McCain Kudlow Interview - Keep Taxes Low Help the Economy

Excerpt from An Interview with Senator McCain by Larry Kudlow

McCain: Well, I try to talk about them more often. A lot of the people that come, frankly, are people that are having trouble staying in their homes, keeping their jobs, etcetera. But I think it goes back to all this business of Sen. Obama’s view of “fairness.” When Charlie Gibson said, why would you want to raise capital-gains taxes when you know it will decrease revenue? And he said in “fairness.” And he told Joe the Plumber — Joe the Plumber got the message through better, what we’ve been trying to do this whole campaign. [Obama] wants to “spread the wealth around.” That takes from the investor class. That takes money from one group of Americans and gives it to another.

Now that signal has been very clear. And I think people ought to pay attention to it, because it’s been tried before in other countries, and policies of other left-liberal administrations. It doesn’t work, and it’s bad for America. We want to encourage the investor class, and that means capital-gains and dividend taxes are low.

Kudlow: You’ve just unveiled a new tax cut on capital gains. Can you tell us about that? Because in some sense, that’s probably the most important investor class tax.

McCain: It’s the most important in many respects, Larry, and we want it low and we want it lowered. Every time — there’s one tax that there’s no argument about, that every time it’s been lowered since Jack Kennedy, we have seen an increase in revenues. Now, why anybody would argue, as Sen. Obama does, that we need to raise it, even if it’s — of course, the amount needed to raise it is varied with whatever poll he’s taken — but the point is that we want to lower it and keep it low and encourage investment, especially now in America in these difficult times.

Kudlow: But senator, what is — the current law rate is 15 percent.

McCain: Yeah, yeah.

Kudlow: You’re taking the cap-gains rate down to what?

McCain: First down to 10 percent, I would like to see it, and gradually even make it lower. Look, why should we tax people’s gains twice? Why should we tax them twice, okay? They make an investment, they should be able to get their returns on their investment. And capital gains is obviously — low capital-gains tax is probably the greatest incentive for investment that we have in America today. And so, look, I’ll be glad to listen to smart people like you, Larry, but the worst thing we can do is tell people we’re going to raise it, and that, obviously, would chill investment in America, right?

Promises of Redistribution and Spread the Wealth

David Harsanyi's article If It Redistributes Like a Duck... looks at Obama's plans to change the fundamental structure of the American economy by focusing tax codes on redistribution of wealth.

Obama is the first major presidential candidate in memory to assert that taxation's principal purpose should be redistribution.

The proposition that government should take one group's lawfully earned profits and hand them to another group -- not a collection of destitute or impaired Americans, mind you, but a still-vibrant middle class -- is the foundational premise of Obama's fiscal policy.

It was Joe Biden who said (not long ago, when he still was permitted to speak in public), "We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people." The only entity that "takes" money from the middle class -- or any class for that matter -- is the Internal Revenue Service. Other than that, there is nothing to give back.

And who knew we needed such a drastic renovation of an economic philosophy we've adhered to these past 25 years (yes, counting Bill Clinton's comparatively fiscally conservative record)? Despite a recent downturn and with all the serious tribulations we face, Americans have just lived through perhaps the most prosperous and peaceful era human beings ever have enjoyed.

From 1982 until now, every arrow on nearly every economic growth chart -- every health care chart, every chart that matters -- points in one general direction, and that's up.

Obama, who, it seems, is running not only for president but also for national baby sitter/accountant/daddy/icon, ignores this success and claims he can "invest" (will that euphemism ever go away?) and disperse your money more efficiently, smartly and fairly than you can. How could any American accept the absurdity of that position?

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Promises of Redistribution and Spread the Wealth

Media's Bias At Unprecedented Levels

Diane West of Townhall.com writes in her article Media's O-Colored Glasses Blank Out Leftist Truth about a very disturbing element of this election cycle. The media has abandoned its responsibility to vet candidates, and have instead ignored a myriad of radical associates of Senator Obama's and dubbed them 'off limits' or 'dirty tricks'. The reality is that if an average person had the associations that Senator Obama has they would be classified as a security threat, and likely wouldn't even be able to attend events like the Democratic convention. It has been noted elsewhere that Senator Obama couldn't even be cleared to be his own Secret Service agent because of these associations. However, the media doesn't care, they are campaigning for their favorite candidate and these issues are dubbed off limits by the most biased media coverage in modern US history.

At the beginning of Obama's life, for example, there was "Frank," Obama's boyhood mentor who appears in his 1995 memoir "Dreams from My Father." Accuracy In Media's Cliff Kincaid has identified "Frank" as Frank Marshall Davis, a known Stalinist in a Soviet-sponsored communist network in Hawaii. But Obama obscures Frank's identity in his book, even, as Sean Hannity has reported, going so far as to drop passages about "Frank" from the more recent, recorded version of the book. Why? The media never asked.

Later in Obama's life there was Mike Klonsky, an unreconstructed Marxist and erstwhile leader of an honest-to-goodness Maoist splinter group in the United States. Klonsky, like his buddy, ex-Weatherman William Ayers, spreads Marxism through education "reform." As the National Review Online's Andrew C. McCarthy reported, Obama directed nearly 2 million foundation dollars to fund Klonsky's ideas in the 1990s. More recently, Klonsky wrote a "social justice education" blog on the official Obama campaign Web site -- at least until a blog named Global Labor and Politics pointed this fact out. Klonsky's musings were summarily scrubbed from the campaign Web site in June. Why? The media never asked.

