Pat Dollard

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“So this idea, that somehow everybody is just on their own and shouldn’t be concerned about other people who are coming up behind them, that’s the kind of attitude that I want to end when I am president.”

Said Sway, “Just out of curiosity, for those that are being taxed that are making over $250,000 a year, how much difference would it be from how they are being taxed today?”

“Right now, they are getting taxed at 36 percent. Under Bill Clinton in the 1990s, they were being taxed at 39.6 percent. You’re talking about a 3.6 percent difference, and, you know, for, you know, the average person who is making half a million, a million dollars—people like you Sway—that’s chump change, that’s nothing.

Indianapolis – Lines were long and tempers flared Wednesday not to vote but to get paid for canvassing for Barack Obama. Several hundred people are still waiting to get their pay for last-minute campaigning. Police were called to the Obama campaign office on North Meridian Street downtown to control the crowd.

The line was long and the crowd was angry at times.

“I want my money today! It’s my money. I want it right now!” yelled one former campaign worker.

With Election Day nearing, the politics surrounding the Association of Community Organizations Reform Now (ACORN) cannot just go away.

Now Hans von Spakovsky, a fellow at Heritage Foundation, is warning that the nature and substance of ACORN’s activities could be more pervasive than previously thought.

It’s mid-October, and the Wall Street bailout that was supposed to save the economy from collapse is a flop.

Only two weeks ago, the media hype behind the $700 billion bailout was so intense that it sometimes verged on hysteria. More recent events should not be allowed to obscure the reality that the news media played a pivotal role in stampeding the country into a bailout that was unwise and unjust.

After analyzing the candidates proposals for health care, social security, taxes, and economic stimulants, I’ve concluded that when you strip away all the mind-numbing specifics, all the spin and fancy talk, McCain and Obama have two opposing philosophies about America’s economic pie – how big it is and who gets how much of it. Both candidates want to increase the size of the pie. Both want to change who in our society gets what sized pieces of the pie. But they approach it from different angles.

In simple terms, McCain is more concerned with growing the pie, rather than the size of the pieces. He favors policies that encourage the private sector of the economy to grow. His proposals favor small business, where the majority of new jobs come from. His tax policies reward investment in new technologies, building new companies and creating new jobs. Although he doesn’t say it this way, he figures that if the pie is big enough, everyone gets a decent sized piece. He doesn’t believe in giving everyone the same sized piece, but rather a piece reflective of their overall contribution to growing the pie. He is a free market conservative.

Obama is more concerned with the size of the pie pieces, rather than the size of the pie as a whole. As he said to Joe the Plumber, he wants to spread the wealth around. He favors more government aid to the lower classes – in health care and tax refunds. He wants to use government programs – taxes, rebates, mandatory programs – to make sure everyone gets a more equitable size of the pie. He calls this a trickle up plan – that if the lower classes have a bigger piece of the pie they will stimulate the economy to grow. When questioned whether these policies will shrink the pie, he dismisses the very thought. He is a big government liberal.

Now it’s up to you to decide. Do you think it is more important to grow the pie in hopes that everyone gets a bigger slice down the road? Or that it matters more that everyone gets a more equitable slice right now? Or that bad as things are now, they would be even worse if the pie shrinks. Those aren’t easy decisions, but then again, these aren’t easy times.