Gallup Poll: Americans Oppose Redistributing Wealth 84% To 13% »
Posted By Klarissa 8 months, 3 weeks ago in NewsWhen given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today' s consumer, Americans overwhelmingly—by 84% to 13%—prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
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Klarissa
California, UC Berkeley grad. Ex-PTA president. Eat your dessert first, life is uncertain. Bridge player, water colorist, web master. Old lady.
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Klarissa8 months, 3 weeks ago
Americans, at least according to this poll, don’t want to be given other people’s money.
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They want to be empowered to earn their own money. That means pro-growth economics. Lower taxes. Less government. More freedom.
Obama doesn’t stand for any of those things.-
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Dionys8 months, 3 weeks ago
So the 13 percent must represent the wealthy few who love the redistribution of wealth as it's been happening for the past few decades? You know... All that American money flowing into the pockets of overseas corporations like KBR/Haliburton and into the closets of wall street 'mavens' who know how to make trillions of dollars disappear.
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Let's be honest here. Obama doesn't represent redistribution of wealth any more than the GOP. He just wants to see that 'redistribution' help every American instead of the wealthy few. -
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awongscreen8 months, 3 weeks ago
Not surprising as it is part of human nature. It all about me, me, me.
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Pro-growth to improve all sounds good but face the fact that we have too many people in the world which this earth can support. When there is no enough resources to be share among all, the only question is how the limited resources can be divided. -
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Tcaros8 months, 3 weeks ago
Obama will give tax breaks to the middle class and small bussiness.
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McCain will give tax breaks to the wealthy and he will help oil companies rip off the average American.
Who would you pick? -
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mesodude8 months, 3 weeks ago
Gallup Poll: Many Americans OK With Increasing Taxes on Rich
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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/25/853...
"The percentage holding this view, similar to that found in Gallup polling last year, is up from 1998 and in particular is higher than was found in a Roper poll conducted for Fortune Magazine back in 1939. Although the methods and sampling of polling done in the 1930s may differ significantly from those of today, the rough comparison suggests that Americans appear to have become even more "redistributionist" in their views than they were at the tail end of the Depression.
Other recent Gallup Poll questions underscore the finding that Americans are generally open to the idea of some type of effort to distribute wealth more evenly.
Asked if the distribution of money and wealth in this country is fair or if they need to be distributed more evenly, about two-thirds of Americans agree with the latter response. This is up slightly from last year and, by two points, is the highest "more evenly distributed" response to this question that Gallup has found over the eight times it has been asked since 1984."
The question is how do people feel today (after what has occurred over the last month), Klarissa? -
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mesodude8 months, 3 weeks ago
Also, Klarissa, the specific question being asked here is if Americans think income redistribution is *the solution to solving "today's" economic woes.* You're trying conflate the findings here with people's views about income redistribution in general. That was a very crafty attempt at spin, I must admit. How many stories do you have to post on "wealth redistribution" to meet your quota and is the extra income you're receiving from the GOP to do this really worth it? Just wondering...
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dissent8 months, 3 weeks ago
"Americans, at least according to this poll, don’t want to be given other people’s money."
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unless you happen to be a wall street banking and investment firm -
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hyperbola8 months, 3 weeks ago
Well the next question should be whether Americans are in favor of the current system, which amounts to a social welfare system for the super-rich and a corporate welfare system for corporate welfare queens.
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The free market preachers have long practised state welfare for the rich
According to Senator Jim Bunning, the proposal to purchase $700bn of dodgy debt by the US government was "financial socialism, it is un-American". The economics professor Nouriel Roubini called George Bush, Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke "a troika of Bolsheviks who turned the USA into the United Socialist State Republic of America". Bill Perkins, the venture capitalist who took out an ad in the New York Times attacking the plan, called it "trickle-down communism".
