" oh, so you WANT higher taxes" - Democratic Underground

Rosemary2205

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Thu Feb-14-08 08:12 PM
Original message

" oh, so you WANT higher taxes"

None of the reasons I go to church involves US politics. But one of the women in the chior just had to go there. She and her husband are both from upper middle class families, college degrees from expensive schools all around, a very large house in an expensive part of town. She asked, I replied - yes, I voted Obama in the primary.

"Oh, so you WANT higher taxes." -- it was clearly an attack. Her face said it all. I was so low I was not even worthy of her contempt. I wanted to tell her to go fuck herself, but being in the house of the Lord I managed to behave lest I cause some dear old lady to expire from shock at my language.

Then I told her why I voted Obama. Quietly, genuinely. I want to tell you all what I told her because in "hate radio" progandized political climate we live in, I think a little reality might be just what is needed to win people over.

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Carol, I said, I don't have the luxury of voting based on propaganda. My family's income, in raw dollars, has dropped by almost half over the last 10 years - that's not even accounting for inflation. My husband and I were not fortunate enough to be born with either the brains nor the privilege to be college graduates. My husband has worked with his body 60-70 hrs a week for more than 40 years, every week of his life since he was 15. Hard, back breaking (literally) labor. The man used every talent the good Lord saw fit to give him to eek out a living for himself and his family. What did he get for all this hard work? Pay cuts. Benefit cuts. Plant closings. Law that made it MUCH harder for him to join with his co-workers and ask for a fair shake from his employer - all supported by the very government that took 57% of his income.

You know what? I know for a fact the Republicans are not going choose policies and pass laws that favor Americans like my husband on equal footing with Americans like you. The Republicans have spent the better part of 30 years making a point of choosing policies and passing laws that benefit Americans like you at the expense of Americans like me. While I have continued to pay 57% of my total gross income in taxes, and losing ground economically the whole while, you are now down to paying 25% of your total gross income in taxes, AND gaining ground economically to boot -- all thanks to the economic policies and laws passed by our shared government.

I voted for Obama out of desperation. I really don't know what he'll do. He may follow the trend and continue to choose policies and support laws that make my life more and more difficult. I may get disappointed. The deck is not stacked in his favor because there is a whole Congress and BILLIONS upon BILLIONS in lobby money standing in his way. But he's my only and probably last hope. Because quite honestly, if the next President doesn't swing the pendulum back toward the little people just a little, it will be too late to save Americans like me.