think when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.”

This naturally became “Redistribution of wealth! Horrors! Welfare! Yuck!”

Obama went on to explain to Joe that he would also eliminate the capital gains tax for a small business like Joe’s, to encourage growth.

What’s amazing to me is that voters who would never in their wildest dreams reach a net income of $250,000 for a family, or $200,000 for a single taxpayer, are convinced that an Obama administration would raise their taxes.

According to a chart published by the Washington Post, citing the Tax Policy Center, Obama’s plan would actually not raise taxes significantly for anyone earning up to $603,402; the tax increase that would kick in at that point would be 8.7% and that would hold up to $2.87 million. Anyone you know going to be worried about that?

Y’know, we’re getting into the stratosphere here, what the Tax Policy Center identifies as the top 1% of Americans. But apparently this is who McCain is really, really worried about when he says that Barack Obama is going to raise your taxes.

Warren Buffett, a man who knows a thing or two about making money, hasn’t got a problem with Obama’s tax plan, so I guess I don’t either.