And so it goes. The assorted radicals -- from ACORN to Ayers, from anti-white Jeremiah Wright to Saudi-adviser Khalid al-Mansour to former PLO associate Rashid Khalidi -- who have peopled Obama's ideological passage from rising leftist to post-ideological cipher, have been lost in the blur to a media focused solely on their own prize: Obama in the White House.

Such focus has created a drastically blinkered journalism, particularly in these final weeks. Take the fact that the supposedly "post-racial" Obama once funded Afrocentric, race-focused education programs supported by Jeremiah "G -- - D -- - America" Wright. That was a juicy blend of hypocrisy and extremism (dug up by Stanley Kurtz), but the media just averted their eyes.

Or how about good, ol' William "America Makes Me Want to Puke" Ayers, whose own relationship with Klonsky (the Maoist mentioned above) goes back to the days of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)? Obama worked closely with Ayers to fund radical programs (such as Klonsky's) in Chicago, endorsed Ayers' work, and launched his political career in Ayers' home. This is the ideological and literal bomb-thrower Obama brushed off as just "a guy in my neighborhood." But the media saw nothing to it -- not even a piece of Obama's questionable pattern of collaboration with a series of people best described as unregenerate leftists.

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Media's Bias At Unprecedented Levels

401K's in Jeopardy

Retirement funds, particularly 401K's, are at risk. As previously mentioned in the article Democrats Discuss Taking Over People's 401K's Democrats are looking to eliminate the tax break for 401K's and to subsidize a takeover of these savings plans. Investment New reports in their article House Democrats contemplate abolishing 401(k) tax breaks point out the problems with this plan.

"From where I sit that's just crazy," said John Belluardo, president of Stewardship Financial Services Inc. in Tarrytown, N.Y. "A lot of people contribute to their 401(k)s because of the match of the employer," he said. Mr. Belluardo's firm does not manage assets directly.

Higher-income employers provide matching funds to employee plans so that they can qualify for tax benefits for their own defined contribution plans, he said.

"If the tax deferral goes away, the employers have no reason to do the matches, which primarily help people in the lower income brackets," Mr. Belluardo said.

US News and World Report has also written articles on Democrats plans to target 401K's and retirement plans if they obtain control of the presidency and congress...
Why Democrats Will Target the Investor Class in 2009

Would Obama Dems Kill 401K Plans?

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Hat Tip other bloggers covering this issue...

Smart Girl Politics Kiss Your 410K Good Bye

Ms Placed Democrat Obama's 401K Plan is Nothing More Than a Junk Bond

Say What You Really Mean Under President Obama Kiss Your 401K Goodbye, Your Net Pay Shrinks, And The Constitution Will Be Walked On Like It's His Daily Exercise Routine.

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401K's in Jeopardy

Democrats Take Aim At Investments and Savings

US News and World Report is reports in their article Why Democrats Will Target the Investor Class in 2009
that a Democrat run government will target a government take over of
savings and investments for political expediency. It should be noted
that the 'investor class' includes people who put thier savings in
IRA's and 401K's. This isn't the super wealthy, this is most often
responsible middle class Americans that save for retirement and other
needs. This not only threatens people's savings it is more evidence
that a government fully controlled by the Democrats will result in a
dramatic lurch to the left as thes are plans for more big government
control.

1) Hike Investment Taxes. Obama wants to raise capital gains taxes
even though he has kinda, sorta admitted that it might be bad for the
economy and might actually decrease tax revenue to the government. For
now, he's talking about raising the highest cap gains rate by one third
to 20 percent, though earlier in the campaign, he floated pushing it as
high as 28 percent, a near doubling. (Recall that Democratic
presidential contender John Edwards wanted to raise it as high as 40
percent, a move that was applauded by liberals who want investment
income to be taxed as onerously as labor income.) With the next
administration facing a trillion dollar budget deficit—maybe more—there
will certainly be pressure to raise taxes to higher levels than now
being suggested.

2) Eliminate 401(k)'s, IRAs, and other retirement plans.
Democrats in the House are now talking openly about the longtime
liberal dream of repealing the tax advantages of putting money into a
401(k) plan or other tax-advantaged retirement account. "The savings
rate isn't going up for the investment of $80 billion [in 401(k) tax
breaks], we have to start to think about whether or not we want to
continue to invest that $80 billion for a policy that's not generating
what we now say it should," said Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat from
Washington at a recent hearing, according to an industry trade paper.

Indeed,
House Democrats recently invited Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the
New School of Social Research, to testify before a subcommittee on her
idea to eliminate the preferential tax treatment of the popular
retirement plans. In place of 401(k) plans, she would have workers
transfer their dough into government-created "guaranteed retirement
accounts" with a 3 percent real return.

Not only would removing
the preferential tax treatment of these vehicles raise investment taxes
by $100 billion a year and affect Americans making less than $100,000,
it would surely prompt many Americans, already shell-shocked by the
market's recent losses, to flee stocks. All this ignores the fact that
there are trillions of dollars in American retirement accounts, and
abandoning the higher-returning stock market at a probable bottom is
classic financial foolishness. If you believe long term in the American
economy, then you have to believe in the stock market. If you don't,
then you have to admit the government won't be able to afford its
promises anyway.

3) Replace private capital with public capital.
But wouldn't a weak stock market hurt the economy by making it tougher
to raise investment capital and lessen the return on risk? Surely, it
would. But Obama is planning hundreds of billions of dollars of
government "investment" in cutting-edge technology, particularly in the
energy and healthcare sectors. One specific example: Obama wants to
create something called a "Clean Technologies Venture Capital Fund" and
invest $10 billion a year in emerging energy technologies. Now, the
private VC industry is already pouring billions into alternative
energy, but Obama thinks that's not enough and wants Uncle Sam to get
in on the action at taxpayer expense. Interestingly, a new study
by the University of British Columbia looked at the performance of the
Canadian government's venture capital efforts. It found that government
venture capital isn't nearly as successful as private venture capital.

