Missed this Beauty

As everyone knows, there is a huge debate in the lame duck session of Congress about the sunset provision of the Bush Administration's tax cuts from 2001, which are mainly for individual and estate taxes, and 2003 tax cuts for corporations. If I recall from the Clinton years, we had higher rates for everyone, and everyone made money or lived decently. I was one of them who struggled, but my tax rate was not that high to begin with. We had a balanced budget, although I was very unhapppy how welfare mothers were treated. On the other hand, poverty and unemployment were not as great as they are today.

Rep Alan Grayson, who lost his Congressional re-election nearly 3 weeks ago, still has conviction and courage to stand up against the Wingnut machine. I missed this speech the other day, but noticed links to it on various blogs, including Taylor Marsh's which is where I finally saw the entire clip. It is classic.



I wish the Obama Administration would hire this man, but I think Alan Grayson is not enough centrist for them. They don't like anyone defending their progress directly, especially good Democrats. Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann try, but I think even they will get fatigued at some point.

Taylor Marsh has some serious criticisms of this Administration, especially on the weak messaging issues. More often these days, I find myself agreeing with Taylor's strong opinions. The only reason that I don't have her site on my blogroll is that her readers still keep pining for Hillary Clinton and how Hillary would have made a better president. I don't she would have as I think she would have moved to a more centrist position, albeit she would have worked on keeping her message consistent. While John Edwards was let go by this blogger sometime ago, I keep thinking Alan Grayson reminds me so much of what an Edwards Democrat would want for this country to get it out of the ditch.

Wealthy on All Accounts

I just read a story about a couple whose AGI this year was $260K. They are concerned about having to pay more taxes under Obama's plan.

They believe they are just middle class.

What I found interesting were the following in that story:

They tithe $15,700 a year to their church. That's tax deductible.
Moreover they have 3 dependents.

According to the WSJ, their mortgage, second mortgage and payment on land they bought is nearly $4,000 a month.

Other expenses, including their family car payment, insurance and college funds, as well as basics like food, utilities and donations to charities, leave them with about $1,200 left over each month.

Only $1200 a month. Seems to me like the rest of us, they can find ways to cut back, and also support the notion of expanded health insurance for all of us.