Republican or democrat or independent, if you weren't moved at times by Obama's speech tonight you have no heart. You may not agree with the politics; you may not agree with the programs and policies he articulated in this speech, but you had to agree with his call for personal responsibility and change from the old way of doing things. "Change doesn't come from Washington, change comes to Washington," Obama said.
And so it does; so it will. I'm sure McCain's speech will be stirring; I'm also sure it will be straining to hit the same crescendo of Obama's speech tonight.
And now for a small bit of fact checking. I'm getting sick of hearing the McCain camp parroting this bullshit about Obama voting to rasise taxes on people making $42,000... (and earlier in the campaign, McCain claimed that figure was 32,000... but they reached that figure by estimating tax deductions and figuring that the 32,000 was the AFTER TAX figure of someone making 42,000. But McCain's campaign pulled those ads after they were busted by several non-partisan watchdog groups who pointed this fact out them).
So, here's the truth--refute this if you can, but don't blow a gasket trying, because there is no "there, there."
First, Obama's vote was for a non-binding resolution of a Democrat budget plan; that's a ceremonial vote that basically says, "Well, this sounds like a good idea." And the plan was never enacted into law.
The truth:
It's true that a single taxpayer making $42,000 this year would have seen an income tax increase. "So what's your beef, Brock? You just confirmed the McCain claim!" Well, if we're in a court of law and you can only answer "yes" or "no" the the question: would Obama's vote have "raised taxes" the answer would have to be "yes." No way around that. But, but, but, but... that's not half the story and it's ignoring and distorting the full story that pisses me off.
A SINGLE person (and McCain's ad tries to portray the tax increase on FAMILIES making $42,000) would have seen a tax increase in the mind-numbing amount of $15. Yes, 15 measly dollars. And remember, it wasn't an official piece of legislation and it never passed. And it assumes that the taxpayer did not qualify for more than the standard deduction.
A single mom with two children could make as much as $62, 150 in total income in 2008 without being affected by this measure that Obama once favored. It gets better. A family of four, husband, wife and two kids, could make up to $90,000 without seeing any tax increase.
Obama's current proposed tax plan (and it would remain to be seen if it could pass, should he be elected), promises cuts for middle-income taxpayers and would increase rates only for persons with family incomes above $250,000 or with individual incomes above $200,000.
And speaking as someone who nearly hit that salary benchmark (one year at least), if you're in that salary range and can't afford to kick in some extra taxes to support this country you're one greedy son-of-a-bitch. When I was making that much money I had MORE than enough to live a hugely comfortable life-style; I joyfully gave money away to people and causes in need and it gave me great pleasure to be able to do that. I had the purchasing power to buy anything I wanted (ok, c'mon, within reason) AFTER putting 10 percent of my income each month into a retirement plan.
The nation is ready for change; I hope we have the courage to embrace that readiness.