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Democrats Take Aim At Investments and Savings

Democrats Discuss Taking Over People's 401K's

If you don't think an Obama, Pelosi, Reid run government would result in a dramatic swing to the left, read US News and World Reports article on congress' discussion of takng over people's 401K's. 401K's are not 'rich people' savings plans they are middle America's retirement and savings plans, and Dems are looking to make them into 'government created' accounts. Would Obama, Dems Kill 401(k) Plans?

I hate to use the "S" word, but the American government would never do something as, well, socialist as seize private pension funds, right? This is exactly what cash-strapped Argentina just did in the name of protecting workers' retirement accounts (Efharisto, Fausta's Blog). Now, even Uncle Sam isn't that stupid, but some Democrats might try something almost as loopy: kill 401(k) plans.

House Democrats recently invited Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School of Social Research, to testify before a subcommittee on her idea to eliminate the preferential tax treatment of the popular retirement plans. In place of 401(k) plans, she would have workers transfer their dough into government-created "guaranteed retirement accounts" for every worker. The government would deposit $600 (inflation indexed) every year into the GRAs. Each worker would also have to save 5 percent of pay into the accounts, to which the government would pay a measly 3 percent return. Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, said that since "the savings rate isn't going up for the investment of $80 billion [in 401(k) tax breaks], we have to start to think about whether or not we want to continue to invest that $80 billion for a policy that's not generating what we now say it should."

Hat Tip to Smart Girl Politics original article Kiss Your 401k Goodbye!

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Democrats Discuss Taking Over People's 401K's

Obama's Tax Plan and Income Redistribution Hurts the Economy and the Middle Class

Senator Obama's tax plan is packaged as tax cuts for the middle class when in reality there are numerous tax increases on the middle class and on small business owners. Senator Obama's tax policies are similar to those of Herbert Hoover who raised taxes, implement isolationist policies, and drove the American economy into a massive depression. Senator Obama claims that his tax policies that give a government check to people not paying anything in income taxes are done in the name of fairness. However, the economic depression that his policies would likely trigger is fair to no one. Investor's Business Daily lays out the problems with the Obama 'spread the wealth' tax plan in their article Investors Flee From 'Change' Obama Hypes

These tax credits are devised to phase-out based on income, which will ultimately increase marginal income tax rates for middle-class workers. In other words, as you earn more, you suffer a penalty in the phase-out of these credits, which has the exact effect of a marginal tax rate increase. That harms, rather than improves, the economy.

With the bottom 40% of income earners not paying any federal income taxes, such tax credits would not reduce any tax liability for these workers. Instead, since they're refundable, they would involve new checks from the federal government.

These are not tax cuts as Obama is promising. They are new government spending programs buried in the tax code and estimated to cost $1.3 trillion over 10 years.

Obama argues that while these workers do not pay income taxes, they do pay payroll taxes. True, but his planned credits do not involve cuts in payroll taxes. They are refundable income tax credits designed to redistribute income and "spread the wealth."

Meantime, Obama has proposed effective tax increases of 20% or more in the two top income-tax rates, phasing out the personal exemptions and all itemized deductions for top earners, as well as raising their tax rates.

He wants a 33% increase in the tax rates on capital gains and dividends, an increase of 16% to 32% in the top payroll tax rate, reinstatement of the death tax with a 45% top rate, and a new payroll tax on employers estimated at 7% to help finance his health insurance plan. He's also contending for higher tariffs under his protectionist policies.

Finally, he would increase corporate taxes by 25%, though American businesses already face the second-highest marginal tax rates in the industrialized world, thus directly harming manufacturing and job creation while weakening demand for the dollar.

Obama argues disingenuously that his tax increases would only affect higher-income workers and "corporate fat cats." But it is precisely these top marginal tax rates that control incentives for savings, investment, entrepreneurship, business expansion, jobs and economic growth. While he wants to tax the rich, the burden will fall on the poor and the middle class.

Obama's Tax Plan and Income Redistribution Hurts the Economy and the Middle Class

Obama A History of Socialist Policies/Beliefs

From Fox News - Obama, in 2001 Interview, Lamented Failure of Civil Rights Movement to Redistribute Wealth

A 7-year-old radio interview in which Barack Obama discussed the failure of the Supreme Court to rule on redistributing wealth in its civil rights rulings has given fresh ammunition to critics who say the Democratic presidential candidate has a socialist agenda.

The interview -- conducted by Chicago Public Radio in 2001, while Obama was an Illinois state senator and a law professor at the University of Chicago -- delves into whether the civil rights movement should have gone further than it did, so that when "dispossessed peoples" appealed to the high court on the right to sit at the lunch counter, they should have also appealed for the right to have someone else pay for the meal.

In the interview, Obama said the civil rights movement was victorious in some regards, but failed to create a "redistributive change" in its appeals to the Supreme Court, led at the time by Chief Justice Earl Warren. He suggested that such change should occur at the state legislature level, since the courts did not interpret the U.S. Constitution to permit such change.

"The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of basic issues of political and economic justice in this society, and to that extent as radical as people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical," Obama said in the interview, a recording of which surfaced on the Internet over the weekend.

"It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it has been interpreted.

"And the Warren court interpreted it generally in the same way -- that the Constitution is a document of negative liberties, says what the states can't do to you, says what the federal government can't do to you, but it doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf, and that hasn't shifted.

