By caving
Posted on 01/19/2015 7:33:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
President Obama and his Democrat allies are back to their usual Eat the Rich strategy, one which will be on display at the State of the Union. Noah talked about this last night and left some interesting questions on the table.
Even though some of these tax increases will do the middle class no favors, it is not clear they will be rejected by a majority of the public. Pollsters increasingly find that the Democratic Party’s message of economic populism is resonating with a public that has not seen their incomes increase in years.
This is a message which hasn’t been lost on the President’s team, as they are clearly moving forward full steam ahead.
Senior White House officials say President Obama will use his state of the union to float several new economic ideas, including tax hikes on capital gains and wealthy inheritances, and new fees on the largest financial firms to pay for more middle class-friendly tax credits and cuts.
The price tag to the wealthiest Americans and those large financial institutions? According to senior White House officials it could be $320 billion over 10 years.
The president will propose raising the capital gains rate to 28 percent, up from 15 percent, which is the maximum most taxpayers pay now.
Let’s just get one thing out of the way up front. This dog and pony show has zero to do with policy and everything to do with politics. Obama already knows that not one of these proposals will ever make it within smelling distance of the floor for a vote in either chamber. What’s being done here is essentially a hand-off of the baton to Hillary Clinton and all of the Democrat hopefuls with an eye toward the next election. This doesn’t make it a stupid idea for the President. He doesn’t need to jack up the tax rates to be successful. He just needs to make the Republicans refuse to jack up the tax rates.
This populist message is referred to as “populist” for a reason. People with less wealth are often hard pressed to resist feeling a bit of jealousy toward those who are more successful. Even if draining all the wealth from the wealthy won’t make any significant difference in their own lives, there is a nasty siren call associated with the idea of taking the fat cats down a peg or two.
This is a message which can be countered, but only if it’s done intelligently. If there is one thing which is more powerful than jealousy, it’s aspiration. As far as the working class goes, they almost universally have one thing in common; they aspire to reach a higher, more comfortable status themselves. Traditionally we saw Americans who didn’t hate or even envy the rich to a great degree. They looked at that big house in the more expensive part of town and didn’t want to burn it down… they wanted a house like that for themselves. And if they did manage to make it up near the top of the ladder they certainly didn’t want a 75% tax rate bill waiting for them when they arrived.
The problem is that the worse off the middle class is and the lower their confidence that they can actually make it successfully, the less inclined they may be to protect the accomplishments of the high achievers. In darker times like that, the populist “tax the rich” message can burrow in far more deeply to the national psyche. In this way, an impoverished, despondent middle class actually works to the benefit of the Democrats. With that in mind, Republican candidates need to ensure they stick with a positive, hopeful message on domestic issues, even as they leverage their current advantage over the Democrats on foreign policy.
By caving.
Just ignore it.
Here’s a suggestion — point out that the money is going to be pissed away of feel good programs.
While the bridges on Federal highways are crumbling into rust.
The final definition of “wealthy” by the kenyan and his flying monkeys will include all of us who are in the solidly diminishing middle class and will exclude the top 1% who are mostly his donors and supporters. Barring that, there will be carve outs for the political elite and connected.
Oprah, Buffett, Soros will not see any increases, only us.
FUBO, FAD, down with the democrat party.
Finding and supporting tax cuts that people do understand.
We should eliminate the (excise tax?) which is effectively a VAT we impose on manufacturing. Every factory worker in the country understands that. 3 times per year he’s doing inventory on every physical object in the building right down to the smallest screw.
They tax the ore, they tax the refined metal, they tax the screw. Its a job killer.
A tax focused on media moguls and banksters, he would be sure to veto. Then he would have to explain why. Perhaps he would make free-market arguments to justify it.
“The working Class” these days is a memory, mostly. It has been overtaken by the subsidized class. Why make more money when doing so reduces or eliminates some bennies i.e. the “earned income” credit goes down almost proportional to income. Food stamps reduce by income (reported) too. There are a host of other benefits that are income based plus on the other end, earn a lot, pay a high progressive rate. Industriousness has been eroded beyond repair till the final wake up call.
Again, every FReeper who hasn't yet should read Luigi Zingales's book A Capitalism for the People. Zingales is an Italian who fled crony capitalism in his homeland for the better version here back when our version of capitalism was clearly better, is a professor at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business -- remember in academic economics, unlike most other domains, the good-guys are from Chicago -- and had his ideas cited favorably, to his surprise and delight, by Sarah Palin before he publish his own popularization of them.
This is nothing but vote buying on a galactic scale. Chicago socialist politics on steroids.
From what I have read of this proposal many Middle Middle Class and Upper Middle Class families will be affected by this proposal especially the inheritance laws portion. Thanks to inflation over my lifetime most items of tangible value, real estate, collectibles, cash, bank accounts etc. have swelled.
However the definitions that were established in the 1950’s and 1960’s and probably before that set a standard of what rich was and middle class etc. Because of that most people today who are working are making wages/salaries that in the 1950’s would have been considered ‘millionaire’ territory.
My father as an example in 1955 made $75.00 a month as a Navy petty officer and was married besides. My mother and he lived off of that in the D.C. area. Today? Well you need a wage/salary $664 per month to equal that amount. So... how many people today can live off of $664 a month in the D.C. area?
Inflation plus tax laws have driven us all into territory our parents would never have imagined. This additional set of Tax laws will just add on to that making the pile higher and deeper and filled with more B.S.
By sending him a tax increase bill that mainly hits his supporters.
Increase the tax rate on incomes over $100 Million and leave the rest alone.
Also, put in a few exemption removals targeting Hollywood.
Easy, publically ridicule 0bama and his "proposal" frequently, and not let his bill get to the House floor.
Done.
5.56mm
Simple, ignore it and move on to other issues. Obama knows that with a Republican controlled Congress that this will not go through. He is just trying to control the conversation. Do not let him. Ignore it and talk about what the Republicans want to do.
I dunno, the middle class was just eviscerated with zerocare, which was supposed to punish Big Insurance and Medical to their benefit. Income redistribution schemes should be something they’re familiar with now.
Obama knows that none of these proposals will ever see the light of day.
The Democrat party realizes that middle class voters were responsible for the stunning Republican victory in 2014 and are desperately trying to find a way to position the Democrats as being on the side of the regular working guy for the next election. “Republicans would rather give tax cuts to billionaires than fund community college for deserving students and give tax breaks to the Middle Class”.
Obama’s plan basically can be summarized as “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.” I wonder if this concept has ever been tried before, and if so how it went? Perhaps the Republicans could look into it and share what they discover with voters.
“How does the GOP fight a populist, tax the rich proposal by Obama?”
By asking what happened to the first 600 billion Obama was given for his shovel ready projects.
By caving
Hollywood, lawyers, Sports figures, especially bassetball, College Professors and Administrators, ...
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