You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Joe Biden is the gift that keeps on giving. Now, he says that paying taxes is patriotic.

WASHINGTON – Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans. In a new TV ad that repeats widely debunked claims about the Democratic tax plan, the Republican campaign calls Obama’s tax increases “painful.”

Under the economic plan proposed by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, people earning more than $250,000 a year would pay more in taxes while those earning less — the vast majority of American taxpayers — would receive a tax cut.

Although Republican John McCain claims that Obama would raise taxes, the independent Tax Policy Center and other groups conclude that four out of five U.S. households would receive tax cuts under Obama’s proposals.

“We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people,” Biden said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Noting that wealthier Americans would indeed pay more, Biden said: “It’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.”

McCain released a television ad Thursday charging that Obama would increase the size of the federal government amid an economic crisis. Contending that “a big government casts a big shadow on us all,” the ad features the image of a shadow slowly covering a sleeping baby as a narrator misstates the reach of the Obama tax proposal.

“Obama and his liberal congressional allies want a massive government, billions in spending increases, wasteful pork,” the ad says. “And we would pay — painful income taxes, skyrocketing taxes on life savings, electricity and home heating oil. Can your family afford that?”

The McCain campaign said the ad is set to run nationally.

You know what? I agree with Biden. [end sarcasm]

The first thing Obama’s tax plan should do is raise the marginal rate of everyone who attended his fundraiser in Hollywood last week to a marginal rate of oh, say 70%. After all, they have way too much. Next, go to every Obama supporter and ask them to voluntarily pay at a marginal rate of 40% on income and 50% on capital gains. Sign ‘em up. Lets see who the patriots are. That includes you, Attanasio.

I want to see everyone who will be affected by the Obama tax plan volunteer to pay an even higher rate than Obama is proposing. If the Obama supporters are taxed at a high enough rate, Obama could send everybody a REALLY big check.

Now, I know the above fantasy scenario won’t happen…but if it did, what percentage of Obama supporters would sign up to voluntarily pay higher taxes. Does the number ZERO come to mind?