Metro Atlantans divided on tax cuts

Does $250,000 a year make you wealthy? As Atlantans join the national debate over tax cuts for what headline writers inevitably call “the rich,” they’re grappling with fundamental American notions about wealth, upward mobility and fairness.

Brian DeLong earns about $43,000 a year waterproofing buildings. He never expects to be rich and he doesn’t consider $250,000 a year to be rich.

“I’m just a construction worker,” said DeLong, 41, of Doraville, who is fiercely Republican in his politics. “I’m just not in that bracket.”

Even so, he favors extending the breaks for all Americans.

“Why should those people suffer because I don’t make that kind of money,” he said. “They worked to get what they got. That’s what we’re all striving for.”

DeLong exemplifies what national polls have revealed: Your views on issues like tax policy may depend less on how much money you make than on your political philosophy and how much you think it takes to be called rich.

J.R. Nash, a part-time chef at a top steakhouse in Atlanta, said he's seen groups of three or four people come in, sit at a table and spend $8,000 on a meal, replete with a $1,000 bottle of wine. The Democrat, who makes $15,000 a year, doesn't think people making $250,000— whom he considers, if not rich, at least "close" — should be protected from a tax rate hike.

"They don't need more money," said Nash, 34. "That's greed. "

In September, a national poll of registered voters by the McClatchy media organization and Marist University found that 67 percent of Democrats but only 46 percent of Republicans thought households with $250,o00 in income were "wealthy." Tea Party supporters were even less likely than Republicans to describe $250,000 a year as rich.

Tea Party adherents were also the strongest advocates of tax cuts for all.  "Lower taxes are a major part of what the Tea Party stands for," said Michael Williams, a board member of the Cobb County-based Georgia Tea Party.

In Washington, Democrats are lambasting Republicans for protecting the wealthiest Americans at a time when many people are suffering during the worst economy in eight decades. Statistically, only about 2 percent of American households make $250,000 or more. Nevertheless, the McClatchy-Marist poll found that nearly half of registered voters would not call someone who makes $250,000 rich.

Robert Cairns said he earned close to $250,000 as a manager in a medical device company in 2003. He went on to own his own small real estate management company. He doesn't see an annual income of $250,000 as representing wealth. The tax breaks will help small business owners, he said.

"Extending the breaks will allow small business owners to maintain and improve their businesses, and hire more people, " said Cairns, 51, a former Republican who now is more independent.

Several metro Atlantans echoed his  reasoning, even though they earn less. They said well-off people create jobs, and that the  money they deposit in banks allows the banks to make loans and investments. Many also said they believe that someday, with a little luck, they may strike it rich themselves.

"Americans have aspiration," said Robert Grafstein, a University of Georgia political scientist. "They believe there's chance of making it big."

Pauldeleon Mason, 34, struggles to support himself with his photography. He is staying in a place in East Point that has water but no heat. When it's cold, he spends most of the day in places where it's warm. On Monday he was in Perimeter Mall. When he goes home, "I have a blanket."

But Mason still believes he can make it rich. He has a short film on You Tube and has written a script about a college girl learning to be a federal investigator, which he hopes a film studio will produce.

Lori Silkwood not only believed she could get rich, she thought she was well on her way.

The first year after receiving her real estate license in 2004, she sold 17 homes worth a combined $2 million-plus. She likes to tell people, "I could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo."

Then the housing crisis shut the lid on sales, and six years later she is selling flowers at Kroger. Her income has shrunk to less than half what it was, to about $18,000, and she has a smaller home and smaller car.

"I'm the little guy," said the single mother of two, who opposes extending the high-end tax breaks.

As for making a mint, "I don't see it happening in my lifetime."