Majority of Americans Unhappy With Direction of Country

Posted on April 4, 2008

This is some bad news for any politician in office now: 81% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. That's a lot of unhappy Americans.

The Bush administration has wasted so much of taxpayers' money by borrowing billions from the Chinese to finance a disastrous war that the economic picture is looking quite grim. And what always happens when an administration swings too far right (in this case towards the idealistic, nonsensical neocon philosophy, certainly not towards fiscal conservatism)? Why, we swing back too far the other way. That's just human nature.

A survey of Barack Obama's statements on the economy are pretty disturbing. He has said he wants to double the capital gains rate and raise the FICA taxes that are so burdensome to small businesses and to wage earners. And that's just the beginning of what is starting to sound like the socialist economic playbook. As we head into a recession and jobs continue their flight overseas, the idea of raising taxes is irresponsible. Obama also wants to reinstate the death tax, which otherwise will expire at the end of 2010.

Obama claims that he will only raise taxes on the "rich" -- but he has had wildly varying definitions of what "rich" is. In one speech he talked about about families who make over $75,000. Tell a family with one $75,000 income and two children in New York that they are "rich". They'll think you are crazy. In another one of his word blizzards, he mentioned the sum of $200,000. Meanwhile, Michelle Obama has complained about how financially stretched they are -- and the Obamas made $991,296.00 in 2006. Are they "rich"?

Hillary Clinton has said she opposes raising employment taxes, and that she will freeze death taxes at their 2009 levels, which is a lot better than Obama's plan (death taxes are eliminated in 2010 and go back to the absurdly high 2002 rate in 2011 because the tax cuts were never made permanent). Death taxes are disastrous for family-owned businesses and small businesses. Hillary will roll back the part of the Bush tax cuts that give incentives for outsourcing American jobs overseas, which is a good thing. She will institute tax breaks for companies who create jobs in America, which is an excellent plan that addresses the biggest problem for the middle and working class: getting and keeping a job with a good salary and benefits. She will also roll back the tax cuts for families who make over $250,000 a year, which is better than Barack's plan, but still not a good idea.

As far as John McCain goes, who knows what he would do economically? He has said that he really doesn't understand the economy. He voted against the Bush tax cuts and now he says he supports them. This is a man who has drawn a government paycheck all of his life. He's never had to meet a payroll, withhold government taxes or raise funding. When asked what he would do, he used to answer "I'll be advised by Jack Kemp." Ok, great. So when is Jack Kemp going to talk about McCain's fiscal plans? One bright spot here is that McCain has made up with Mitt Romney. At least Mitt knows something about meeting a payroll and how burdensome taxes hurt small businesses, which are the backbone of the economy.