"And I think one of the tragedies of the civil rights movement was that the civil rights movement became so court-focused, I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and organizing activities on the ground that are able to bring about the coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change, and in some ways we still suffer from that," Obama said.

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Obama A History of Socialist Policies/Beliefs

IBD: Barack Obama's Stealth Socialism

Investor's Business Daily's article Barack Obama's Stealth Socialism is definitely worth a read. An exerpt follows...

During his NAACP speech earlier this month, Sen. Obama repeated the term at least four times. "I've been working my entire adult life to help build an America where economic justice is being served," he said at the group's 99th annual convention in Cincinnati.

And as president, "we'll ensure that economic justice is served," he asserted. "That's what this election is about." Obama never spelled out the meaning of the term, but he didn't have to. His audience knew what he meant, judging from its thumping approval.

It's the rest of the public that remains in the dark, which is why we're launching this special educational series.

"Economic justice" simply means punishing the successful and redistributing their wealth by government fiat. It's a euphemism for socialism.

In the past, such rhetoric was just that — rhetoric. But Obama's positioning himself with alarming stealth to put that rhetoric into action on a scale not seen since the birth of the welfare state.

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IBD: Barack Obama's Stealth SocialismIBD: Barack Obama's Stealth Socialism

McCain the King of the Comeback

As the media tries to call this race over, it's worth noting that not only is this not the first time that the media has declared the McCain campaign dead. It is also worth noting that Senator McCain's underdog role is nothing new to him, and he has a penchant for pulling off upsets just as he's being counted out. In fact his odds in this race are remarkably good compared to other challenges he has faced in his life...

Now, as he presses against the strongest political headwinds in many, many years, he’s trying to follow his own advice. Looking back to the early days of the campaign, John Weaver told me that McCain, politically, was “facing a Category 1 hurricane” when he began his race. Now, Weaver says, “it’s a Category 5.”

Despite it all, McCain pushes on, propelled by a drive most people just don’t have. I remember traveling to Iowa in the fall of 2007, after McCain’s campaign meltdown had left him in dreadful financial straits. We were going to the farthest reaches of northwest Iowa, near the Minnesota border. McCain was staying in a Holiday Inn Express in the middle of nowhere — when you walked out the door, the smell of fertilizer got your attention pretty quickly — and he was traveling around in a minivan because his bus had broken down. He spent his days talking to small groups — sometimes really small groups — in diners and pizza joints.

He was 71 years old at the time, wealthy, with a safe and senior spot in the Senate and a career that few, if any, public servants could match. On top of that, his campaign had blown up in an explosion of mismanagement and bad feelings that had many political insiders and journalists writing its obituary. And yet there he was, plugging away, every day, animated by something that is unique to his character.

And why shouldn’t he feel that he can overcome just about anything? This is a man who has dodged death — real death, not political death — many times. There’s more to the story than his enduring five and a half years as a prisoner of war — just look at the fuzzy old black-and-white film of McCain on July 29, 1967, leaping off the refueling probe of his jet after it had been struck by a missile on the deck of the USS Forrestal. It was one of the worst disasters in Navy history, killing 132 men. McCain, miraculously, walked away from it. On one of those trips around Iowa, sitting in the back of his bus — after his campaign found one that worked — McCain described the days after the Forrestal fire. He was at a meeting in which the commanding officer asked if anyone would like to volunteer to transfer to another carrier, the USS Oriskany, which had itself undergone a fire, although a less serious one. Describing himself as if he had been an outside observer, McCain said that he saw his hand go up to volunteer when he could have sought out a less dangerous assignment; on that day in Iowa, 40 years later, he still seemed a little surprised by what he had done. But off he went, and it was from the Oriskany that he took off on the mission that led to his capture and imprisonment, events that would inform so much of his subsequent political career.

The lesson is that McCain is always searching for something new to overcome. Of course he would rather not be facing quite so many political adversities at once, but he is a man who, if he makes it out of one scrape, puts himself in position for another.

And now, he’s doing it again. “How many times, my friends, have the pundits written off the McCain campaign?” he asked a crowd in Wisconsin on October 10. “We’re gonna fool ‘em again. We’re gonna fool ‘em one more time.” A few days later, in Virginia, McCain described the forces arrayed against him and declared, “My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.” People in the audience laughed. But in some sense, deep inside, McCain meant it.

From National Review John McCain Against the Wind

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McCain the King of the Comeback

Obama A History of Socialist Policies/Beliefs

From Fox News - Obama, in 2001 Interview, Lamented Failure of Civil Rights Movement to Redistribute Wealth

A 7-year-old radio interview in which Barack Obama discussed the failure of the Supreme Court to rule on redistributing wealth in its civil rights rulings has given fresh ammunition to critics who say the Democratic presidential candidate has a socialist agenda.

The interview -- conducted by Chicago Public Radio in 2001, while Obama was an Illinois state senator and a law professor at the University of Chicago -- delves into whether the civil rights movement should have gone further than it did, so that when "dispossessed peoples" appealed to the high court on the right to sit at the lunch counter, they should have also appealed for the right to have someone else pay for the meal.

In the interview, Obama said the civil rights movement was victorious in some regards, but failed to create a "redistributive change" in its appeals to the Supreme Court, led at the time by Chief Justice Earl Warren. He suggested that such change should occur at the state legislature level, since the courts did not interpret the U.S. Constitution to permit such change.

"The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of basic issues of political and economic justice in this society, and to that extent as radical as people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical," Obama said in the interview, a recording of which surfaced on the Internet over the weekend.

