Thursday, February 26, 2009

Obama Looks to Soak the Rich

What better indicator of President Barack Obama's true ideological agenda than his announcement today that his administration will seek more taxes on the wealthy to pay for his redistributionist agenda:

President Obama will propose further tax increases on the affluent to help pay for his promise to make health care more accessible and affordable, calling for stricter limits on the benefits of itemized deductions taken by the wealthiest households, administration officials said Wednesday.

The tax proposal, coming after recent years in which wealth has become more concentrated at the top of the income scale, introduces a politically volatile edge to the Congressional debate over Mr. Obama’s domestic priorities.

The president will also propose, in the 10-year budget he is to release Thursday, to use revenues from the centerpiece of his environmental policy — a plan under which companies must buy permits to exceed pollution emission caps — to pay for an extension of a two-year tax credit that benefits low-wage and middle-income people.

The combined effect of the two revenue-raising proposals, on top of Mr. Obama’s existing plan to roll back the Bush-era income tax reductions on households with income exceeding $250,000 a year, would be a pronounced move to redistribute wealth by reimposing a larger share of the tax burden on corporations and the most affluent taxpayers.
Remember all those right-wing attacks from last year on Obama as being the most liberal presidential nominee ever? Well, conservatives were right all along, and it shouldn't be any surprise.

See also
John at Powerline:

Barack Obama ran for President on a "spread the wealth around" platform, and we're now seeing that this was no empty campaign promise. The Obama administration proposes to expand the wealth and power of the federal government beyond anything heretofore imagined. When he asked how he will finance his grandiose plans, Obama's only non-magical answer is that he will increase taxes on "the rich."

This is a common Democratic Party mantra, of course. In truth, however, there are very few people who are actually rich, and those who are prosperous (what the Democrats mean by "rich") are already overtaxed. In today's
Wall Street Journal, the editors do the math: even if Obama were to steal every penny, the people he calls "rich" don't make enough money to finance the federal government ...
See also Mike at Flopping Aces, "The week before the 2008 election I asked what happens when you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? We may be about to find out."

More later ...

6 comments:

Tom the Redhunter said...

This is nuts.

Notice that the stock market has gone nowhere but down since Obama took office. Investors vote with their money, and they're voting against the Obama economic plan.

fyi for economically illiterate; the stock market is a leading indicator; it tells you which way the economy is going.

AmPowerBlog said...

It's all nuts, Tom. Conservatives pretty much nailed it all along...

Law and Order Teacher said...

Dr.D,
Conservatives for sure. But there aren't many conservatives in the Republican party anymore. Mostly there are just politicians. About 40% of the earmarks in the newest spending bill in the hit parade are from Republicans. Shameful. We need to vote them out.

Tapline said...

DD, I haven't had a decent post for a couple of months.....There is just too much crap going on and I don't know what I can do. I have written my reps and that's like talking to a stone wall. they don't even acknowledge my correspondance and a I don't put in what I feel...just the facts and ask for answers , but there is none forthcoming. AS far as the present reps are concerned 40% pork belongs to the Republicans...We definately need now blood in Washington all the way around. They listen to no one....Greed makes strange bedfellows.......stay well....

Tapline said...

DD, I haven't had a decent post for a couple of months.....There is just too much crap going on and I don't know what I can do. I have written my reps and that's like talking to a stone wall. they don't even acknowledge my correspondance and a I don't put in what I feel...just the facts and ask for answers , but there is none forthcoming. AS far as the present reps are concerned 40% pork belongs to the Republicans...We definately need now blood in Washington all the way around. They listen to no one....Greed makes strange bedfellows.......stay well....

Average American said...

My first impression on this was, maybe Hollywood will think twice about who they love. Oprah probably won't care, but a few of them might.

The stock market part is what hits me hardest. I was planning to start taking money out in a couple of years. I may have to work longer than I had planned. That totally sucks! as the younger generation would say.