Midterm

"Upper-Income Taxpayers Look for Ways to Sidestep Obama Tax-Hike Plan"

The article that I have chosen to analyze for the midterm is by Emily Friedman addressing Obama's plan for taxes.  In the article, the reader learns that those that have an annual family income of $250,000 or more are going to be taxed at a different level than those who do not make as much.  This issue, in particular, is causing a lot of commotion with those that are making that much money, because they feel that they are working hard to just give it back to those that aren't working as hard.  One of the upper middle class-ers actually said "The motivation for a lot of people like me...is that the more you work the more money you make.  But if I'm going to be working just to give it back to the government -- it's demotivating and demoralizing."  Although Obama's main intentions with the extra funds are to one day have a universal health plan, many people aren't seeing past the fact that they are being taxed right now and aren't very happy about this.  

The author for this article, Emily Friedman, appears to be a reliable source.  On the ABC News website, after typing in Emily Friedman the articles she has written go on for pages upon pages, with topics across the news spectrum.  It appears that she has also researched for the article pretty thoroughly, after finding people to interview from across the country - Louisiana, Colorado, and Maryland.  

Something else to take into consideration is this is a second version of the story because there wasn't enough of an analysis for those making $250k or more in the first version, so it appears that she definitely had to do more research and really understand the topic she was writing for.  When I went to Obama's site to see what his plans were for taxing the upper-income bracket,  I actually couldn't find much besides his plan to boost the middle class - from simplifying the tax filing system to providing a tax cut for "working families".   

Once I searched through the site more, I found where Obama addresses the increase in taxes, and he does so in a way that I find very political (in the right way).  "Families making more than $250,000 will pay either the same or lower tax rates than they paid in the 1990s.  Obama will ask the wealthiest 2% of families to give back a portion of tax cuts they have received over the past eight years to ensure we are restoring fairness and returning to fiscal responsibility.  But no family will pay higher tax rates than they would have paid in the 1990s.  In fact, dividends would be 39 percent lower than what President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut." (http://www.barackobama.com/taxes/)  I think that the way that this is worded is something that should have been reflected in the article.  I also can definitely find this source very reliable because it is coming "straight from the horse's mouth" - a.k.a. Barack Obama.  This is directly off his campaigning site and was clearly composed by someone that has talked to Obama and understands the ins and outs of his plan completely.  

After reading the article, I feel like Friedman is almost trying to sympathize with those that are making over the American average, when there are people that are getting laid off day after day due to our economy.  The author doesn't point out the many good points that are planned to come with this new plan, and I think that this is a clear bias.  It actually makes me a little mad that people are complaining about being taxed more and are contemplating taking a pay cut.  One of the women interviewed says "We are going to try to figure out how to make our income $249,999.00."  I know that millions of people would be happy to make over $250k and I'm almost positive would take a tax cut.  I'm not sure if Friedman was trying to cater to the demand for more analysis for the families making $250,000 or more, or if she really feels like this plan is unfair.  Either way, the information appears to be correct and the author seems to be reliable, although it does seem that there is some bias to the story.  

All for now.

-Caitlyn