Reply #55: More crap from this Op Ed: [View All]

[AP]

Edwards has a similarly schizophrenic view of the stock market. He would use the tax code to encourage middle-class Americans to "build wealth" and "to invest in American businesses." But his fixation on punishing the rich means that he's just working against himself.

Why?

Edwards would slash capital-gains taxes on 95 percent of Americans - all but the superrich - to lure middle-class investors into the market and to drive economic growth.

But Edwards can't see that this modest supply-side maxim - tax cuts encourage more investment - applies to wealthier taxpayers as well. If taxes are slashed across the board, the markets will stay strong - and the middle class will reap the benefits.


Let's not talk about the allocation of the tax burden, eh? The rich already get a free ride with taxes. If they don't have an incentive to do stuff with all the money they have now from being unburdened by taxes, I don't see how letting them participate in the uburdening of the middle class is going to help them any more.


Edwards is also plunging ahead with another traditionally Republican theme - encouraging average Americans to save directly for their retirement. But as with his other modest initiatives, he stops short before it really counts.

Edwards would match some working families' private retirement savings with federal tax-credit dollars - up to $1,000 for couples who earn $50,000 or less. He notes that a typical family could save $200,000 over a lifetime of savings.

The average American is GOING INTO MORE DEBT year over year. This modest plan actually constitutes a huge shift in direction for middle class from being net spenders
to becoming net savers.

This is an odd step for a candidate steeped in the class wars - he's covertly admitting that average Americans shouldn't rely on Social Security or pensions to cover their retirement needs. He's also encouraging Americans to work with big corporations, not against them - Enron or no Enron.

That is such twisted logic, I don't think I need to explain why.

But Americans who earn more than $50,000 deserve the same opportunity to squirrel some savings away. Alas, affluent workers aren't covered under Edwards' plan; they must look to Bush's private-sector retirement-savings proposals.

The rich are getting RICHER. They arleady have their incentives to accumulate wealth. Edwards is talking about getting the middle class in on the benefits the rich are already experiencing.

This auther is trying to pretend the super rich are suffering and that Edwards is only trying to help the middle class. It's a lie.

Edwards isn't quite ready to join the GOP yet - his stealthy overtures toward the free market are wedged between his trademark sunny-side-up attacks on banks, prescription-drug makers, millionaire executives, corporate lobbyists and the rest of the "privileged few" who run the country.

Simply a smear to make the most liberal and class-aware canidate (who has a good shot of winning) sound unappealing to unaware liberals.