8 Comments Add your own

• 1. Kaus  |  April 20th, 2008 at 7:27 pm

  Yeah! Let\’s get back to issues and not the stupid pin. Issues like why would anyone in there right mind raise the capital gains tax. Answer that Mr. Obamarama.

• 2. Pat Cunningham  |  April 20th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

  Kaus: You and John McCain (and that eminent economist Charlie Gibson, too) seem to be wrong about the capital gains tax. Read this:
  http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2008/04/gibson-and-mcca.html

• 3. Pat Cunningham  |  April 20th, 2008 at 8:24 pm

  Read this one, too, verrrry carefully and thoroughly: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/20/163837/531

• 4. Menlo Bob  |  April 20th, 2008 at 8:57 pm

  Well of course the flag pin issue is silly–but–where are the rules for how the game of politics is played. Obama needlessly looks slow-footed with the way he’s handling it. Certainly he knew it would come up in a debate. Consider this alternate way of handling it; Obama, knowing that the question will be asked sooner or later, pins the flag pin that he got from the injured vet on his shirt instead of his suit jacket. Charlie Gibson asks the question, and Obama tallks about how he keeps the issue close to his heart. He then opens his suit jacket and displays the pin. It become a highlight moment instead of a mumbbled apology. THAT’S how to play the game of politics!

• 5. Mike Carroll  |  April 21st, 2008 at 9:36 am

  The problem with CBO estimates (I couldn’t go to the Daily Kos article as it is blocked by my employer) is that their model assumes static behavior. They can’t, or don’t, model what actually happens because they don’t know. An example-Lets say I own stock in a company and that I obtained it 15 years ago when the value was 25k. Today that stock is worth 125k and pays a nice yearly dividend. My”gain” is 100k and if I were to sell the stock I would pay a tax of 15k on that gain.
  Lets also assume that I want to sell the stock and use the money to purchase another investment. Further assume that Obama becomes President and increases the tax to 28% or more as he has discussed. I now would have to pay 28k in taxes reducing my net by 13k. Suddenly ,for obvious reasons, that dividend looks more attractive that the other investment I was considering and I decide not to sell. The government loses 15k in revenue and the free flow of capital is interrupted.
  The CBO model assumes that someday I have to sell the stock and thus the long term loss of revenue. Wrong-I can pass it to my heirs tax free (if my estate is small enough) or gift it over the years below the federal gift tax minimum. I can avoid taxes entirely on that gain.
  BTW, the CBO’s record of accurate predictions of the economic impact of policy changes on future revenue is horrendous.

• 6. Kaus  |  April 21st, 2008 at 11:46 am

  To add to point 5 by Mike (he doesn’t need my help but I want to vent some more)…..You would think that income tax on my salary would be enough for greedy government services but no way….plenty more hidden taxes to take…selling my house, my stock investments… Even if the CBO numbers were right, why would I vote for someone who thinks the gains tax should be raised…learn how to live with less. It’s bad enough when Bush can’t learn how to veto spending bills….now we have a true socialist crazy man who wants to raise my taxes even more and create more services for people who don’t want to save and invest their money the old fashioned way. No wonder people are in debt, they are taught that investing money is an evil that the government can put their hands on.

• 7. Menlo Bob  |  April 21st, 2008 at 4:10 pm

  Let’s also recall that Barak Obama’s reason for raising capital gains taxes had nothing to do with increasing funds for the govenment. His answer to Charles Gibson was that he wanted the money for another reason–fairness. Forget Daily Kos and Brendan Nyhan, Obama wants income redistribution to be the standard of taxation.

• 8. Kaus  |  April 21st, 2008 at 6:30 pm

  Oh yeah, I forgot…Obama IS a marxist isn’t he? Thanks for reminding me.

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