bambino64's Blog

My last post drew quite a few comments from the right and after reading a few other blogs and listening to conservatives speak I realized that they are scared.

I think they are scared because for so long they've been able to supress the lower classes, the poor, the blacks by stripping them of education, good jobs, and hope and now comes Obama, a black man who can inspire others -- black and white -- and the Conservatives are afraid that now they are going to have to share the wealth a bit -- not forking over their money for welfare plans but to make room for Tyrone the plumber and other minority owned businesses because finally, they will have hope and opportunity.

This nation is about helping others...to give everyone the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- everyone. When you have a wealthy upper middle class that is not giving opportunities to the lower classes to pursue their dreams, then the american dream dies. Look at what is going on now with our financial crisis.  Just like the great deprssion, this was caused by greed, greed, and more greed.  There is a lot of blame to go around (not just Barney Frank and Chris Dodd as some might contend) but the bottom line is that people were stockpiling what they could get.

Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson believe that a well educated population with opportunity and hope is what will make america successful.  We have gotten away from this over the years and look what is happening -- out of control debt, a failing economic system, bitter political discourse (although that's not really a new thing in american politics).

I really think that the Conservatives have been happy all these years with a disenfranchised voting block of lower class citizens and blacks and I think they are afraid that Obama is going to put an end to all that.  Back in March when I worked the primary, I saw so many young black voters coming out to vote -- people I would never in my life imagine voting.  It was very inspirational and I thought it was great that so many new voters were getting out to vote.  THAT is what this country is about -- hope.

I hope I didn't offend anyone (except conservatives) with this posting...I know race is a delicate issue. 

A lot has been said about "Joe the Plumber" and how a 3% increase in taxes for income over $250,000 will hurt his business.  How?  Let's crunch some numbers.  Let's say Joe makes 200,000 in year 1.  According to my math (assuming a 36% tax rate), Joe would have to pay $72.000 in taxes, leaving $128,000 for everything else.  That's not including any deductions, write-offs, etc.  Let's say in year 2 he makes 300,000 and has to pay 39% of that in taxes (representing Obama's proposed 3% tax increase).  That amounts to a total tax bill of $117,000 which would leave him this time with $183,000 for everything else.  Compared to year 1, he still comes out ahead $55,000!  That to me is a pretty good chunk of change.  Who would be foolish enough to pass that up?  Isn't that still incentive to go out and work hard or are some people just wired to only work hard when they can keep all the money for themselves?  I would like to start a small business and if I could grow it from 200,000 to 300,000 in one year, I'd go for it -- higher taxes or not.  If you listent to the rhetoric, it's not about restricting business growth, it's about sharing.

But sharing with whom?  Let's address that issue to because the Republicans like to call it "redistribution of wealth," implying that President Obama is going to take money from Joe the Plumber and give it to Joe the Slacker who doesn't work and just sits around all day doing nothing.  Well, no.  This extra money goes into the national coffer and goes to pay for things like body armor for our troops, better humvee protection, workforce training, education, etc, etc.  So maybe Joe the Slacker, who has dreamed of being a high-end chef, can afford to go to school, learn a trade, and become a productive member of society.  You see, Joe the Slacker was slacking because he wasn't happy.  He didn't like the jobs we could qualify for and didn't have the money to go to school.  Now, thanks to President Obama and Joe the Plumber, he can pursue his dreams, and isn't that what America is all about?

If Joe the Plumber and others like him don't want to support the military or help turn slackers into productive members of society, I guess that's their choice; but this died-in-the-wool liberal would have no problem whatsoever chipping in a bit more when it comes to supporting the troops and giving a helping hand to others.

Why is it that when Democrats say that we should turn over the security of Iraq to the Iraqis, we are accused of surrendering?  How is it surrendering?  How long does it take for Iraq to train their own army?  We've been doing it for years, aren't they ready now to start taking over?  It's like a 36 year old child who won't get a job and leave the house because his parents still give him everything he needs.  This isn't about surrender.  We won.  Sure, things didn't go as planned and we shouldn't have invaded Iraq in the first place, but they no longer pose a threat to us.  Time to "kick the grown up kid" out of the house and let him deal with life on his own.  I think if we start pulling out Iraq is going to get the hint and start taking more responsibility for their own security.  How is that surrendering?  This is about personal responsibility on a national level.

Sure, I think it needs to be slow and we need to make sure that Iraq remains stable and I can see us having a long-standing military presence in Iraq in the years to come, but do we really need so many people over there?  Couldn't we pull some of them back and see what happens?  How is that running?  To me it’s just saying “time for you to take responsibility for your own actions.”

As a reply to Republican cries of 'surrender' or 'running up the white flag' our reply should be "How is that surrender?  We've accomplished our goals in Iraq and now it's time for Iraqis to take care of Iraq.  The free ride is over."