"It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it has been interpreted.

"And the Warren court interpreted it generally in the same way -- that the Constitution is a document of negative liberties, says what the states can't do to you, says what the federal government can't do to you, but it doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf, and that hasn't shifted.

"And I think one of the tragedies of the civil rights movement was that the civil rights movement became so court-focused, I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and organizing activities on the ground that are able to bring about the coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change, and in some ways we still suffer from that," Obama said.

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Obama A History of Socialist Policies/Beliefs

All McCain All Day Today!!??

Minutes For McCain-Palin

Letter From Team Sarah

Obama lead only 2.8%!

Picking On Palin

RESPONSE: Obama's "Closing Argument"

CNN: Your chance to ask Obama the questions

McCain: Reid, Pelosi, Obama a ‘dangerous threesome’

McCain Campaign Statement on Obama's Paycheck "Redistribution"

NEWS: JCP: A call for change: Elect John McCain

NEWS: GRP: For president -- John McCain

NEWS: BS: Security brushed aside

Obama On Capitalism & The Supreme Court

NEWS: TO: John McCain

Joe The Plumber's Family Decry Attacks!

TH: Dem Playbook Shows Dirty Tactics

NYDN: '60s leftist William Ayers: Time for GOP to get over it

as Ronald Reagan would say, now is A Time For Choosing

NYP: Dubious Donations

John McCain’s remarks on the economy in Cleveland

Pink Elephants: Obama on Spreading the Wealth

McCain-Palin 2008 Launches New Web Ad: "Life Savings"

Sheridan Folger, Brad Marston McCain Super Saturday New Hampshire

Sheridan Folger

Sheridan Folger, Brad Marston McCain Super Saturday New Hampshire

McCain - Super Saturday

Okay. So I thought I would be live blogging our Mini-Super Saturday. Unfortunately we ran behind schedule almost from the start.

I got to Stratham, NH about 9:30 in the morning and met Eric Maurer, Field Director in Rockingham County as well as Let's Get This Right and McCainVictory08.com members Ashley, Ray and Connor. We spent an hour making phone calls and then hit the road to Exeter for some door belling for McCain-Palin, John Sununu and Jeb Bradley.

Ashley and Connor hit the phones.


We picked up info/stickers and fliers from the table at Stratham HQ. Special thanks to Michelle who answered the door in Exeter with "OH THANK GOD! Finally! We've seen nothing but Obama-Biden people!

While I was in Exeter, Sheridan was down in Portsmouth with 20 vets for a sign wave at the launch of the newest Fast Attack Sub, the USS New Hampshire.

We met up in Dover and then headed to Rochester for more GOTV phone calls. About then I got a call from my buddy, NH Radio Talk Show Host Karl Zahn asking "Where the hell are you guys? You are supposed to be here for the sign wave!"

So after a quick Google Map Search we grabbed a bunch of signs from Ann Jolie and headed southwest for about an hour and a half. (I didn't think you could actually drive that long and still be in New Hampshire.) We caught up with Karl and some more LGTR'ers and MV08ers for the sign wave in Milford. Karl had a crew and a half out!



Karl from NH, Brad Marston and Sheridan "The Mad Irishman" Folger



The littlest Zahn was not to be outdone.



On the trip back from Milford to Manchester I decided to change the view a little bit. Before...


...and after.

Then I finished up in Manchester HQ.


Today was a really good day. It was great to see Sheridan, Karl and so many other volunteers. Collectively we made over 500 phone calls, put up over 100 signs and held sign waves seen by thousands of people. You can make a difference in this election. Make that GOTV call! Organize a sign wave.

I must say I was really impressed with the McCain Campaign staff in Manchester. They were all on the phones right along with us. They have so many other things to do and organize but on this one Super Saturday (and I am sure others) they were making it happen for the McCain Campaign.

Brad Marston
Sheridan Folger

McCain Good for Business and Good for the Economy

Often times pro business even pro small business policies are looked upon with disdain as can be seen in Senator Obama recently comments criticizing Senator McCain for caring more about Wall Street than Main Street. However, this is a myopic view of the economy. Pro business policies create jobs, pro business policies help grow the economy. Putting the breaks on an already sagging economy with increased taxes does nothing for the American worker exept make life harder. CNBC notes that small business owners recognize that McCain Understands Small Business Owners

The following is a statement from American Small Business League (ASBL) President Lloyd Chapman: One look at Senator John McCain's website will tell you, this is a man that knows and cares about America's 27 million small businesses. He knows 56 percent of all Americans work for small businesses. John McCain is a small business guy through and through.

Time also reported on the 300+ professional economists that back McCain. Conversely the Union Leader disusses how Senator Obama's tax plan does not add up in their article It doesn't compute: Obama's tax plan a ruse.

Numerous organizations, including the Associated Press, have noted that Obama's proposals spend hundreds of millions of dollars more than his tax hikes raise. What is less well known is that Obama's tax plan itself sends out of Washington far more than it brings in. Obama's campaign twice admits that in the wording of the tax plan.

According to the plan, "his tax relief for middle-class families is larger than the revenue raised by his tax changes for families over $250,000." That sounds like he's giving a net tax cut. But much of what he calls "tax cuts" are actually cash payments to low- and middle-income Americans. Ultimately, he sends out of Washington hundreds of billions of dollars more than it takes in.

In other words, Obama promises more in benefits to low- and middle-income Americans than his plan can finance with his tax hikes on "families" making more than $250,000 a year. And note the word, "families." Even though Obama says that no "family" making less than $250,000 a year will see a tax increase, in fact his plan raises taxes on individuals making $200,000 a year or more.