They are wrong. Any subsidies eventually given to the monster banks of Wall Street will be as American as apple pie and obesity. The sums demanded may be unprecedented, but there is nothing new about the principle: corporate welfare is a consistent feature of advanced capitalism. Only one thing has changed: Congress has been forced to confront its contradictions.
...One of the best studies of corporate welfare in the US is published by my old enemies at the Cato Institute. Its report, by Stephen Slivinski, estimates that in 2006 the federal government spent $92bn subsidising business...
... But the Cato Institute's report has exposed only part of the corporate welfare scandal. A new paper by the US Institute for Policy Studies shows that, through a series of cunning tax and accounting loopholes, the US spends $20bn a year subsidising executive pay... -
rightfromwrongComment removed: Spam
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rightfromwrongComment removed: Spam
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rightfromwrongComment removed: Spam
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tchef8 months, 3 weeks ago
You want to know what redistribution of wealth that Americans are upset about? Read this, and remember who it was who said we needed the bailout to begin with.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/17/exe... -
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thinksalot8 months, 3 weeks ago
Obama, the self Chosen One, has more than income redistribution in mind for these great United States, even though freebies are very attractive to the lazies and loafers who sponge off the generous American "system". It's the change from a democracy to a theocracy in it's most covert form. How many Judeo Christians want to pray 5 times a day facing Mecca? Not I, said the patriot!
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rimbaud8 months, 3 weeks ago
Joe the Plumber is typical of most Republican voters... They are not rich and will not benefit from electing McCain, but they are wannabe's, only idealogically in the same camp as the few who would benefit from another Republican administration.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17krugma... -
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DarkWizard8 months, 3 weeks ago
Once again we can see how a "straw" can be grasped upon and made into an entire story. Or, should I say "yarn" as in a thread that has built a life of its own because the Bush/McCain faithful are looking for anything that can to justify believing in their ideology and ignoring the need for “real” change.
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It doesn't matter that McCain is the one saying "redistribution of wealth" and that Obama has repeatedly shown that his plan is not a redistribution of wealth, but a redistribution of truth, justice, and the American way (anyone remember those concepts?).
This is another example of deflecting from the real issues and hoping beyond hope that a continued stream of ideological lies, from the right, will turn things around. What is missing, in all of this, is that a turnaround is needed, but in a 180° direction away from the way the pseudo-Republican faction that has loosed this financial monster (among other things) upon the world, America, and Democracy in general.
I think the article should read, “Americans Oppose the Continued Lies by the Wealthy 84% (maybe more) to 10%.” -
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mark-stevens8 months, 3 weeks ago
The neo cons have gotten their way, hook or by crook for 8 years. The U.S. is months away from going under. 86 billion a year to communist China just to pay on the interest. 10,000 billion in debt with the tax base decreasing.
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I live in a town of 17,000. The largest employer second only to the city is closing down in 30 days.
The ability to earn a living is overseas. If you don't leave now, you may not have enough money soon to be able to buy a ticket
Polls are a way of lying... do you like paying taxes... odds are the answer is no. Okay, so no roads, fire protection, police, schools... "Oh, that isn't what I meant!"
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RedRiverJ8 months, 3 weeks ago
Yes, they called me and I said not only NO but HECK NO. Work for it like I do. I do not want a hand out all I want is a job, and the government to keep the heck out of my business and not tax me to death.
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mesodude8 months, 3 weeks ago
But you were saying heck no to McCain back in January because he was a liberal. What happened? ;-P
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hyperbola8 months, 3 weeks ago
Well Red, that kind of simplemindedness is what makes you so easy to fleece with a rigged system.
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The Charmed Lives of the Crony Capitalists
Today, we hand our 8 year olds a $13 trillion national debt while our Congress hands Wall Street banksters the national purse without so much as a hearing to determine the cause of the debt collapse. Worse still, the money is doled out to the very same individuals who leveraged their institutions to casino status.
