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I noticed that the Associated Press story about Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden’s comments about taxes and the wealthy on Good Morning America today, left out an important part of the quote. The part where Biden stressed that yes, the wealthy will pay more taxes, but their taxes will be less than they were under Ronald Reagan.

Biden was asked about Obama’s tax increase on those making more than $250,000, and said, “It’s time to be patriotic, time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut, and the way to do that is, and they are still going to be paying less taxes than they paid under Reagan.” See, the full quote makes a lot more sense, but the ever rightward leaning AP could not be bothered to use the full quote.

Biden said he isn’t nervous about the closeness of the race, “Not at all. Look when 82% of the people think the country is going in the wrong direction, when the same outfit has been in charge for the last eight years, when you are in a position where you have Wall Street crumbling right before our eyes, and hope to God we can prop it up to keep it from spreading to Main Street like a plague. The idea that they are going to reelect somebody that doesn’t have a fundamental disagreement with George W. Bush on the economy, taxes, healthcare, etc, I am not nervous at all.”

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The McCain campaign jumped all over this saying that higher taxes and bigger government aren’t patriotic, but Biden never mentioned big government. The Obama camp would be thrilled if the McCain campaign wants to spend their time defending tax cuts for the wealthy. Doing so would be making Obama’s point for him. Of course, the McCain camp is going to try to spin this as Obama wanting to raise taxes on everyone, but the idea that the wealthy have gotten a free ride over the past eight years resonates with a lot of people.

Why can’t Republicans accept a tax right that is in line with those of their high priest Ronald Reagan? I think the past eight years have proven once again that trickledown economics doesn’t work. The plan of tax cuts for the rich, and credit for everyone else, has pushed our economy towards the edge of collapse.

What’s wrong with asking those who have the most to pay their fair share? They have benefitted the most from the past eight years and now it is time to give a little back. This is populist argument that hits home with many people. It is point that the McCain campaign would be foolish to vigorously oppose.

Watch the full video here.