Senator Barack Obama |
Senator John McCain |
Summary • Everything is relative but ... |
Summary • Doesn't want to take money from the rich; wants as many people as possible to be rich |
Obama: You know, if you've got book sales of 25 million and you qualify. I just want to... [Warren: Okay. All right. I'm not asking about me.] Look, here is how I think about it. Here is how I think about it, and this is reflected in my tax plan. If you are making $150 thousand a year or less, as a family, then are you middle class ... or you may be poor. But [$]150,000 down, you are basically middle class. Obviously it depends on [the] region where you are living. [Warren: In this region, you're poor.] Yeah. Well, depends. I don't know what housing prices have been doing lately. I would argue that if you are making more than [$]250,000 then are you in the top 3-4 percent of this country. You're doing well. Now, these things are all relative. And I’m not suggesting that everybody that is making over $250,000 is living on Easy Street. But the question that I think we have to ask ourselves is: if we believe in good schools, if we believe in good roads, if we want to make sure that kids can go to college, if we don't want to leave a mountain of debt for the next generation, then we've got to pay for these things. They don't come for free. And it is irresponsible ... I believe it is irresponsible, inter-generationally, for us to invest or for us to spend $10 billion a month on a war and not have a way of paying for it. That, I think, is unacceptable. So nobody likes to pay taxes. I haven't sold 25 million books, but I've been selling some books lately. So I write a pretty big check to Uncle Sam. Nobody likes it. What I can say is that under the approach I'm taking, if you make $150,000 or less, you will see a tax cut. If you're making $250,000 a year or more, you're going to see a modest increase. What I'm trying to do is create a sense of balance and fairness in our tax code. One thing I think we can all agree on is that it should be simpler so that you don't have all these loopholes, and big stacks of stuff that you've got to comb through, which wastes a huge amount of money and allows special interests to take advantage of things that ordinary people cannot take advantage of. |
McCain: Some of the richest people I've ever known in my life are the most unhappy. I think that rich is – should be defined by a home, a good job and education and the ability to hand to our children a more prosperous and safer world than the one that we inherited. I don't want to take any money from the rich. I want everybody to get rich. I don't believe in class warfare or redistribution of the wealth. But I can tell you, for example, there are small businessmen and women — who are working 16 hours a day, seven days a week — that some people would classify as, quote "rich", my friends, who want to raise their taxes and raise their payroll taxes. Let's have — keep taxes low. Let's give every family in America a $7,000 tax credit for every child they have. Let's give them a $5,000 refundable tax credit to go out and get the health insurance of their choice. Let's not have the government take over the health care system in America. So — so I think if you're just talking about income, how about [$]5 million? So, no — but seriously, I don't think you can — I don't think, seriously that — the point is that I’m trying to make here seriously — and I’m sure that comment will be distorted, but the point is — the point is — the point is that we want to keep people's taxes low and increase revenues. And my friend, it was not taxes that mattered in America in the last several years; it was spending. Spending got completely out of control. We spent money in ways that mortgaged our kids' futures. My friends, we spent $3 million of your money to study the DNA of bears in Montana. Now I don't know if that was a paternity issue or a criminal issue, but the point is ... it was [$]3 million of your money. It was your money. And you know, we laugh about it, but we cry — and we should cry because the Congress is supposed to be careful stewards of your tax dollars. So what did they just do in the middle of an energy crisis when in California we are paying $4 a gallon for gas? Went on vacation for five weeks. I guarantee you two things: they [Congress] never miss a pay raise and a vacation. And we should stop that and call them back and not raise your taxes. We should not and cannot raise taxes in tough economic times. So it doesn't matter really what my definition of "rich" is because I don't want to raise anybody's taxes; I really don't. In fact, I want to give working Americans a better shot at having a better life. And we all know the challenges, my friends. If I could be serious, Americans tonight in California and all over America are sitting at the kitchen table, recently and suddenly lost a job, can't afford to stay in their home, education for their kids, affordable health care, these are tough problems. These are tough problems. You talk to them ... every day. My friends, we have got to give them hope and confidence in the future. That's what we need to give them and I can inspire them. I can lead and I know that our best days are ahead of us. |
August 16, 2008 |
August 16, 2008 |
(c) 2008 The Web Network
