Are you better off?

April 23, 2008

The Democrat National Committee is airing a new television ad, “Better Off?”, aimed squarely at Republican presidential candidate John McCain. The ad attempts to link McCain to the presidency of George W. Bush by showing clips of McCain saying that overall, we are better off than we were eight years ago. The ad ends by asking the viewer, “Do you feel better off?”

How like the liberal Dems to ask voters to make a decision based on feelings rather than something of a more empirical nature. For example, a little over one year ago:

Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high
Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon
The unemployment rate was 4.5%

But since voting in a Democrat-controlled Congress in 2006 we have seen:

Consumer confidence drop like a stone
The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon
Unemployment rise to 5% (a 10% increase

In fact, since voting for change in 2006, Americans have seen $2.3 trillion in the equity value of their households evaporate due largely to stock and mutual fund losses. Home equity dropped by $1.2 trillion dollars, leaving 1% of American homes in foreclosure.

But the new DNC ad asks voters to consider if they are better off now than they were eight years ago, not just since the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress just a couple of years back.

Okay, fair enough. Let’s compare taxes under Bill Clinton in 1999 to taxes under George W. Bush in 2008:

Single making 30K - Clinton tax $8,400 vs. Bush tax $4,500;
Single making 50K - Clinton tax $14,000 vs. Bush tax $12,500
Single making 75K - Clinton tax $23,250 vs. Bush tax $18,750
Married making 60K - Clinton tax $16,800 vs. Bush tax $9,000
Married making 75K - Clinton tax $21,000 vs. Bush tax $18,750
Married making 125K - Clinton tax $38,750 vs Bush tax $31,250

Of course, the DNC ad mentions none of this. Nor does it call attention to the fact that either Democrat candidate would be sure to raise taxes. Obama and Hillary are both on the record as saying that if elected, they would repeal the Bush tax cuts.

So in light of this data, perhaps the DNC should not have gone there with its new ad. It leaves the door wide open for an RNC response ad bringing attention to all of the above.

So how about you? Most of you have recently prepared your tax returns to file before the IRS deadline of a little over a week ago. You’ve not only seen the numbers, you’ve worked with them.