The Three Legs of McCain's Three Week Campaign
For a change, I watched the debate last night on CNN. The little squiggly lines at the bottom, tracking 30 "undecided" voters in Ohio are distracting, but instructive.
Men like Obama less than women do. Women like McCain less than men do. At least the 15 men and 15 women on the CNN panel do. As the debate moved from subject to subject and speaker to speaker the voter panel reaction almost always stayed above neutral, slipping into negative territory only a couple of times, usually when McCain attacked Obama. The women gave Obama higher approvals than they gave to McCain and the men gave Obama lower approvals than they gave to McCain.
But the approval levels for both sexes dropped (more for women and less for men) when McCain hit his three themes: "I'm not George Bush, I'm a regular guy (I'll look out for Joe the Plumber (who makes about $250K a year!)); and, Obama isn't a regular guy because we haven't 'gotten to the bottom' of the Ayers thing."
I guess these themes are directed to "independent" and undecided voters who would skew against Bush, a tax raiser and a terrorist. I guess we'll find out how they play in the next three weeks. But, if the panel reactions are an indicator, and I were McCain, I'd be looking for a fourth leg before the campaign tips over.
UPDATE: As it turns out, Joe the Plumber doesn't make $250K. He's worked for Newell Plumbing in Toledo for about six years. He's talked to his boss about someday taking over the business and Newell Plumbing does make over $250K. I suppose Newell the Plumber doesn't sound as good.
3 comments:
Newell is a good example of why Obama's "spread the wealth" tax on "the rich" is a bad idea. First, the $ 250k limit is for families, not individuals. Secondly, most of the small businesses in the USA, which provide most of the jobs and job growth, file their taxes as ordinary individual income.
This is big tax on small businesses.
Newell Plumbing is also the exception which proves the rule on Obama's capital gains break for small businesses. Small businesses rarely pay capital gains taxes. They pay all the other taxes (twice on FICA for teh owner), but not capital gains. Capital gains usually come when the small business person sells the business.
Dale, were I to have my choice, no corporation would pay taxes. "Corporate taxes" are a sham that hides who really pays, the owners and the customers, all of us.
That said, I'm not good enough at business taxation to follow your point. Capital gains are realized upon selling an asset, whether you are a big or small business or a real live person. I don't see a difference?
I didn't know that Obama wants to give a gains break to small businesses rather than people and big businesses. If so, it's a bad idea.
First, you are exactly right that corporations don't pay taxes. They treat them as a cost of goods sold and pass the cost to the end consumer. Of course, if taxes are lower, they can charge a lower price and be more competitive against foreign competition in low tax or heavily government subsidized environments (like Airbus).
Businesses don't sell assets to make their profits, they sell products or services that are made or performed with assets. Let's stick with Joe The Plumber. If Joe fixes your pipes, he sells his service and that is taxed as normal income. If he sells you his business (tools, trucks, customer list, good name) he has sold assets and pays a capital gain if there is a profit.
That said, most capital gains are made in the selling of investments like a business or a stock. Realistically, the means of production depreciate over time, so there is no gain.
Most people realize their largest capital gain when they sell their home, but most are not taxed due to a lifetime cumulative exemption of $ 600,000 (I think that is the right amount). Not many people realize that much of a gain, but this is one of the big reasons for the demise of the family farm and many small businesses. The heirs have to sell the farm or small business, or part of it if it can be broken up, to pay the death taxes.
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