The bottom line is that Obama is not being honest about his tax and spending plans. It is impossible -- impossible! -- for him to finance his giveaways by taxing only those making $250,000 or more. He will have to raise taxes substantially on people making much, much less than that.

Senator Obama's plans to "spread the wealth" are anti-growth measures done in the name of fairness. However, there is nothing fair about halting economic growth. There is also nothing fair about punishing success.

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McCain Good for Business and Good for the Economy

Are These the McCain/Palin Supporters That The Media Is So Scared Of?

During the last debate Senator McCain stuck up for his supporters who attend his rallies and town halls. It struck me as sweet, but unnecessary. If McCain supporters are discouraged by being talked down to, or called names by the media or others we'd all be a fetal position by now. However, having attended a McCain rally and a Palin rally in the last two weeks, it is evident that the media has done a hatchet job in describing these crowds. First, any threat or vile language is inappropriate particularly at event of this size; and I heard none at either. In fact quite the opposite was true. People were extremely friendly courteous and well-behaved. In line at the Palin rally a fellow said, "I think this must be the nicest line I've ever been in."

Yet two incidents in particular stand out as possibly why Senator McCain felt compelled to stick up for his supporters. First, at the Palin rally the crowd chanted on and off 'Sa-rah, Sa-rah' for close to an hour prior to Governor Palin arriving. After one of these chants had stopped a little girl maybe five or six years who likely has autism or down syndrome was standing by a partition started quietly chanting on her own 'Sa-rah, Sa-rah' bringing a big smile to everyone within earshot.

At the McCain rally some volunteers who had made a number of calls or knocked on a number doors the prior weekend were allowed to go backstage and meet Senator McCain as he came off stage. As we stood in a line a cute little curly haired girl standing with her mother, who had been carrying a teddy bear backpack around, lit up as Senator McCain approached. After taking a group picture Senator McCain said, "there's my girl" and the little girl ran up to him and threw her arms around him as he bent down to give her a hug. After talking to him and giving him another hug, the little girl had tears in her eyes she was so happy to see him. It didn't dawn on me till later, but I believe this little girl during the primaries had saved up her allowance for several weeks to give to the campaign because she had heard they needed money.

Now I don't expect the media to report on cute kids that attend McCain/Palin rallies, and I don't expect reports on good behavior, but it would be nice if the media didn't paint everyone with the same brush. Bad behavior is bad behavior, and there is no excuse for shouting inappropriate remarks particularly in a crowed arena. However, assuming that all crowds at all McCain/Palin events either think or act as a very few actually do is misleading and inappropriate. It is also another example of the media campaigning for their favorite candidate by essentially denouncing McCain supporters as a hostile and angry mob. They have cameras at these events, and they know what they are reporting is false.

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Are These the McCain/Palin Supporters That The Media Is So Scared Of?

"Mitchell: Biden Taken Off the Campaign Trail After Gaffe"

All of the MSM and certainly all of the Democrats have slammed Governor Palin as being such a lousy pick as John McCain's VP choice.

I think the joke is on them........... Senator Joe Biden has repeatedly embarrassed the Democrats and they apparently have sent him home to "dry out." The guy is obviously on the bottle and his daily gaffes prove it !

For anyone who thinks perhaps I am picking on poor 'ol Joe just remember it was Joe Biden who took the lumber to Joe The Plumber in an effort to dis credit him in front of America. He has no shame whatsoever.

See below for the latest Biden update............

Bruce Ash

www.AshForArizona.com

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Biden Says Obama Will Be Tested With A ‘Major International Crisis’

Barack Obama will need help in a crisis, says Joe Biden from Times Online UK...

Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, has told Americans to expect a “major international crisis” that will present an early test of a Barack Obama administration.

His comments were seized upon by the Republican campaign yesterday to raise fresh doubts about the prepared-ness of Mr Obama to be commander-in-chief.

Speaking at a fundraiser in Seattle on Sunday night, Mr Biden said: “Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here . . . we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

He cited Russia and the Middle East as possible places that may cause problems, as well as the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan – “crawling with al-Qaeda” – as being of particular concern.

Mr Obama would need help and support, Mr Biden suggested, “because it’s not gonna be apparent, initially, that we’re right.” He then spotted the media in the room, “I probably shouldn’t have said all this because it dawned on me that the press is here.”

Now why would anyone vote for Barack Obama when his own VP states that a vote for Obama is a vote for an international crisis? Why would anyone want to be a part of a ticket that one believes will lead the country to crisis? What an unbelievable statement. The only time a time camera falls on Senator Biden at this point is when he is trying to pull his foot out of his mouth. However, this is beyond a gaffe; this is disturbing. It appears Senator Biden sees Senator Obama as weak. It appears that Senator Biden, is not confident in Senator Obama's ability to handle a crisis, and it appears that Senator Biden would prefer a "major international crisis" that a Republican president.

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Biden Says Obama Will Be Tested With A ‘Major International Crisis’

INDEPENDENT GROUP LAUNCHES $500,000 TV AD BUY TO DEFEAT OBAMA IN MICHIGAN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MONDAY OCTOBER 20, 2008

CONTACT: Kelly S. Eustis at (518) 796-8999 [cell] or kseustis@eusatrix.com

Joe Wierzbicki at (916) 752-3655 [cell] or jwierzbicki@rmrwest.com

INDEPENDENT GROUP LAUNCHES $500,000 TV AD BUY TO DEFEAT OBAMA IN MICHIGAN

* Ad Buy Launched As Obama Pulls Staff and

Ad Dollars Out of the Great Lakes State

* Bus Tour With 9 Pro-McCain/Palin Rallies

Across Michigan to Support Ad Campaign

[MICHIGAN] -- A federally registered independent political action committee has begun a $500,000+ television ad campaign in Michigan to support the McCain/Palin ticket and defeat the Obama/Biden campaign in the Great Lakes State.

