McCain Calls People Making Making Under 80,000/year, “Stupid”
By Daniel Miessler on August 17th, 2008: Tagged as Obama | Politics
It makes me militantly sad that there middle-class “Republicans” out there who are going to vote for McCain so they can avoid being over-taxed by Obama. It’s not true. But McCain doesn’t have to worry about things being “true”. He relies on the fact that modern Republicans tend not to research things. They’re voting for McCain because he’s Republican. Period.
And McCain knows this. He knows he can give his middle-class Republican base less of a tax break than Obama and still be considered by those very same people to have a better tax plan. Why? Because he thinks they’re stupid. Don’t believe me?
officeofstrategicinfluence.com
Last Friday at a private dinner (you know, the ones that cost two weeks of a middle-class salary to attend) he reportedly said the following while discussing disproportionate tax breaks:
People who make under $80,000 are too stupid to understand taxes anyway.
John McCain said that, to a room full of rich people. On August 8th. Of 2008.
Nevermind the fact that Obama would be in Gitmo within 45 minutes if he said anything remotely similar—that’s not important. What is important is that McCain claims to be the low taxes guy. But he isn’t. Not for regular people. His tax improvements for the bottom three tax brackets are comedic in nature: .7%, .5%, and .2% respectively.
In short, he intends to lower taxes for those who are already über-rich, i.e., for people like him. He will in fact be implementing a tax system that grants himself an additional $269,364 per year.
And that’s fine. I don’t mind him being for the rich. I like money too. What I mind is regular, everyday people who are going to vote for McCain because they think Obama will tax the middle class to death.
In fact, if you make less than $111,645 a year you’ll get more money under Obama’s plan than McCain’s.
Ah, but what does that matter? Even if Obama says he’s going to give more money to those making less that $112K/year, it doesn’t mean he’ll do it, right? I mean, doesn’t the Koran allow Muslims to lie to Christians?
[ Update: For those of you doubting that John McCain would say such a stupid thing, consider that he's on video, at a similar dinner, singing, "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran..." Considering his personality this quote is highly believable. ]
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What is the context to McCain’s statement?
Did it start with “Obama thinks things like…”?
Second, and more importantly, the tax breaks for the rich are actually rewards for re-investing in our economy, thus employing more people and making the market do for people who want a job what liberals would have the government do for people staying at home, doing nothing.
I just did a search and could find no reference to such a statement other than this website. One would think it would be bigger news, unless the obvious suggestion that perhaps McCain has the media on his side, keeping this one quiet.
-=T=-
Comment by TIMM — 8/17/2008 @ 4:47 pm
That unsourced McCain quote about “stupid people” is now on 7 sites (according to Google), all of them equally unsourced as this one is. I will be voting Obama and am strongly against damn near everything McCain stands for, but smear tactics & whispered innuendo are embarrassing and dishonorable. Unless you have some first hand knowledge of the truth of this statement (like, you witnessed it, but didn’t have a recorder), it’s pretty much just libel, akin to the filthy “Obama is a secret Muslim!” crap. Shame on you.
Comment by Jonathan — 8/17/2008 @ 5:30 pm
[...] CLICK HERE to read the full story from dmiessler.com 2008, Taxes [...]
Pingback by John McCain Calls People Who Make Less Than $80,000 A Year Stupid | Barack Obama — 8/17/2008 @ 6:29 pm
@Jonathan
I agree with you that it’s ideal to have some sort of corroboration for quotes like these, and I agree that the lack of such support weakens the impact. But the difference between the “Obama is a Muslim” stuff vs. this is that nobody’s saying, “Obama said he was a Muslim last week in a Mosque.”
In other words, this is 100% consistent with what McCain might do at a dinner, which he did go to, for rich people. Remember, this is the guy that sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” at a similar meeting. This is not fringe stuff in the slightest for McCain.
Comment by Daniel Miessler — 8/17/2008 @ 6:31 pm
It is pretty hard to track down quotes like that, but besides the OSI article you referenced, some comment on a partisan blog is the only other google result: http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=2725#comment-205051
And I know rich people can get around places pretty quickly and this isn’t definitive counter-proof, but it sounds a little odd to have a private elegant dinner with the elite after a day at the Iowa State Fair eating some “pork chop on a stick”. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/mccain-at-the-iowa-state-fair/
Point is: You could argue the Trickle-down economics vs fairness tax issue without the unsourced ad hominem attacks.
Comment by shane — 8/17/2008 @ 6:52 pm
The context of the statement was a private dinner, where he was discussing “lopsided taxes”. I think it was said as a joke, but obviously you don’t joke about things like that when you’re running for pres
Comment by anon — 8/17/2008 @ 7:36 pm
So you’re not even gonna add an “allegedly” to the statement, huh? He officially “said” it. To a roomful of rich people. On August 8th.
According to a rumor whose source you won’t even quote.
This is pretty low.
Comment by Jonathan — 8/17/2008 @ 9:44 pm
I agree with Jonathan… I first saw this quote on the anti_mccain livejournal community. I was so psyched to see such a bad quote by McCain, I was about ready to use it as my available message on AIM! But then I realized it didn’t have a source (I searched google and just got other blogs that also did not cite it or cited this post).
Please please please tell me this is a legit quote with a source! If not… well, shame- we really don’t need to use smear tactics. Unlike Obama, McCain actually HAS done and said things IN REALITY that can be portrayed truthfully and in context while still proving our point. For example, he’s stated outright that he’s ready for the Iraq war to drag on and on, and that he’s against pretty much any reproductive rights for women (from birth control to abortion), yet there are people who don’t know this because they’ve been fooled by the media’s portrayal of McCain as a moderate candidate. And these claims have sources!!! (google ‘em… it’s late and I’m tired) As much as I love this quote, I cannot use it because I know not of its veracity!
Comment by Becky — 8/18/2008 @ 4:36 am
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