Americans are correctly outraged at the spectacle of U.S. crony capitalism crashing stock and bond markets around the globe while simultaneously watching the poster boys of crony capitalism on Monday, October 13, 2008 march up the granite steps of the United States Treasury building in their Armani shoes and heist a fresh $125 Billion of taxpayer dough in broad daylight.
...What most Americans do not understand, because mainstream media rarely explains it, is the incestuous relationship between the U.S. Treasury and this small band of financial marauders who busted the entire financial system with insane levels of leveraged derivative bets.
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/17/the-char... -
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Goppy8 months, 3 weeks ago
I wish my fellow Christian Conservatives would THINK about the labels they throw around ... like Communist and Socialist.
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You know who supports Communism? George W. Bush - and since John McCain claims he wants to continue the Bush Trickle Down Economics ... John McCain must support Communism as well!
In all my life, I never would imagine that Republicans are so prone to Communism and Socialism.
Here's George Bush ... the titular head of the Modern Republican Party ... who has worked HARD to indebt our nation to the Communists in China with his massive spending.
Why did GW do this?
Because he was working VERY HARD at his pet project WEALTH TRANSFER.
George W. LOVEs the Socialistic Policies of Wealth Transfer. He's been at it since his first day in office!
Transfer the Public Money from the Middle Class to the Rich! The Modern Republicans even have a name for it ... TRICKLE DOWN Economics.
What is it? Intelligent Americans recognize it for what it is ...
Welfare for the Wealthy.
Unsophisticated Americans have been sucked into the Propaganda that ... by necessity ... must accompany this Morally Vacant Ideology.
They've been convinced that ... "We JUST GOT to give money to the Wealthy ... after all ... they must be really really smart and understand the mysterious ways of money .. and they must be better qualified to get this welfare ... and maybe, just maybe ... some of the massive amounts of wealth they get ... will one day ... trickle down ... trickle down like little rain drops ... oh ... I feel some trickling down my leg now .... oh wait ... that's the Republicans peeing on my leg ... oh but wait ... they are telling me that this is Evian Water .... ain't Republicans just grand.:
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FairNBalanced8 months, 3 weeks ago
That is part of the reason why this race can be all McCain's.
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Good ole Joe the plumber. The everyday ordinary people make this decision.
Go McCain!-
redtomatoComment removed: User banned.19 Replies
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vor8 months, 3 weeks ago
Joe Six Pack is the one getting screwed by the current policies. Hopefully he is not too pre-occupied with Jesus, guns and beer to realize this? It will be an American tragedy if we allow this trickle up philosophy to continue. As the British papers trumpeted after Bush's re-election in '04. Are so many Americans really that dumb? The evidence becomes clearer every day.
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mesodude8 months, 3 weeks ago
Well, braindead is kinda harsh (plus I already used it in another post). Let's just call your comment a reflection of extremely poor reading comprehension. Forget about the math. The poll is about income redistribution relative to solving the economic problems on Americans' minds back in June.
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NoWayMan8 months, 3 weeks ago
read the first paragraph again. then go to gallup and read the poll.
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NO ONE IN THIS POLL SAID THEY ARE AGAINST REDISTRIBTUTION OF WEALTH.
FTA: When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today' s consumer, Americans overwhelmingly—by 84% to 13%—prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
so, redistribution of wealth isn't the preferred method when compared to improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States." whatever that means since that phrase is super vague.
whose brain dead? look in the mirror.
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RedRiverJ8 months, 3 weeks ago
Well, then why all the hubbub about Obambi?
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He wants you to 'spread the wealth around' so be careful. And rest assured if one of his social programs is running short on cash he wouldn't blink at lowering that $250 thousand down to $40 a year.
If he does will that effect YOU? I am guessing but I'd bet the answer is YES?
With his dodging of the truth on Ayers, Wright, Phleger, Odinga, his mentor being Sal Alinsky, how can anyone believe he will leave taxes for those that earn $250 th. a year?-
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Tcaros8 months, 3 weeks ago
When did Obama dodge the truth as you stated? You're full of crap CON.
