Friday, February 27, 2009

Barack Obama's Economic Class Warfare

Readers may have noticed Dr. Hussein Biobrain's response to my earlier essay, "Class Warfare Denialism." But let's elaborate a bit more on this morning's entry.

It goes without saying that Barack Obama's got a problem with wealth and wealth creation.
The administration's new budget represents the biggest wealth transfer in American history, a radically-pure spending blowout that must be justified by excoriating the corporate sector and the nation's affluent for reaping "selfish gains" while refusing to "invest" in America's future. That kind of talk is leftist code language for big government advocacy.

Democratic-leftists will of course argue that this is not class warfare. President Obama is not "demonizing the upper-class in order to make people in the lower classes angry at them." Today's nihilist lefties will argue that the party's money grab is simply a matter of "raising taxes on people who can afford it, while allowing less fortunate people to keep their money."

Don't believe it for a minute - this is pure Democratic baloney. The New American examines President Obama's address to the nation for trick wording and dishonest blame-shifting:

Statement: “A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future.”

Correction: This is a clear reference to the Bush-era tax cuts that allowed the American people to keep more of their own money. It’s also an equally clear indication of where Obama is coming from in his worldview. He speaks of a “transfer” of “wealth to the wealthy” as if the people’s money was government’s to dole out as it wills. Your wealth is not your own, Obama says. Everything belongs to government, and whatever scraps government allows you to keep is a privilege and a “transfer” from the common wealth bank that is government. "Investment" is simply a rhetorical device to refer to "government spending" for Obama.

Obama blaming bankers for the banking crisis is a bit like saying that wet streets cause rain.
Kimberley Strassel also examines Obama's doublespeak, for example this whopper from the president's meeting with Democratic congressional members in Williamsburg, Va., early this month:

"We are not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin."

Translation: Blame Republicans, and tax cuts.

Mr. Obama inherited a deficit, though it wasn't caused by letting Americans keep more of their paychecks. It was caused by a need to rebuild the military to fight two wars (at least one of which he supported), and by that worn-out old idea known as spending, which lost the GOP its majority, and which Mr. Obama is now touting as economic elixir.

He also inherited a recession, though no economist with an IQ above 60 would suggest tax cuts caused the housing bubble. That came courtesy of easy money and loose lending standards, the latter of which Congress encouraged. Presumably, if tax cuts were responsible for the deficit and the recession, Mr. Obama wouldn't be constantly boasting that he wants tax cuts for 95% of Americans.

The wider goal is to vaguely link everything conservative with everything gone wrong, the better to present liberal ideas as a cure. Besides, it's useful to have a GOP to keep blaming, if the cure doesn't work.

In other words, attack Republicans and "demonize the upper-class" as a way to build support for a gargantuan and potentially permanent expansion of government that would make LBJ blanch.

So don't listen the Democratic-left's bogus disavowals. These people are not only
stupendously abject liars, but are predatory wolves as well.

6 comments:

Tapline said...

DD, Great Post....He's on TV everyday with some other edict...Now the military will get a raise,,,yea, an raise the amount I have to pay above Medicare and Tri-care to get medical which was a promise from government many many years ago...free medical for life after 20 years. Oh yea, you might get killed during that time but not to worry your folks will get 10,000 if your killed in action.....I ramble...stay well...

AmPowerBlog said...

Thanks Tapper!

Doctor Biobrain said...

And right back atcha, Donald:
Assumptions of Class Warfare

Doctor Biobrain said...

Tapline, I don't understand why the government doesn't pay for everyone's healthcare. Our current system is a mess and when my kids were on the CHIP program, it was no different than the health insurance my wife's employer gets us now, which is decent. And CHIP was DEFINITELY better than one provider we had a few years back, which ripped us off and lied to us for two years. I got sent to a collection agency for a bill I never should have paid and STILL never got reimbursed for everything. That never happened with CHIP.

But let me guess at the rebuttal: Socialized medicine scary, waiting lists, doctors fleeing the country. Yawn! Always the assumption that we have some perfect healthcare system now and people don't end up dying in emergency rooms after waiting for eighteen hours. Or waiting until an emergency instead of getting preventive healthcare. Or getting ripped off by their insurance provider.

And we definitely need to get employers out of the healthcare business. How can we compete with international companies that don't need to pay for worker healthcare? We're paying for this stuff one way or the other. We can pay it in taxes or in higher prices. But it's all getting paid for.

Phoenician in a Time of Romans said...

Let's see:

"The current top tax rate on "ordinary" work income sits at 35 percent. But dividends and capital gains from the buying and selling of most assets face only a 15 percent top rate. That's why in 2006, America's top 400 paid just 17.2 percent of their $263 million average incomes in federal tax.

Millions of middle-class American families, once you tally income and payroll taxes, pay far more of their incomes in tax. One particularly striking example from billionaire investor Warren Buffett: In 2006, he paid 17.7 percent of his income in total taxes. His secretary, who made $60,000, paid 30 percent of hers. [...]

In actual economic practice, those lower taxes have served instead to fuel speculation and increase budget deficits. For the ultrarich themselves, the tax savings have been nothing short of breathtaking. Back in 1955, America's top 400 paid more than 50 percent of their incomes in federal tax, almost triple the rate of today's top 400."

Hmmm - yeah, it would be truly terrible to return to those awful, awful days of 1955 when America teetered on the brink of a socialist takeover...

Rider I said...

These are my beliefs and thoughts.

Basic economic communist warfare.
Republicans have played right into the communist hands. We have exploited and exported all of the America jobs, we tried to superficial recreate an industrial revolution through services like the .com bank bust or now the mortgage bank bust but it will not work.
The Republicans can be blamed because it is there job to stop communist ideals. I am a republican and I believe our leadership has done a bad job.
However, lowering corporate taxes for American business only and giving incentives for research and development for corporations is a start to getting back our jobs and economy. I believe Obama is for both, and for a pay as you go system of government.
Please for gees sake comment on my post, no one comments on my post
rideri.blogspot.com
Rider I Anti-Economic Warfare blog post.
Indivisimus Maximus can solve the worlds deficit. I just have to teach it more and help it grow.

Rider I,