Obama, On Broadway
Barack Obama campaigns in Hillary Clinton's backyard this week, fundraising with Broadway stars on 9/24 and holding a rally in Washington Square Park on 9/26 p.m. NY is, of course, not in play. But Obama's previous events in NYC have been big successes. The size of the rally on the 26th, which will be held on NYU's campus, could be telling evidence of Obama's appeal to young voters.
Speaking of generational differences, Obama tried to mend a perceived schism between his appeal to young voters and (ahem) more mature ones this weekend in IA. Obama held town halls to discuss his middle class tax cut, which includes eliminating taxes for 7M seniors who make less than $50K/yr and lets 22M seniors to not have to file tax returns.
To put Obama's tax plan into context, half of all seniors don't pay taxes now, according to the AARP. As of '04 data, 17M tax returns were filed for senior households and 12.5M of those returns were for taxable income. A big question on the Obama plan is whether the $50,000 ceiling for not paying taxes applies to individuals or joint income tax returns.
He also had an editorial in the Quad City Times making a direct appeal to seniors on his tax cut and his plans for Social Security. Obama: "I do not want to cut benefits or raise the retirement age," and instead embraced a solution, endorsed by the AARP, which would apply the payroll tax to all income not just the first $97,500. Previously Obama had said that all three options, rasing the tax ceiling, the retirement age or cutting benefits were all on the table.
The key note in Obama's editorial, however, was his reference to the size of the population receiving social security benefits in Iowa. 20 percent of Iowans, or 1 in 5 receive social security. How many of these older Iowans are caucus goers? How many caucus for Democrats, and is Obama doing enough to create a base of support with these voters? [ASWINI ANBURAJAN].
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