The Our Country Deserves Better Committee (website: http://www.OurCountryDeservesBetter.com) is paying for the TV ad buy and sponsoring a "Stop Obama Tour" across the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan in an effort to win the state's 17 electoral votes for the McCain/Palin campaign. The "Stop Obama Tour" will conduct 9 rallies across Michigan from this Thursday (October 23rd) - Saturday (October 25th).

A series of television ads attacking Obama's liberal economic and foreign policy positions will air across Michigan and will incude two ads specifically produced for Michigan that highlight Sen. Obama's ties to unpopular Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, disgraced former Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, as well as other controversial Obama associates including Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko and domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers.

"Since Senator Obama and Senator McCain have pulled most of their advertising dollars out of Michigan, we felt we were in a unique position to have a major impact on the final days of this election campaign here in the state," said Howard Kaloogian, Chairman of the Our Country Deserves Better Committee.

Our Country Deserves Better spokesman, radio talk show host Mark Williams, said that Michigan voters must reject the same disastrous policies of Democratic Governor Jennifer Granhom, that Senator Obama now threatens to inflict upon the state's residents were he to occupy the Oval Office.

"The Democratic leadership in Michigan has failed the people of the Great Lakes State, and Senator Obama as promised to deliver these same failed policies to all of America if he is elected president. Higher taxes, big government spending, and redistribution of wealth have hurt Michigan, and the voters of this state have the chance to reject these policies and embrace the hope and opportunity that a McCain/Palin administration would bring to Michigan," Williams said.

Also traveling with the tour across Michigan will be national pro-troop leader, Deborah Johns, whose son, Marine Sgt. William Johns, has served several tours of duty in the War on Terror, including three tours in Iraq alone.

"Senator Obama has not been faithful to our troops or our military families. Michigan voters know that a McCain/Palin administration would be led by two people who will honor the service and sacrifice of our troops. Senator McCain and Governor Palin both have children who are serving this nation in the United States military, and they know that our troops need our support for their missions in this dangerous world where unstable dictators and violent regimes threaten our nation's security," Johns said.

At each rally in Michigan, attendees will hear the powerful and moving vocals of singer/songwriter, Lloyd Marcus, a black conservative who has penned a tribute song honoring Gov. Sarah Palin.

"It makes me so mad when I hear Obama's supporters implying that it is racist to not vote for Barack Obama. No, that is wrong! It is racist to vote for this man simply because of the color of his skin, when he is the wrong man with the wrong policies for the job of president and leader of the Free World," Mr. Marcus said.

For additional information on the Our Country Deserves Better "Save Michigan" campaign contact Kelly S. Eustis at kseustis@eusatrix.com - (518) 796-8999 or Joe Wierzbicki at jwierzbicki@rmrwest.com – (916) 752-3655.

The McCain/Palin campagin needs our help, friends, and they need our help IMMEDIATELY.

The New York Times and other media outlets are reporting on the $150 million Barack Obama raised in September (on top of the $66 million he raised in August), and how he used that money to flood the airwaves in key battleground states over the past month to run up his poll numbers.

Obama "swamped" McCain in ad spending by a 4-to-1 margin, and in some states the margin over McCain was even higher.

Obama, the Democratic candidate, is now running at least four times as much advertising nationwide as his Republican rival, John McCain, according to CMAG, a service that monitors political advertising. That difference is even larger in several closely contested states.

While Obama's decision to forgo the matching funds - and the limits that come with them - has given him a spending advantage throughout the election, his television dominance has become most apparent in the past few weeks as he has gone on a buying binge that has allowed him to utterly swamp McCain's campaign with concurrent lines of positive and negative messages.

Since McCain is limited under public financing laws as to how much he can raise and spend - whereas Obama can raise and spend unlimited funds since he went without matching funds - it is critically important for groups like the Our Country Deserves Better Committee to step in to help bring a balance to the TV ad wars.

This is why we must continue to ask our supporters to make donations to our TV ad fund. Over 150,000 people will receive this email you are reading right now. Imagine the impact we can make if all of us make a contribution to our anti-Obama/pro-McCain/Palin ad campaign.

The maximum allowed contribution to a federal PAC such as ours is $5,000. If you can afford such a contribution, please lend your support to our cause now -- DONATE HERE.

Many of us can only afford to contribute lesser amounts of $1,000 or $500 or $250 or $100 or even $50 or $25. Even donations of $10 and $5 make a strong impact when they come from tens of thousands of Americans.

So please, help us overcome Obama's campaign funding advantage over McCain by allowing us to go up on the airwaves in key swing states with our strong and aggressive TV ads. Make a contribution online right now, and ask your friends or family members to also make a contribution to double or triple the impact you make in this election.

As always, you can see the TV ads your donations are funding - HERE.

Thanks Sheridan Folger Let's Get This Right!

Obama's Plan to Spread the Wealth

Despite the Obama campaign's and media's attempt to discredit 'Joe the Plumber', a fellow who simply asked Senator Obama a question at a campaign event, his question remains valid, and Obama's response proves insightful. Obama's $250,000 a year tax increase provides a barrier to success for the middle class, particularly for entrepreneurs and small business owners. For these people on the bubble there is a penalty for growth. Consequently, this puts the brakes on the growth of many small businesses, which are responsible for a large percentage of new jobs. Raising taxes in a struggling economy on any economic bracket is a terrible idea. Tax increases slow economic growth, and that hurts people across the board. If jobs dry up, it's not the $250,000 plus crowd that will be hurt the most, it will be the middle class.

