Obama as tax-raiser a GOP red herring

Richard J. Mundy, Las Vegas

Friday, Aug. 29, 2008 | 2:03 a.m.

Like a rusty wheel, the John McCain camp keeps saying a President Obama would raise taxes, and I know a lot of trusting Nevadans believe that is true. Now, Sen. McCain isn’t lying to you, he’s just being misleading.

You see, a President Obama, working with the Democratic majority in Congress, would not raise your taxes unless you belong to the 2 percent of Americans who are extremely wealthy and who were given overgenerous tax cuts by President Bush and congressional Republicans. They, and the oil companies and other corporations that were given tax breaks by Republicans, can expect to pay more in taxes. Now, you might ask why the Democrats would have to do that.

Well, the tax cuts pushed through by the Republicans these past eight years have increased the national debt by more than $3 trillion and guaranteed us an annual deficit of more than $400 billion. Americans for generations to come will have to try to pay off this enormous debt.

As everyone knows, our infrastructure is crumbling, our schools need more support, a plan for universal health care needs to be started, Medicare and Social Security need stabilizing, etc. Which of the candidates is better able to address these problems?

I think a President Obama, working with a Democratic majority, could work toward solving these problems. With John McCain we would just have more of the division in Washington that we have now with President Bush.