AP loves John Edwards

Translations from politispeak:

"Providing universal health care for all Americans": Instituting a single-payer insurance compensation system which will decrease health care for the upper and middle classes in order to provide equal medical care for all while eliminating incentives to create new medical techniques and medicines.

"Rebuilding America's middle class and eliminating poverty": Expanding entitlement programs, including into middle class, which is the most wealthy, most prosperous, and most inclusive it has been in any country at any point in history. (I have no idea how this is "rebuilding" America's middle class.)

"Creating tax fairness by rewarding work, not just wealth." Increasing taxes on the 27% through 35% brackets and increasing taxes on capital gains. (I'm sure he can explain how it's fair that if my wife and I were making $30,000 a year we'd be paying about 5% of our income in Federal taxes but if we're making $100,000 a year we'd be paying about 15% of our income in Federal taxes and if we're making about $10,000,000 then we'd be paying about 1/3 of our income in taxes).

As an aside - only 1% of the Federal budget comes from people who make less than $30,000 a year, the nation's median income. Frankly, I'd be inclined to eliminate taxes on the first $30,000 of income if only to make people stop bitching about the taxes on the rich. Then again, I'm in favor of a simple tax structure. eliminate all of the stupid tax breaks/credits/etc. and go with the flat rate where all income, regardless of source, is taxed equally, something like:

0 to 30K 0 %
30K to 45K 10%
45K to 100K 25%
100K to 1mm 33%
over 1mm 37%

Quote of the Day

From Greg Easterbrook -

Capitalism Will Make a Movie About the Hanging of Capitalism:

The new movie 'Fast Food Nation,' which ridicules fast food as a corporate conspiracy, is produced by the cinema division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, a multinational. 'An Inconvenient Truth,' which tells us big corporations are destroying the world, is distributed by Paramount Classics, owned by Viacom, a multinational. Many recent thrillers and action movies depict big corporations as evil, and the movies are produced and distributed by big corporations. Presumably this happens because the evil corporation is a hackneyed cliche of screenwriting, and in recent years Hollywood has produced little beyond hackneyed cliches. But consider: Perhaps sinister corporations have some secret reason for wanting us to think big corporations are sinister.