{"id":30153,"date":"2008-08-18T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:30:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T03:30:03","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:30:03","slug":"mccain_articulates_conservatism_on_wealth_taxes_and_success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2008\/08\/18\/mccain_articulates_conservatism_on_wealth_taxes_and_success\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain Articulates Conservatism On Wealth, Taxes and Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: The subject of wealth came up Saturday night in the Rick Warren forum. Both candidates were asked to define ‘rich.\u2019 Here is Obama.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: If you are making $150,000 a year or less as a family, uh, then you\u2019re middle class.<\/p>\n

WARREN: Middle class?<\/p>\n

OBAMA: Or you may be poor. I — (mumbling) But 150 down, y-y-you\u2019re — you\u2019re basically middle class. Obviously it depends on region where you\u2019re living. I would argue that if you\u2019re making more than 250,000, then you\u2019re in the top three, four percent of this country. You\u2019re doing well.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So there you have it: $250,000 a year or more, and you\u2019re rich. You are doing well. Yeah, you\u2019re poor at 150. Well, you might be poor if you have less than a 150 grand. Here\u2019s McCain answering the same question.<\/p>\n

MCCAIN: I don\u2019t want to take any money from the rich. I want everybody to get rich. (applause) I don\u2019t believe in class warfare or redistribution of wealth. But I can tell you, for example, there are small businessmen and women who are working 16 hours a day, seven days a week that some people would classify as quote ‘rich.\u2019 My friends, who want to raise their taxes and raise their payroll taxes. Let\u2019s keep taxes low. So I think if you\u2019re just talking about income, how about five million? (laughter) But seriously, I don\u2019t think you can — I don\u2019t think seriously that — the point is that I\u2019m trying to make here seriously, and I\u2019m sure that comment will be distorted. (laughter) But the point is, the point is, the point is that we want to keep people\u2019s taxes low and increase revenues.<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right, this is the Reagan tax formula, the Bush tax formula, he originally opposed it but has now come out in support of and voted for it at a later date, and again the contrast here between McCain and Obama on this is profound in the sense that, you know, Obama is asked, ‘Okay, what\u2019s rich?\u2019 ‘Well, 150,000 is not, $250,000 is.\u2019 McCain with a substantive answer on how the question doesn\u2019t matter, who\u2019s rich and who isn\u2019t rich is not what matters. We want everybody to have more. We want everybody to get rich. We want everybody to do well! That is the essence of conservatism. It\u2019s out there, and a lot of people have done it. If some can, many more can, if they\u2019re inspired to or if they happen to be self-starters. The idea is that we\u2019re a growing economy with prosperity for one and all, and it\u2019s out there, accessible if you want it — and we don\u2019t want to punish it. Obama clearly wants to punish wealth. He wants to punish success — and, by the way, as to this-five-million-dollar-figure? <\/p>\n

It depends on who you ask what rich is. How many times over the course of these years have you heard me tell how fascinating it is to me to go to a group of people and just ask them when we\u2019re at the table at dinner, ‘What is big money to you?\u2019 You\u2019d be fascinated as to what people say, and it\u2019s all relative to what they have at the moment. In my case, back in the eighties, when I was making $12,000 a year, if somebody had offered me $35,000 I would have thought I was rich \u2019cause it was over, you know, a hundred percent increase. I would have thought it was rich. After I got a little more, I thought 75,000 would be rich. It depends on where you are and what your dream of the future is. Merrill Lynch, in the old days, when they interviewed prospective employees they\u2019d ask, ‘How much do you hope to make here?\u2019 and if the applicant specified a number; he didn\u2019t know it, but he was disqualified.<\/p>\n

Because what Merrill Lynch found out was that that number was their comfort level. Once they got there, they sort of eased back and they stopped, and so the perfect answer was, ‘The sky\u2019s the limit.\u2019 Well, I\u2019m not going to tell you what big money is. I\u2019ll just tell you what\u2019s big money to me. Back in the early nineties when I started meeting wealthy people, I ran into a Texas oilman who said, ‘Hey, until you start at 250, 300 million, you\u2019re not a player. Nobody\u2019s interested.\u2019 It depends on where your starting point is. I\u2019ll guarantee you somebody with 250 million net worth, is going to look at somebody who\u2019s got 500 or 700 million and think that would be cool, too. You think people who get to 250 are satisfied? How come people don\u2019t stop at 250? How come some people have billions? You know, it just all depends, folks, on what your comfort level is, and it depends on where you are at the time. <\/p>\n

But you should try it. Next time you\u2019re at a dinner party, just ask people — without claiming to have the answer, I mean you\u2019re just curious — ‘What\u2019s big money to you?\u2019 and you\u2019ll be stunned. I remember once when I was in Pittsburgh. This is before I was making anything. I was making $20,000 a year before I was making 12, and I went to some party on Saturday night and there was this guy in the throes of depression. He was just miserable. He was not happy. He was telling people he didn\u2019t understand why, \u2019cause he was making this tremendous amount of money. This would have been 1973 or \u201974, but whatever it was, he wasn\u2019t happy, and finally said, ‘Well, how much are you making?\u2019 He said 78,000 a year. Now, back then, 1974 that was a lot of money. It\u2019s a lot of money today, but it was even bigger in terms of inflation back then. But there were people in the room who were making 30, who secretly thought that their answer would be bigger than his once he divulged it, and they were stunned. <\/p>\n

So this question of how do you define rich is relevant from the standpoint of tax policy and who you think needs to be punished and who you think needs to be encouraged, and we need to encourage wealth creators, because they are job creators. This is precisely what McCain said. That is a great answer. This whole thing for him was fabulous on Saturday night. It was just he was personable. He was quick. He was funny. He had core values on full display. It just would be a shame — it would just be a sad thing — if he chooses a pro-choice vice president or even a Democrat, \u2019cause he could just obliterate all the success and all the progress that he experienced on Saturday night with the wrong choice. Abortion. I\u2019m going to save this, these two bites for after the break. Let me grab a quick phone call. Holden Beach, North Carolina, this is Jim. It\u2019s great to have you here, sir. We got about a minute and a half.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Sure. Nice to talking to you, Rush. You had mentioned quite a few times that this upcoming election is a referendum against Obama. I have been a part of that referendum, ready to vote against Obama. But after Saturday — and after hearing McCain and after watching him, and you\u2019ve spoken eloquently about his good answers and all that — I\u2019m ready not to vote ‘against\u2019 Obama, but I\u2019m actually ready to vote ‘for\u2019 McCain, and I think that\u2019s what you\u2019re going to see possibly happen over these next few weeks. <\/p>\n

RUSH: You might have a point, if he keeps this up.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Sure.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You may have a point. I did. I get some e-mails from people over the weekend, ‘My gosh, I might even vote McCrazy after this!\u2019 one of them said. <\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah, and you\u2019re right. If he picks a pro-choice VP, it\u2019s going to ruin what he did Saturday.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I will guarantee you something. I will guarantee you the Democrats thought they were through with that issue. The last thing they want is for abortion to become a presidential issue because they\u2019re making inroads with the evangelical community on gay marriage, they think, but not on abortion — and if this survives (which it will, because Obama believes in infanticide) they\u2019re going to be miserable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: The subject of wealth came up Saturday night in the Rick Warren forum. Both candidates were asked to define ‘rich.\u2019 Here is Obama. OBAMA: If you are making $150,000 a year or less as a family, uh, then you\u2019re middle class. WARREN: Middle class? OBAMA: Or you may be poor. 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