From The Road
October 12, 2008 9:57 PM

Ohio Crowd Helps With Obama's Debate Prep

By
Maria Gavrilovic
Topics
Barack Obama
(CBS)
From CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic:

(TOLEDO, OHIO) - Barack Obama went canvassing today in a middle class neighborhood in Holland shortly after arriving here for a two days of debate prep. Accompanied by local campaign aides and volunteers, he spent almost an hour knocking on doors and talking to voters.

Crowds gathered on Shrewsbury Street as word got out that Obama was in the neighborhood.

"I'm moved to tears. This is amazing," one young teacher said after she spoke to the Democratic nominee.

As he made his way down the street, Obama was barraged by questions about the economy, mortgages, and taxes. This was perhaps the best kind of debate prep for him, because not all of the conversations were easygoing. One man in particular questioned Obama's tax plan, telling him that he is about to buy a company that makes more than $250,000 a year.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the man asked.

Obama responded by telling the voter that his business would get a 50% tax credit for health care, but that his taxes will go up from 36% to 39%.

"I want to give all these folks who are bus drivers, teachers, auto workers who make less, I want to give them a tax cut," Obama explained.

The man wasn't convinced, telling Obama that he has been a plumber for 15 years and doesn't believe that he should be taxed more.

After explaining that the tax rate would be the same as under Bill Clinton and that 95% of Americans make less than $250,000, Obama made one last pitch to the voter.

"I'm gonna cut taxes a little bit more for the folks who are most in need and for the 5% of the folks who are doing very well - even though they've been working hard and I appreciate that – I just want to make sure they're paying a little bit more in order to pay for those other tax cuts," Obama said.

"It's not that I want to punish your success – I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you – that they've got a chance at success too."

As Obama left, he told the crowd, "I've gotta go prepare for this debate, but that was pretty good practice right there!"

Add a Comment See all 34 Comments
by pamkaren October 15, 2008 12:39 PM EDT
Let''s not discount that if the 95% of Americans that are going to get tax help (either by not increasing or decreasing) are probably the customer base for the plumber''s new business. If the customer base can''t spend on his goods or services, he isn''t going to have to worry about earning more than $250,000.
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by zukatesta October 15, 2008 12:33 PM EDT
Please correct me if I am wrong, but being that this plumber''s business is private, why should he show a $250K profit? He should just take a larger salary.

Only public companies need to have profits on their books for their stock prices to grow. Am I missing something?

One other thing: his plumbing contracting service probably serves the middle class. If the MC doesn''t have money, who''s he going to sell his services to? The banks when they foreclose?

Maybe I don''t get it, but it seems money needs to trickle up, not down.
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by rcampbell73 October 15, 2008 12:07 PM EDT
In support of dland''s observation about these tax changes amount to returning to the tax structure under Pres. Clinton, I''d like to add that Clinton refined the top heavy tax breaks given during the Reagan era.

Reagan lowered taxes on the wealthy and they repaid him (and us) with the Savings and Loan meltdown due to easy credit followed by falling real estate values. We had an upturn and then a nasty recession.

Clinton actually restored the tax structure that Reagan decimated. GWBush restored Reagan''s tax breaks and we now have a worldwide economy on the brink.

I will NOT take tax or economic advise from anyone who supported Bush''s assault on the middle class. Conservative have NO CREDIBILITY and are in no position to lecture anyone on economics.
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by rcampbell73 October 15, 2008 11:58 AM EDT
Senator Obama could have reminded the plumber that if the company he''s thinking about buying turns a $250,000 taxable profit it''ll be AFTER he''s taken several very important tax deduction not available to non-business owners. For instance, he''ll pay himself a deductable salasy and be able to deduct his vehicle(s) plus all the gas and maintenance. He''ll get a tax deduction for his health insurance, some amount of meals and entertainment expenses and his family vacation will likely miraculously become a tax deductable business trip.
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by dlond October 15, 2008 9:53 AM EDT
To "RationalEcon": Obama''s only rolling back Bush tax cuts, taking us back to the same rates that Clinton used, and those were hardly bad economic times compared to the last 8 years. To use the ''socialism'' label is misleading and incendiary. And have you looked into how many Nobel economists support Obama''s economic plan? All of them.
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by dlond October 15, 2008 9:52 AM EDT
To "RationalEcon": Obama''s only rolling back Bush tax cuts, taking us back to the same rates that Clinton used, and those were hardly bad economic times compared to the last 8 years. To use the ''socialism'' label is misleading and incendiary. And have you looked into how many Nobel economists support Obama''s economic plan? All of them.
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by idyllick October 15, 2008 7:31 AM EDT
I am one of the 95% of Americans who makes less than $250,000 and I would be happy to pay 39% if I made more than that.
Unfortunately, under the current administration if you make millions you can just stash it in an off-shore account tax free. (and McIIIrd will be no different, maybe worse if that''s possible) But,this election is not just about taxes. It''s about salvaging our foreign relationships, saving our planet, restoring our civil liberties, reversing a crippling economy, creating jobs and not putting our military in danger for no reason.
McIIIrd and Bible Spice are NOT Country First.
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by rationalecon October 15, 2008 4:36 AM EDT
I have noticed that Obama''s supporters continue to make statements like, "Obama is cool and level headed." Let me ask you how "cool and level headed" is going to help America when Obama''s policies are blatently flawed and history has proven this fact. If you raise taxes on ANYONE (even the rich), it will most certainly drive the economy so deep into recession that the Bush times will seem like a holiday compared to an Obama administration. I don''t care how level headed you think he is....his policies are socialistic, and the last time we had an economic situation like this FDR put socialistic policies in place that sent us farther into the Great Depression for another 8 long years. Go ahead and vote for Obama because he "seems" to make sense to you, and remember reading this post when you are unemployed before June 2009...it may seem like right wing BS propaganda to you now, but trust me it won''t seem like propaganda when you are standing in line at the unemployment office with the hundreds of others out of work from Obama policies. I want you all to remember this post when you are out of work.
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by DCropp October 13, 2008 4:29 PM EDT
Thank you Senator Obama for running positive ads in Wisconsin.

McCain ran the same negative ad at every commercial break this weekend in Wisconsin. I''m so tired of the same thing from Washington.

Anyone who runs 100% negative ads has nothing to offer Americans.
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by jjorcutt October 13, 2008 2:32 PM EDT
Posted by waterman24 ... ACORN really? They are required to turn in those invalid registrations. They can''t help it of they get a few workers who work the system. They have issued a statement that they check each registration and when they find a worker who is doing such activities they are fired. Again I want to make it very clear that even though the registrations are bogus they have to be turned in by law. An lets make one more thing clear these are voter fraud cases as they are not processed as valid voters, this is just registrations that are rejected and thrown in the garbage. As far as your proof your using a youtube video. Come on really? anyone can make a youtube video let''s see some proof from a legitimate resource and not some right wing propaganda.
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