Leo,
I was told that after several professors and students at U of M analyzed the Messiah's tax proposal, there is a couple little secrets people need to know about -
1- he wants to bring back the idea that investments will be taxed not on their sale value but on the projected value during a given length of time they are held - in other words, you buy GM stock at $10 a share but because it is expected to go up to $40 a share, you will be paying tax on the difference before you sell it. This was what Robert Reich wanted to do when he worked for Clinton.
2 - another Reich proposal is to eliminate for people under $50k Gross Income the use of Gross Adjusted Income to remove a lot of the write offs etc... This is buried in some interview Obama did a little bit ago.
But remember if people want to see what it will be like, look at the articles written about the Reich proposals. He cropped up in a few interviews supporting Obama. He has been clear that Obama will save the US and it's move to Globalization from the mean old republicans (his interview with Nathan Gardels says a lot) and will also provide the needed socialized medicine, the mortgage relief, job security and job loss programs which will all expand government to the point it will implode.
Here is a little bit of that interview;
".... Democrats have led the way to internationalism and global trade -- starting with the Kennedy Round in the 1960s and continuing through NAFTA and China's entry into the World Trade Organization under Clinton.
Backlashes against globalism occur under Republicans, as they did under Herbert Hoover in the early 1930s and now under George W. Bush. The reason is simple. America's huge middle class doesn't do as well under Republicans. Their jobs are more threatened. As a result, they fear trade and other global commitments.
Under Democratic administrations, on the other hand, the middle class does better -- their wages rise, their jobs are more stable. As a result, they're more willing to embrace the advantages of trade and globalization. I expect the same pattern to hold under an Obama administration.
Universal health care, relief for those who can't pay their mortgages or can't afford college tuition, investments in infrastructure and in education -- all these, which Obama will champion, make Americans more willing to accept the changes that globalization inevitably brings.
Without these sources of security, Americans fear change. Right now, the largest percentage of Americans since the 1960s are against further trade-opening agreements. Why? Largely because they've done so badly under George W. Bush. The median wage, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was when Bush came to office."
Reads all of this carefully, there is a clear message in what this little man is saying. He is not saying that the dems will protect us, the unions fall for that every time but rather to see us be more of the open border/free trade part of the world, much like the EU.
Oh and let's remind everyone that NAFTA was passed under a democratic president, not a republican one.
