TOLEDO, Ohio - Democrat Barack Obama proposed more immediate steps Monday to heal the nation's ailing economy including a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures at some banks and a two-year tax break for businesses that create new jobs.Yet eight months ago, he stated that a 90 day freeze would be potentially disastrous to the economy. This erratic strategy reveals a shallow understanding of this complex problem.
But according to some economists and officials grappling with the crisis, her proposal, which also offers a $30-billion foreclosure fund that is triple the size of Obama's, might only prolong the agony for homeowners.
"A 90-day freeze is fine for what it is, but what happens on the 91st day?" Rokakis asked. "Why not a year? Or longer?"
In San Antonio on Tuesday, Obama said that Clinton's foreclosure freeze was potentially "disastrous," rewarding "people who made this problem worse" by benefiting banks that profit from high mortgage rates.
A "blanket freeze," Obama added, might "drive rates through the roof for those trying to buy or refinance. Experts say the value of homes will fall even more, and even more families could face foreclosure."
Obama's plan calls for raising taxes only on the 5 percent of people who make more than $250,000 a year. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that under Obama's approach the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers would see their taxes go up on average by $93,709 in 2009, For McCain, those same wealthy taxpayers would see an average reduction of $48,860.
Who comprises the 5% of people making over $250,000? According to data from the 2002 census, this tax scheme would dramatically injure black owned businesses.
It took an intrepid blogger to do the work journalists are paid to do, yet refuse:
It took an intrepid blogger to do the work journalists are paid to do, yet refuse:
According to a recent 2002 Census report black-owned businesses made $88 billion dollars and there were 1.2 million black-owned businesses in the United States. But here’s the interesting breakdown. Approximately 44,000 black-owned businesses out of 1.2 million black-owned businesses make over $250,000 a year which means that particular group make up almost 4% of the total black-owned businesses. A pretty small percentage. However, that 4% of the total businesses that make more than $250,000 a year make up 72% of all total receipts. And that 4% of the total black-owned businesses make up 83% of the total employees they hire and they account for 89% of the total annual payroll amount for all black-owned businesses. In other words, by taxing those 4% of black-owned business (assuming percentage-wise it hasn't changed much to today) that make up 89% of the total annual payroll would have a direct impact on workers who stake their livelihoods working for black-owned businesses and their ability to survive in a cut-throat business competition would just get harder for these guys. And by taking money away from crucial black-owned businesses they may be forced to lay off additional workers just to survive
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