My Advice for President-Elect Barack Obama Pt. 1
Now that Barack H. Obama, the only messiah to actually have H. as a middle initial, has won the election, he can assemble his transition team, staff, and advisors. Since I’m a firm believer that not all advice should be taken from people who believe exactly as you do, I am applying for a role as advisor to the future-president. With that in mind, I am offering a series of short pieces of advice in this blog.
**Part 1 – Middle-Class Tax Credit**
There are undoubtedly plenty of people in America who think you were serious about your tax-cut plan. That happens every presidential-election year, so it’s not surprising. Now, though, it’s time to start transitioning the promises into realities. Now it’s time to break your promises while making it look as if you really tried to keep them.
First, you’ll have to set the stage for what is to come. Over the next few weeks, you’ll be giving speeches on a variety of topics. Make references to the current economic client. Use phrases like “researching to determine what we can afford,” and “economic realities.” Make it clear that, while your tax plan represented an “ideal plan based in the realities of the moment,” the “current realities” will require that all options be placed on the table.
Now, the tax cut plan you laid forth has three basic brackets.
* _The Poor _- Their “tax cut” amounted to receiving money that they never paid. Giving money for nothing is the best way to buy votes for a re-election, so this “tax cut” is a must.
* The Rich – You never promised this group a tax cut anyway. In fact, you promised to raise their taxes. Keeping this promise will prevent, or at least slow, economic recovery. Keeping this promise will cause job loss, or at best a slowing of job creation. Nonetheless, a promise is a promise, so taxes on the rich will have to go up. The top 25% currently pay 86% of taxes. With tax increases, and the impact on the economy to go with it, this percentage may be about to fall. That leads to:
* The Middle Class – Let’s face it. This block is the hardest to deal with in writing a tax plan. They actually make enough money to pay taxes, unlike the poor. Unlike the rich, they only pay a small portion of the total tax burden. The 86% of the tax burden paid by the top 25% of taxpayers would be higher if we could just make them richer, but higher tax rates will do the opposite. That places the burden on the middle class to make up the difference. You’ll say how sorry you are to do it, but then as President, you’ll drop the middle-class tax cut just like you always planned.
The important aspect of this is that you must create the image that you’re fighting for that tax cut. Tell the middle-class how important they are. That’s what they want to hear. All the way to inauguration day, you’ve got to tell the american people how important these tax cuts are, especially to the middle-class.
Be careful, though. While you have 100 days to show how much you can get done, you don’t want to drop the idea of the middle-class tax cut in the first 30. Two months in should be enough time to wait before dropping the bomb.
Clinton moved too quickly in telling the truth about his middle-class tax cut plan. He talked about “revisiting” the plans, and how he was “mystified” that the media somehow believed the middle-class tax cut to be a part of his “big plans” after he had talked about it the entire campaign
You’ve got to slow down. After the first 30 days, you’ll have some positives to build on, and you can drop the news of there being no tax cut for the middle-class at 5:30pm on a Friday. That way, the news media will have a hard time reporting on it until it is old news. Most of the weekend shows will already be taped by then.
I know you can do it. Heck, it’s not like you don’t already plan to drop the middle-class tax cut from your plan already. It’s the implementation of this move that’s important, if you want to solidify yourself into America’s future as a great President. Unlike Bill Clinton, you have to lie to the people without them calling you a liar.
Hey, with how well you hid your past during the election, this should be a breeze.
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