Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122204158558561239.html?mod=djemEditorialPage" target="_blank">http://online.wsj.com/article/...rialPage</a> >>Joe Biden isn't backing down from his startling claim last week that raising taxes on the rich is the "patriotic" thing to do. On Thursday he upped the ante, thundering that he also has Jesus in his corner. "Catholic social doctrine as I was taught it is, you take care of people who need the help the most," Mr. Biden preached to a group of union supporters on Thursday. Heavens! The political left likes to score Republicans for claiming that God is on their side, but here we have Mr. Biden claiming support from both God and Caesar. If Sarah Palin tried this, she'd send the boys at the Daily Kos into cardiac arrest. We won't get into a theological debate with Mr. Biden, except to say that Biblical tax rates tended to run around 10%, not the 39.6%-plus that Barack Obama's tax plan calls for. As for patriotism, maybe the young Joe Biden missed school the day the Boston Tea Party was being taught. There's also the point that if you want to finance a war, you need a strong enough economy to throw off the tax revenues to pay for it. As we learned in the 1980s under Reagan, lower taxes that help an economy grow can finance a defense buildup that helps win the Cold War. By that standard, cuts in marginal income tax rates deserve to be called patriotic. Regarding taxes and social justice, the issue is whether the high taxes that Mr. Biden favors promote economic growth and prosperity, not least for America's poorest citizens. There he doesn't have evidence on his side. Studies from around the world, including the annual Wall Street Journal-Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom, conclusively indicate that countries that keep taxes low tend to have the least amount of poverty. As for fairness, we'd note that today the top 1% of taxpayers pay twice as large a share of income taxes (39%) at a 35% rate than they did in 1980, when they were taxed at a rate of 70% yet paid only 19% of income taxes. In that sense, the tax code is more "progressive" now. By the way, Mr. Biden and his wife recently released their tax returns, and they reported an average of $380, or 0.2% of their income, in annual charitable contributions over a 10-year period. The national average was about 2% of income.<<
Originally Posted By ecdc DB, this is a bit disingenuous, even for you and the WSJ. Biden never once said "Jesus was in his corner." He said that Catholic theology, as he was taught, says that you take care of others. That's it. Conservatives really ought to take a look at that New Testament they profess to follow oh so closely.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice Ya see...? This is why there needs to be a third party (and why do we call them "parties" anyway... these idiots are supposed to be working ;-) in the middle. Republican greed and conservative viewpoints don't mix together logically at all.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I'm still looking for the quote where Biden says "Jesus is in my corner." Still looking... still looking.... nope, not there. So apparently he claimed no such thing. Making the topic header a complete fabrication, of course. It's almost as if Darkbeer is completely biased or something.
Originally Posted By mawnck Besides, Jesus IS in Obama's corner. Haven't you seen the latest polls? EVERYBODY is switching over to Obama. Jesus, Caesar, Einstein, Sinatra, Crosby, Presley ... everybody! ;-) Some pretty loopy facts in Darkbeer's quotes (since they give me no reason to waste extra finger-power clicking on the link): >>Studies from around the world, including the annual Wall Street Journal-Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom, conclusively indicate that countries that keep taxes low tend to have the least amount of poverty.<< Or that nations with the least amount of poverty can function on lower tax rates. >>today the top 1% of taxpayers pay twice as large a share of income taxes (39%) at a 35% rate than they did in 1980, when they were taxed at a rate of 70% yet paid only 19% of income taxes.<< Duhh. The top 1% of taxpayers is about 300% richer than they were in 1980. That's the whole point here. >>Mr. Biden and his wife recently released their tax returns, and they reported an average of $380, or 0.2% of their income, in annual charitable contributions over a 10-year period. The national average was about 2% of income.<< Typical Republicans - assuming that every last dime of their charitable contributions would show up on their tax form. Seems to me Biden's putting his money where his mouth is ... it IS patriotic for the well-off to support the country that made them that way.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Studies from around the world, including the annual Wall Street Journal-Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom, conclusively indicate that countries that keep taxes low tend to have the least amount of poverty.> And other studies show just the opposite. They have very low poverty rates in Scandinavia, and very high tax rates. Check out the section on "poverty" here. <a href="http://www.epi.org/books/swa2004/news/swafacts_international.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.epi.org/books/swa20...onal.pdf</a> The Heritage Foundation study (not surprisingly) doesn't like to compare apples to apples (i.e. the US vs. other western democracies) but includes third world countries that are both very poor and highly taxed (and often dictatorships), to skew the results. When you look at apples to apples, the results are quite clear.
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Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<God is not on the side of peoiple who love killing baby's so no chance he is on Biden's side.>> Apparently "God" only likes people who kill in wars, kill for revenge, and deny equality to groups of society they don't like. I guess he doesn't like Biden then...
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Originally Posted By Truthand Disney Obama may be a Muslim but many feel we must give up and cover up our woman in the name on Allah! Why fight says many of us on the left, what's so bad about putting a sheet over our woman. Time for America to join Obama and all good Muslims! Obama 08
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Originally Posted By DAR Are we sure this is the actual Jesus, Biden is referring to or some guy who goes by Jesus Luis Jose Miguel De Santa Ana del Toro?
Originally Posted By mawnck I seem to recall that Jesus Luis Etc. was a McCain supporter. So it probably wasn't him.
