by John Rixey

Created on: October 28, 2008

The Republican campaign is treating us like morons. Perhaps they're just appealing to their base. It appears the plan is to come up with a term that people react badly to, attach it to Obama-Biden and repeat it over and over again.

First, lets look at the wealth redistribution claim and the tax plan that it is describing. Obama's tax plan will cut taxes for everyone making less than $226,000 a year. From $226K to $603k, there is no change in the amount of taxes you'll pay. Those making above that will be the only people who get tax increases. If you make over $2.87 million dollars a year, your taxes will increase by 11.5%.

If you happen to be one of those lucky few that earn over $603k a year, your taxes will indeed increase. If you do not support the use of tax money to help the less fortunate get assistance in order to, for example, pay for childcare and education so they can attend school and earn a better living, then it is understandable that you see this tax plan as an unfair redistribution of wealth.

The republican campaign feels justified in repeating this idea that YOUR taxes will increase and be wasted on lazy poor people because they never specify who they are talking to. Their claims are only true if they are addressing those making over $603k a year. Are all of the McCain supporters making that much money?

The first half of this deception is leaving out the part about who will get tax increases with Obama's plan. The second half of the deception is more closely tied to the Republican world-view - In this great nation of freedom and free markets, if you work hard you will succeed. This means that if you are poor, you simply have not worked hard enough. You're just lazy.

If you are an American who had the opportunity to go to a decent school, had parents that were alive, educated, and present to wake you up for school in the morning and help you with homework in the evenings, had the money to go to college and get a job that pays a lot for doing less strenuous work, it may seem to you that your "hard work" has paid off. If you had been lazy and not done those things, you would be getting paid less money for more physically demanding Work. Being this individual, it may not have ever occurred to you that people are born into a wide variety of circumstances. An orphaned crack-baby would have to work a lot harder to get to the same place you have gotten. However, it is easy to not think of that and to imagine that everyone in the country had the same opportunities

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