Job 25% Done: Post-Election Ponderings

Everyone seems so energised that Obama won the US Presidential Election and subsequently made his 'Yes, we can' victory speech. It didn't resonate so much with me, although I did cry - probably more because I've become so cynical of politicians than because I feel this one is actually going to change America.

Being a glass-half-empty kind of person, I'm thinking the job is only 25% done at best. He still needs to prove himself in the White House and shake off the impression that he's a socialist, which doesn't score very high points in my dictionary or most Americans' dictionaries. I'm still waiting for Obama to appoint Hillary as Secretary of State or to oust Treasury Secretary Paulson (regardless, Paulson's ousted himself).

Most of all, I'm hoping that the Republicans in Congress will be able to prevent Obama and the Democrats from raising taxes as he's planned.

This campaign has made me realise how ridiculous the US progressive tax system is. There are people who fit into lower income tax brackets that can actually have a higher net income after taxes than a person in a higher tax bracket. Meanwhile, people with lower incomes are 'entitled' to a whole array of government benefits. The 10% tax credit for homeowners that Obama has proposed is just boiling my blood. It has increasingly become clear to me that today's financial crisis in large part is a repercussion of lenient government policies established during the Great Depression.

The US government does not tax all of its citizens equally. Someone who is supposedly making a lot of money according to the US government ends up paying almost double the amount in taxes than a person who makes a very small amount of money. We are penalised for wanting to make more money and the US tax policy as it stands actually equalises net income. If you don't believe this, check out the following analysis I did, which shows the net income after federal tax deductions for some income levels in the higher income brackets to be less than net income after federal tax deductions for some income levels in the lower income brackets.

If John McCain said one thing right - it's that these are tough times, let's not raise taxes on anybody.

And if Obama's going to cut taxes, everyone should get a tax break. He's clearly favouring people in lower income tax brackets at the expense of the people in the higher income tax brackets. And this is really, really unfair.The Republicans have recently become like the short-sellers. Everyone wants to pick on them. However, as unpopular as the Republicans are, they are necessary in our political arena because they provide an order of checks and balances.