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Did you watch him refute the false accusations on the debate? He didn't know Ayers. You friggin knot head.
I guess since Fox news says something you think it's true. Try some critical thinking skills.
I bet you still think Obama is a muslim with a Christian pastor. -
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mesodude8 months, 3 weeks ago
Actually, there is no hubbub. There's fearmongering and spin from cons who are in a panic because their wartime tax cuts are going to be ripped away from them (as they should be) because they were one of the negative factors contributing to trillions of dollars of debt amassed by Bush and the GOP. No one except cons are talking about "income redistribution" or slavery reparations or any of the other ridiculous CRAP cons are spewing in their desperation to keep a Republican in the White House. America sees through cons. We know that if cons support it, it's probably illegal or dangerous. ;-(
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GehlLady8 months, 3 weeks ago
With the last 6 months of government give aways he has to pay for he can not deliver what he promises. Do the math! It can't be done, not 1 economist says it can. Not without raising the deficit higher than McCains plan, which is not exactly doable, either. The difference is McCain uses words like cut spending, spending freeze... Obama says spend, invest in(spend)
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quackpot8 months, 3 weeks ago
Check in with the economic guru McCain who two weeks ago was saying the "economy is fine".
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Talk about out of touch! with reality!!!!!! -
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mesodude8 months, 3 weeks ago
We're not afraid. Just as cons weren't afraid when Bush told American to go shopping after 9/11, launched two obscenely expensive wars and then doled out unprecedented war time tax cuts to rich cons. Relax. We'll get the money Bush and Republicans stole back into the hands of Americans. It'll take some time and some prison sentences for thieving cons but we'll get it done. Have faith. ;-0
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GehlLady8 months, 3 weeks ago
Everyones attention has been on the 700B+(1Trillion) bailout, but there was the Freddie/Fannie bailout, the AIG bailout, 168Billion stimulus package, 25Billion to retool auto makers factories,on and on! WE ARE BROKE, we're out of money. The top 5% can not, will not, pay for all this PLUS Obamas new spending promises.
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Klarissa8 months, 3 weeks ago
Obama: Tax incomes above $250,000
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Candidate says he would apply Social Security tax to wealthiest Americans
updated 10:57 a.m. PT, Fri., June. 13, 2008
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Democrat Barack Obama said Friday he would apply the Social Security payroll tax to all annual incomes above $250,000, which would affect the wealthiest 3 percent of Americans.
The 6.2 percent payroll tax is now applied to all income up to $102,000 a year, which covers the entire amount for most Americans. Under Obama's plan, the tax would not apply to incomes between that amount and $250,000. But all annual income above the quarter-million-dollar amount would be taxed under his plan.
Obama has talked before of establishing such a "doughnut hole" in the amount of income subject to the Social Security tax. Friday marked the first time he named a restart level: $250,000 and above. -
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wildman65578 months, 3 weeks ago
Must be why Bush and the Republicans are so unpopular. They redistributed our wealth from the poor and middle class to the very wealthy.
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icono18 months, 3 weeks ago
Interesting.
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'The One' is going to tax the 250k+ income group then redistribute their wealth thereby creating a de facto welfare state and thereby reinvent the American spirit of innovation and self reliance.
I know the 'O'Messiah works in 'mysterious ways' but damn this is interesting Mystery Math, Voodoo Economics, and Social Engineering all rolled into one. -
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Tcaros8 months, 3 weeks ago
The McCain campaign is out looking for a "gimmick." They take a comment out of context and it becomes Obama's sole opinion to them.
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Do you know how silly it looks to the rest of us? -
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Goppy8 months, 3 weeks ago
I always considered that, as a hardworking American, I adopted George W. Bush ... I mean ... he's been sucking on Mother America's teat ever since he was a kid ...
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... just like Johnny Shapeshifter.
