Obama Speech: Are Americans Willing to Sacrifice?

My Family is Low-Middle Income, but We Are Willing to Pay More Taxes If Needed

First, Denise and I listened to the first major Barack Obama speech by the president-elect. Then I took my wife on a two-mile drive to her second-shift job in the kitchen of a nursing home in Saginaw, Michigan.

We could relate to the Obama speech in many ways, simply through this simple action in our everyday lives.

The Obama speech emphasized a need to make various investments in order to recharge a dead economy. One of those investments noted in the Obama speech is the "infrastructure" - roads, neighborhoods, school buildings and so forth.

Roads? We dodged major potholes on both the major streets and the side streets. The definition of "defensive driving" is supposed to be to watch out for irresponsible motorists, but defensive driving in Saginaw during mid-winter 2009 is to swerve from the potholes. If the Obama speech promises that streets and roads will be repaired, we're all for it.

Neighborhoods? We passed through a neighborhood in transition, with one or two abandoned houses on virtually every block. If the Obama speech indicates funds to preserve the infrastructure of neighborhoods, we're all for it.

Schools? We passed a ramshackle junior high school built during the year 1922. If the Obama speech pledges investment in schools, we're all for it.

The question that arises, is that if a minimum investment for economic recovery will cost at least $775 billion, who will pay for it? There are still a lot of anti-tax people out there, millionaires and people with six-figure incomes who complain about their taxes. Well, Denise and myself right now have a combined income of about $30,000, and the Obama speech promises to cut our taxes. That sounds great, but sooner or later, Americans will have to invest. We don't make $5 million a year or $500,000 or even $50,000, but if we need to pay a little bit more, we are willing. And we are sorry that more people don't feel the same way. If 82 percent of Americans among us say they support Barack Obama, more of us should tell him that we are willing to back our faith in him with personal economic sacrifice.