Obama says: “Tonight, more Americans are out of work, and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes, and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.”

The median salary in the US in 2001 was $ 45,300. Today, the median salary is $50,233.00. So what the hell is he talking about where he says that you are working harder for less? He talks about unemployment. Unemployment is up 1.4% since 2000, however, the labor force has increased from 142M to 153M and our unemployment rate today at 5.4% is less than what the rate was from 1980-1988 and 1990-1996. But they would want you to believe that this is a doomsday scenario.

Obama says: “But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.”

Well the truth is that: “According to Congressional Quarterly's Voting Studies, in 2007 McCain voted in line with the president's position 95 percent of the time – the highest percentage rate for McCain since Bush took office – and voted in line with his party 90 percent of the time. However, McCain's support of President Bush's position has been as low as 77 percent (in 2005), and his support for his party's position has been as low as 67 percent (2001).” Obama’s voting record shows that he voted with Bush 40-49% of the time and voted in line with fellow Senate Democrats 97 percent of the time in 2007 and 2005, and 96 percent of the time in 2006, according to CQ. So when he talks of change, is he talking about someone who votes 97% of the time with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? The Democratic Line? That’s not change; it’s the same thing you would expect from a typical liberal politician. Obama is a hypocrite and disingenuous when he says that McCain “has been anything but independent,” Obama is not “independent”, he’s part and parcel with the liberal democratic establishment.

Obama says “We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president, when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000, like it has under George Bush.” This is just smoke and mirrors with statistics for as I’ve shown above, the median rather than the average income, the true middle, has gone up $5K since 2000. So this is typical hogwash.

Obama says: “We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business,” yet his tax plan which will sock to folks over $ 250K per year socks it to small business owners who are majority S-corporations. The corporate income passes through to the personal income taxes of the shareholders, even if they do not take the money out of the corporation, and will be taxed. So now the additional taxes the shareholders will pay will deplete additional funds, which can be used to purchase additional goods, capital investment, raises, and hiring new employees. The United States currently has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, and this nitwit is using his class warfare dialectic to somehow convince that corporations are not paying their fair share. The upper 2% of Americans that Obama wants to rob using the internal revenue code pay over 90% of the taxes in the US Treasury. So when he says he wants to cut taxes on the majority of middle class Americans who is he fooling? These folks pay much less taxes and any tax break would amount to little.

In his speech, all this guy did was talk about misery. You would think there are no successes in this country, except of course, himself.

Obama says: “Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity, not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.” This too is disingenuous from someone who went back on his promise to take public funding like McCain did and has money up the wazoo from all liberal interests. There were a bunch of fat cat lobbyists in Denver with money for the Dems, but there is not much talk about them, except for the ABC reporters who were arrested trying to cover that story.

Here’s perhaps the biggest bs I heard from Obama all night:

“

Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.

Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.

I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the startups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow . . . I will cut taxes — cut taxes for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.”

Yet his tax policy will hurt small business by his raising of taxes on income and payroll taxes. Also, contrary to the talking points from the dems, there are no tax breaks for corporations who ship jobs overseas. It’s a lie. There is nothing in the IRC that makes corporations take jobs overseas. They take job overseas because labor is cheaper there. And if they make labor even more expensive here by giving unions a free reign, with the new labor amendments to the NLRA that will abolish the secret election requirement and even higher mandatory minimum wages, then corporations will have no choice to go overseas or pass the price increases to the public and thereby increase inflation.

Since the Bush tax cuts will sunset automatically, tax rates will increase to 39.6% on all income over $ 288,350. Currently, the tax rates for married joint are 10% between $0-16,050, 15% 16,050-65,100, 25% 65,100 and 131,450, 28% 131,450-200,300, 33% 200,300 – 357,700 and 35% 357,700 and above. So if you’re a family with taxable income of $100,000, your taxes under the Clinton era 2000 tax rates which will be the rates under Obama would be: $ 23,300. Under current tax rates, the tax would be $ 17,688, or a tax increase of $ 6,000.00. Furthermore, Obama’s plan when you read it, you will see that other than eliminating taxes on seniors with incomes less than $ 50,000 (the current amount is $32K per year), all he is doing is adding additional tax credits which are phased out as income rises.