Senator Obama's response to Joe is interesting. 'Spreading the wealth' is a principle of socialism. This combined with Senator Obama's plan to reduce taxes for 95% of the people, when 30-40% of the people don't pay federal income tax has all the hallmarks of a socialist policy. Senator Obama has never addressed whether people who don't pay taxes would receive a government check. Either his numbers are off or he is creating a welfare class is his plan. Subsidizing low income is the perfect way of encouraging people not to achieve. Why work harder if the government will pay you not to. Why start a new business if the government will penalize you for your success. This is the perfect plan to deaden the economy; penalize success, reward mediocrity, and limit the growth of new/small businesses.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KXRq2bErVc]
Obama's Plan to Spread the Wealth

Minutes For McCain-Palin

Dear McCain Supporter,

Thank You for you support of Sen. JOHN McCAIN & Gov. SARAH PALIN!!!

We are starting the National GOTV (Get Out the Vote) effort for the McCain/Palin campaign through the McCain Google Groups, Let's Get This Right.com, McCain Victory 08.com, and other Internet McCain groups & websites.

Use your FREE Cell phone weekend minutes to make calls for McCain/Palin! We are targeting certain states, our FANTASTIC McCain Google Group Volunteers please make calls to the following states from the McCain web site (these are the Targeted, Battleground states:

CLICK HERE TO MAKE PHONE CALLS

People from: ME, VT, NY, MA, CT, RI

Please make phone calls into:

People from: OH, MI, IL, WI,MN

Please Make phone calls into:

People From: PA, NJ, DE, MD

Please Make calls into:

People From: VA, WX, & WASH DC

Please Make calls into:

People From: FL, GA, AL, LA, AK

Please Make calls into:

People From: NM, AZ, & TX

Please Make calls into:

People From: CO, UT, KS, WY, MT, ND, SD, KS, OK

Please Make calls into:

People From: NV, WA, OR, CA, & ID

Please Make calls into:

People From: MO, AK,TN, OK, KS, NE, IA, & TX

Please Make calls into:

People From: NC, GA, SC, TN, VA, & KT

Please Make calls into:

Deployment Teams for McCain

Dear Supporters,

Your help is what will make the difference in this race!

This weekend, Citizens for McCain is dispatching teams across Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida to share John McCain’s plans for a prosperous America with Democrats and Independents. We’ll be knocking on doors, walking precincts and making phone calls—all in preparation for election day. Please join us in these efforts!

Please help us in these efforts! Please come by one of the many field offices in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida we’ll be working from:

PENNSYLVANIA

Northeast Pennsylvania
420 North Main Avenue
Scranton, PA 18504
(570) 951-9223

Southeast Pennsylvania
420 Norristown Road
Blue Bell, PA 19322
(717) 222-9804

East Pennsylvania
2285 Schoenersvillle Road, Space 27
Bethlehem, PA 18017
(717) 644-8778

Southwest Pennsylvania
23 North Maple Street
Greensburg, PA 15601
(724) 836-0570

Northwest Pennsylvania
125 Hillvue Lane
Pittsburgh, PA 15237
(414) 458-1562

OHIO

Northeast Ohio (Near Youngstown)
621 Boardman-Canfield Road
Boardman, OH
(330) 629-70006

Northeast Ohio (Near Cleveland)
7630 Chippewa Road
Brecksville, OH 44141
(440) 792-4704

Western Ohio
102 West Main Street
Springfield, OH 45503
(937) 322-4223

FLORIDA

Greater Orlando
234 South Semoran Blvd
Orlando, FL 32807
(407) 277-0880

Southern Florida
2021 Tyler Street
Holywood, FL 33020
(954) 397-6369

Tampa – St. Petersburg Florida
142 West Platt
Tampa, FL 33606
(813) 451-3857

Jacksonville Florida
4963 Beach Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 33207
(904) 716-0107Many thanks,

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Jamie Brazil
National Director
Citizens for McCain

Heeeere's Johnny...

Who can make both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama roll with laughter? ...John McCain at the Albert E. Smith Dinner.

Video picks up at 2:38

Oh please, please, please, let this be a sign that McCain will be McCain in the last three weeks of this election.

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Here's Johnny...

PRESS RELEASE: Antoine Members Endorsed

Let's Get This Right Press Release

Let's Get This Right To Announce Endorsement of Antoine Members for Congress, Illinois 1st District FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Boston, Massachusetts, October 15, 2008 - Sheridan Folger, Co-Executive Director of the Let's Get This Right Coalition will announce the coalitions' endorsement of Antoine Members for Congress tonight at 11pm EST on Let's Get This Right Radio. Antoine Members For Congress Mr. Members is a political newcomer and represents much needed change for the Illinois 1st Congressional District. While his opponent, 8 term Congressman Bobbie Rush boasts on his House website of bringing $2 billion in Federal Tax dollars to his district and his ongoing fight against the 2nd Amendment, Mr. Members has laid out a clear program focusing on Education, Economic Opportunity, Lower Taxes and Gun Rights.

About Let's Get This Right Let's Get This Right is a coalition of conservative political organizations and activists across the the country. You can learn more about our activities at www.LetsGetThisRight.com. Press Inquiries Press inquiries should be directed to mediarelations@letsgetthisright.com or 617-763-6787.

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