Opinion: Joe Biden calls it ‘patriotic’ for the wealthy to pay more taxes

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Democrats have been loudly complaining about John McCain, Sarah Palin and other Republicans routinely misrepresenting Barack Obama’s tax plan by asserting the Democrat would raise the levies that Americans hate to pay across the board. In a true shocker, even a Fox News anchor gave a McCain aide flack on the matter earlier this week.

Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, today sought -- in his inimitable way -- to stress that the Democratic platform calls for increasing income taxes only for those making more than $250,000 a year. But in the process, he delivered a line sure to be mocked far and wide by the GOP.

‘You got it,’ he said on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ when his interviewer noted that Obama was targeting the affluent. ‘It’s time (for the well-off) to be patriotic.’ (See the clip below.)

Already, the Republican National Committee has sent off an e-mail flagging the quote. And we’re betting it shows up quickly as a laugh line in McCain and Palin stump speeches.

[UPDATE: Right on cue, Palin scoffed at Biden’s comment as she and McCain stumped late this morning in Iowa. Telling her typically adoring crowd what the Delaware senator had said, she parried that raising taxes isn’t about patriotism, it’s ‘about killing jobs and hurting small businesses and making things worse.’]

[UPDATE II: McCain, taking the stage after Palin, said of raising taxes in tough times: ‘It’s not a badge of honor. It’s just plain dumb.’]

-- Don Frederick