This is Obama’s tax plan right out of his literature:

“Obama will cut income taxes by $1,000 for working families to offset the payroll tax they pay.

* Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families: Obama will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million workers the tax relief they need. Obama will create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. The "Making Work Pay" tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans.
* Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less than $50,000: Barack Obama will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This proposal will eliminate income taxes for 7 million seniors and provide these seniors with an average savings of $1,400 each year. Under the Obama plan, 27 million American seniors will also not need to file an income tax return.”

So under his plan, if you are a senior with income of $50K or less per year, you’re going to get a break. But that’s it. His credits will phase out as you hit joint incomes of $ 100K. So when he says he will cut taxes for 95% of Americans, he is lying. The tax rates will be the same as they were in 2000 with the exception of the additional standard deduction the elderly will get.

Now if you have joint income of $ 250,000, under current tax code, your taxes would be $ 61,229. Under the Obama plan, your taxes will be $73,049 or a tax increase of $ 13K. The man is selling you smoke and mirrors and fireworks, but he’s lying when he says that he will cut taxes. Tax credits are not a tax cut. And this does not take into consideration the AMT which will cause you to pay more taxes as well. The marginal tax rates will be what they were under the Clinton Administration. And this genius somehow that this tax increases will help jumpstart the economy? Beats the hell out of me. And these tax credits of course will be phased out so not everyone will benefit as he has promised.

Of course, Obama gives you the Pelosi talking points on energy.

He says:

“And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office."

Well folks, Canada and not the Mideast is our number 1 oil supplier. Second, Obama and the Dems are against drilling in ANWR and the Gulf Basin when the oil there can provide us with energy for 60 years or more. It is a short-term solution, but not drilling will not eliminate our demand for oil and likewise, his alternative fuel mantra is simply farm subsidies for corn ethanol which is a disaster.

Obama says:

“Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.

Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.

And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.”

What this means is that he wants to amend the Family Medical Leave Act which currently provides qualified employee job security and unpaid leave up to 90 days. He wants to amend the law to mandate that employers provide paid leave. Sounds like socialism to me.

I agree with him that the bankruptcy laws should be amended, but he’s full of it when he says that CEO bonuses have greater protection than pensions. That’s not true. Bonuses do not have preference under the code. This again is the same class warfare bs you expect from rich liberals with a socialist agenda.
Now he makes reference to “equal pay”. There is an equal pay act against gender discrimination which has been in effect since 1963 and Title VII which has been in effect since 1964. What he wants to do is enact amendments to the law which changes the 2-year statute of limitation to and endless statute of limitations which will benefit trial attorneys and bankrupt business. (The Ledbetter Act).
Obama says: “We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.” But he said that if elected, he will sign the freedom of choice act which is currently in the Senate and the House which codifies under Federal Law Abortion on Demand. This federal legislation will supersede all state laws and constitutions and will even penalize doctors who on moral grounds refuse to perform abortions. And more interesting is that the law provides a civil cause of action against anyone who interferes with abortion on demand. Under this law, all parental notification requirements for abortion will be superseded by federal law so a 12 year old will be able to have an abortion without notifying her parents.

The rest of his speech is “happy talk” as he phrased it, so I’m not going to comment on it. His promises are the same crap John Kerry and other liberals have promised. The same old tired policies of the past that did not work. He wants to revive Jimmy Carter’s Windfall Profits Act. It didn’t work then and won’t work now. So when he talks of new ideas, he’s fooling everyone with his cult of personality. Now the liberals are so happy they are passing the joint tonight. What I’ve written here tonight are facts; the truth about what he really says. He’s a disingenuous politician; pure and simple. He has no accomplishments as a civil servant. But to the lefties, they don’t care. He can give a great speech.

Michael Pancier is an accountant and a Board Certified Labor & Employment Attorney.