Just The Usual Nonsense

It is entertaining periodically listening to right-wing talk show hosts, if only to be amused by some of the outrageous things spewed. And so it was that a man from Erie, Pennsylvania called Sean Hannity on February 5, 2008 and voiced alarm that either a President Obama or Clinton would impose disastrous economic policies and increase income taxes on middle-income families such as his. Hannity, attempting to mock the tax policy of the Democratic candidates (who are opposed to extending tax cuts for the wealthy), quipped "obviously, if you make $50,000 a year, you're rich."

Honestly, he really said that. It doesn't matter that Senator Obama at the Democratic debate in Philadelphia in October, 2007 said:

We are going to offset some of the payroll taxes that families who are making less than $50,000 a year get a larger break. I want to make sure that seniors making less than $50,000, that they get some relief in terms of the taxes on their Social Security. Those kinds of progressive tax steps, while closing loopholes and rolling back the Bush tax cuts to the top 1 percent, simply restores some fairness and a sense that we're all in this together.

Nor that Senator Clinton explained in a speech on 10/8/07 posted on her website:

For middle class Americans, I will extend the tax cuts including the child tax credit, the marriage penalty relief, and lower income tax rates that they currently pay. And I will reform something called the Alternative Minimum Tax, the AMT, to make sure it doesn't hit middle class families with higher tax rates. It was never intended to do that. I will also expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to help families that are struggling to join the middle class. And I will be providing tax credits to help small businesses pay for health care.

There you have it. One candidate suggests lowering payroll taxes for families earning under $50,000 and cutting Social Security taxes on middle-income elderly people; the other candidate, cutting the marriage penalty, extending the child tax credit, and lowering income tax rates for the middle class. Hannity's comment was, however, a clever way of avoiding telling the caller, and the audience, that struggling families of moderate income such as his do have a stake in seeing that another Repub is elected President: with lower taxes on the wealthy, and less federal aid to states, we can all bask in the Republican way: higher college tuition rates, decreased funding for local schools, perhaps resulting in higher local property taxes. Or perhaps John McCain can follow George W. Bush's lead and cut health care for veterans and for soldiers returning from Iraq, all the while proclaiming the "support the troops" slogan.

But let's thank Sean Hannity and his fellow GOP shills for reminding us that for them, money is the issue: more for them and their corporate allies, and continued struggle for the middle class.