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Ratskii8 months, 3 weeks ago
There are two invalid assumptions being made in this story. The first is that Obama's candidacy is about redistributing wealth. It's not. The second is that the hardest working people are receiving the most wealth. Simply not true.
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Goppy8 months, 3 weeks ago
John McCain said he'd be fine Fighting In Iraq for 100 years.
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That's spreading the wealth around .... except only in Iraq.
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moxxxxxxxxxx8 months, 3 weeks ago
People have to decide if they want the "trickle down" method or the "redistribution of wealth" method. Of course the wealthy want trickle down, give me more and more by tax breaks and I will invest in America and create jobs. DIDN'T WORK the wealthy got their tax breaks and we have seen jobs moved out of the country. The wealthy didn't trickle down anything the gap between the haves and have nots has widen and we are seeing the decline of the middle class. Redistribution of wealth is the answer. Unfortunately many people do not understand what is wealth in America. Many middle income people think they are wealthy because they own a home and have a 401k. It would be intersting to know if the peole answering the question defined themselves as wealthy. A job, a new car loan and a mortgage doesn't equal wealth in America.
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orndorffter8 months, 3 weeks ago
moxxxxxxxxxx; I have a new car a job aloan and I own my own home but I do not consider myself wealthy, I'm far from being wealthy, I live from pay check to pay check and I sure dont call it wealth. There are some people who are happy just to be alive and not have all that wealth, I know I am, and thank God for giveing me a nother day. You know its not all of our faults because we arn't rolling in money the more we try the harder it gets and seem things well never get better, and it probley well not, but as long as I'v got love a family who cares for me and them thats all I need because all the wealth in the world couldn't replace that nor would I ever let it. Being wealthy doesnt mean a thing to me I'v always heard that the wealthy wants more wealth and that they are so unhappy. If you have love and happiness thats all that countswe then are rich enough.
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truthiness8 months, 3 weeks ago
This is a "push poll" where the questions are written to skew the answers a certain way. Of course people are going to choose overall economic development over redistribution of wealth.
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What if we ask those same people to choose between having the largest percentage of tax breaks going to the wealthiest vs the middle class? That change is the only redistribution actually being talked about, so why not be specific?
What if we asked people to choose between a plan for overall economic development that relied upon keeping the wealthy secure so that they could continue to create growth versus a plan to safeguard the middle class so that they could stimulate the economy by buying stuff.
The problem with polls and stories like this is that they cater to the lowest common denominator. Rather than asking people to comprehend the nuanced complexity of their nation's government, we attempt to simplify and sloganize our most important decisons into soundbites.
"Improving overall economic conditions" vs "redistributing wealth", as if that carries any recognition of the problems or solutions before us. Why not ask people if they'd like things to be better?
We are at war, on the precipice of economic disaster, and weeks away from choosing a new government. When does the time come for substantive debate? What has to happen for people to stop listening to the fluff and realise that serious times are ahead? -
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redtomatoComment removed: User banned.
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cleare8 months, 3 weeks ago
so has any of it trickled down to you, pinky. are you making more than $250,000 a year?
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because what i've seen over the past 28 years is that the money has been "pouring up" from the poor, working class and middle class to the rich. we have a greater discrepancy between the poor and the rich than at any time in our history since the gilded age a century ago. the robber barons of today have been just as greedy and much sneakier.
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ISITJUSTME8 months, 3 weeks ago
John McCain's tax policy is the same as GWB. Nothing is different. Now, look where we are at economically. Bush's tax cuts drove us to this point. What rational leads you to think that the same policy would lead us to something better. A slippery slope just stays slippery. Somebody's taxes has to be raised. Its a simple as that.
