The Rich Will Do Fine. The Rest of Us, Maybe Not.

An analysis entitled How the Rich Would Fare Under Obama, McCain concludes that earnings for the top 1% go down under Obama's taxation plan and up under McCain's plan. This is not surprising nor is it news. But what should surprise is the heat generated by the back and forth between those who, on one side, argue that tax cuts for the very wealthy benefit society the most by spurring job creation and those who counter that the country is in far too much trouble for us to be cutting taxes for anybody.

Objections to the supply side argument make a world of sense. How can the supply side drive job creation if economic conditions for the largest sectors of the consuming public are so strained? The government can cut taxes for the top 1% and the top .1% all day, every day, but as long as the middle and working classes are just treading water, if not drowning, where is the demand going to come from to snap up all the new services and products that the wealthy are supposed to unleash on us? And if the demand does not exist, where are the new jobs going to come from?

The wealthy are going to do fine, regardless. They always have and likely always will, seeing how well-represented they are in Washington and how lawyered-up they are. It is the non-wealthy and small businesses who need to be the focus in this election. They need real growth in income and, in the case of small business, real tax relief, not just massive borrowing from China and the Middle East to keep everyone afloat.