Why can't Obama close the deal?
Obama is out of touch with rural Americans!
Why isn't Obama one of us?!
That's all we heard for two years -- reaching the point of cable news hacktastical insanity during the latter days of the primaries and on through the general election. And now President Obama and the Democrats want to give the working poor a tax break and other forms of relief as outlined in the recovery bill. But, as I vocally documented in the previous post, Republicans like Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan would rather spend this money on tax breaks to corporations. Buchanan, point blank, asked John Podesta why "they can't give the $80 billion to corporate tax cuts."
Here are some facts for the Morning Joe crew:
Farming counties from the Dakotas down the middle of the country to Texas showed the sharpest drop in personal income between 2005 and 2006, according to recently-released data prepared by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.[...]
In metro areas, the average personal income was $38,564, compared to $27,403 in nonmetro areas. For the third straight year, nonmetro income fell as a percent of metro personal income. In 2006, nonmetro personal income was just 74.6 percent of the U.S. average.
Of all Americans who earn $9,140 to $24,250 a year, 87 percent are rural. Furthermore, which regions are filing for the EITC?
In tax year 2005, the greatest number of EITC filers lived in the suburbs of large metropolitan areas. [...]
In the South and West, rural taxpayers were most likely to receive the EITC...
But. But. Why can't Obama close the deal with rural and suburban Americans?