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Anyway McCain at first opposed Bush's tax cut. This is just another example how McCain has failed America by not stopping those tax cuts. I guess he did have his maverick hat on.-
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GehlLady8 months, 3 weeks ago
I don't think tinkering with the tax code will help any of us. It has to be scrapped, and started over. The more tinkering, the more complex, the harder we get screwed. I'd rather it was left alone than Obamas proposals. It has been proven through history raising taxes doesn't work. I agree what we have doesn't work, but what Obama wants to do simply will make it worse. The 'middle class' may get a small short term break. Maybe. The poor will be no better off, and the people between them and 100,000 get royally screwed. These are the people that can't afford the accountants that will shelter the money of the rich. Corporations don't bear the cost of taxes, it's passed down to consumers.
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cleare8 months, 3 weeks ago
with the economic collapse over the past two months, the june gallup poll cited is completely obsolete and irrevelent.
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more importantly we live in an economic structure that is driven by consumerism. 75% of our economy is consumer based. it doesn't take a post doctorate in economics to see that the more the wealth is spread around, allowing consumers to consume, the more our economy will grow.
if the wealth were redistributed by paying workers living wages (and by not overcompensating executives) those workers will go out and spend that money, thus invigorating the economy with more demand for goods and services. if they use it to pay off debt then that leaves banks free to loan more to others. if they save or invest the money, it will be used to create new businesses and put more people to work...again invigorating the economy. sooner or later the money filters back to the rich, making them even richer (although they may have to work a little harder for it) it's a win-win situation for everyone, even the poor who will benefit from increased charitable giving, if not from better social programs.
people who make more money (up to a certain point) pay more taxes and are less of a burden on the welfare and prison systems, saving more money there.
there is no hole in the bottom of the bucket. the economy is pretty much a closed system. a good capitalist should want a financially strong working and middle class so they can buy their goods and services, thus expanding their markets.
it's like dolly levi said "Money, forgive the expression, is like manure...it should be spread around to help green things grow." -
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ISITJUSTME8 months, 3 weeks ago
This might sound strange to some but here goes. Somebody taxes has to be raised to pay for the services the public needs. Its a simple as that. We can not continue to go into the red. Our capitalistic system begs us to get out of the red and into the black.
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So where do we make the cuts? Military, Education, Green initiatives, Energy or Entitlements. To get out of this repression/depression the government has to make investments in the people who they should dutifully serve. If this is not the case then why did we bailout/rescue Wall Street.
We have to invest in jobs, to rebuilt our infrastructure, to advance alternative fuels and to better educate our children to compete in a global economy. We threw some money at Wall Street why not throw some at Main Street.
If we raise the taxes on the upper 5% of Americans to pay for some of these jobs and more people move out of poverty and more in the middle class start making more than 250 thousand a year, would we not have spread the wealth.
Spreading the wealth is what the trickle down theory was suppose to have done, IT DIDN'T, IT CAN'T. So lets try it from the bottom up.-
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Klarissa8 months, 2 weeks ago
In spite of the economic conditions, Obama wants to include new programs.
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Lurch8 months, 3 weeks ago
Hence the cons are getting their behinds handed to them.
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No more redistributing of wealth from the working class to the idle rich. -
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hefaa18 months, 3 weeks ago
This poll is BS. It was taken June 28th 2008 BEFORE the grand bail-out. I betchya it's about 50%-50% now and the full fall-out from this corporate welfare maneuver is yet to be felt. The phone calls, letters and e-mails to congress were 150-to-1 against the corporate bailout. The Middle classes' money was "Redistributed" to the rich, we want it "Redistributed" back to us.
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frctm58 months, 3 weeks ago
I couldn't agree more. We have to stop taking money from the middle class and giving it to the economic elite. Working folks are getting a raw deal. Productivity has gone up but real wages haven't . There are only two kinds of people who support the Republican economic policies. The really gullible and the true beneficiaries. The second group is only about ten percent of the population. We just got fleeced for $700 billion dollars. We privatize profit and socialize loss. Republicans are going to be out of power for a very long time. Get used to it. You've run this country into the dirt and now you're going to get run out of Washington. Even red states are turning blue. Some of the most inbred bastions of Republican biblical ignorance are beginning to see the light.
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