Posted on 04/17/2009 7:09:48 AM PDT by Nevadan
Not even three months into his presidency, Barack Obama already has developed a nasty habit of making grandiose promises and proposals, doing precisely the opposite of what he says and celebrating his hypocrisy and insincerity as a policy triumph.
Keep lobbyists out his administration? That lasted a couple of days. Lead a new era of fiscal responsibility? His agenda will run up budget deficits that George W. Bush couldn't have dreamed of. No tax increases of any kind for households earning less than $250,000 per year? He signed off on a huge cigarette tax hike that will pummel the poor. His populist criticism of rich, corporate fat cats and cheers for working families? He's bailing out every board room on Wall Street on the backs of taxpayers not yet born.
And on and on and on.
So what are we to make of President Obama's tax-day declaration that he will pursue "a simpler tax code that rewards work and the pursuit of the American dream"? Are we supposed to laugh? Or just concede that the president's latest idea of change will amount to the status quo on steroids?
"For too long, we've seen taxes used as a wedge to scare people into supporting policies that increased the burden on working people instead of helping them live their dreams," President Obama said. "That has to change, and that's the work that we've begun."
What Mr. Obama is saying here has nothing to do with tax simplification and everything to do with his "social justice" agenda -- his overriding belief that the federal government must ramp up the redistribution of wealth in the name of "fairness."
Read the first sentence of the president's quote again. He's referring to the country's current income and capital gains tax structure, signed into law by President Bush at the start of this decade. Mr. Obama believes that allowing the affluent and the upper-middle class to keep more of their own money is a "wedge issue."
He is saying that even though the bottom 90 percent of earners pay only 28 percent of all income taxes -- the bottom 40 percent pay no income taxes at all -- they have been frightened into wrongly believing that more punitive tax rates on the top 10 percent will damage the economy. Mr. Obama believes that having the top 10 percent of taxpayers pay 72 percent of the nation's income taxes has "increased the burden" on the other 90 percent -- when that same 90 percent paid 32 percent of all income taxes in 2001, before George W. Bush's tax cuts became law.
The top 10 percent of taxpayers have seen an increase in their burden this decade, not the bottom 90 percent.
President Obama's efforts -- "the work we've begun" -- involve having significantly more filers pay no income taxes whatsoever. His proposed "Make Work Pay" tax cut would increase the percentage of households that do not pay income taxes from 40 percent to 50 percent. This, according to President Obama, is fair.
"It will take time to undo the damage of years of carve-outs and loopholes," Mr. Obama said. "But I want every American to know that we will rewrite the tax code so that it puts your interests over any special interest."
Who is the president trying to kid? He's not talking about reducing the Internal Revenue Code down to a pamphlet that can be explained in a few minutes. He wants to retain the same Byzantine abomination that has been used by Congress for generations as a tool for social engineering.
His ambitious, expensive social agenda demands revisions to the tax code, but not reductions. He wants to get rid of perceived "carve-outs and loopholes" that have prevented the financially stable and the wealthy from paying as much in taxes as he thinks they can afford to pay. He wants some industries, especially the oil business, to essentially hand over their bank accounts.
President Obama will preserve the multitude of tax credits and deductions that allow the lower and middle classes to keep virtually all of their income. The only genuine simplification Mr. Obama has in mind is the elimination of many standard deductions -- for the rich, of course.
It is not in the national interest to have the few pay the bills of the many. It erodes the incentive to work and increases pressure on the country's most productive taxpayers to support an increasing number of tax consumers. Everyone must have a fiscal stake in their government.
This is another phony pitch from the president.
“fairness” and “social Justice” are Marxist code for redistribution of wealth....it’s how the Dems hope to stay in power....by buying votes using my life’s savings.
...INSTEAD OF MONITORING THE SALES OF AMMO...they should really start watching the sales of pitchforks. Saying one thing and doing another has been his MO for years...why is it people are just noticing?
Tax policy is sorta like the weather, everyone talks about it but no does anything about it. I think it was Mark Twain that observed that. Correct me if I’m wrong!
Excellent statement. Never before in history of our beloved Republic that there has been a President who lies all the time and with such brazenness as Obama does. The man cannot stop lying. It is just incredible.
“Saying one thing and doing another has been his MO for years...why is it people are just noticing?”
Only those of us who aren’t Obama supporters and are aware of what’s going on notice.
The rest of the country is still feeling warm and fuzzy about their messiah. Obama can do no wrong in their eyes, and even if he does, the MSM will refuse to cover it.
These are very dark times.
I disagree with the author that Obama will keep the deductions and standard deductions for the middle class in the tax code. I believe his definition of reforming and simplifying the tax code includes paring away all deductions gradually. By doing that he can raise taxes without raising tax brackets.
“Obama’s TAx Reform-It’s All A Matter of Justice”
Get those evil rich people; pursue them, tax them, make them crazy, harass them to the point of distraction, until they get to the point where they can no longer function and make a living!!! Make life miserable for all those evil capitalists!!! YEAH!!!
/s/
Tax Reform?
The bank bailout has just created another revenue stream for the Federal Government. The high costs of the loans from the Treasury to the Banks has to come from somewhere...US! The Banks have to charge higher interest rates, checking account fees, etc. Why don’t people realize that?
Regressive excise taxes, permit fees...It all adds up!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afYsmJyngAXQ&refer=home
Obummer will use the tax code to punish not prosper!
He is the worst kind of hypocrite in that he says what’s right and then proceeds to do what’s wrong.
We have a unique presidency. The Kenyan is just the spokesman for the president, which is a group of unelected people who bought the White House. Obama will say anything because that's what he's paid to do.
There should have been some signs at the protests that read:
“No Representation Without Taxation”...No More Freeloaders!”
The Founders had it right when they established a Republic in which those who voted had to be taxpayers.
Democrats win elections with votes from the soon-to-be 50% of the electorate who pay nothing to the government that sends them checks every month to buy their votes. Our nation cannot endure BO’s “vision.”
See Social Credit:
“Finally, it is this condition of coheirs of the efforts of all that makes it feasible that all must get, for nothing, as far as possible, a share in the elementary, material, and spiritual goods of human existence.”
Louis Even
Also see George Lakoff’s verson of Carbon Cap and Trade or ‘Cap and Dividend’ which has nothing to do with saving the environment.
Using carbon dividends to redistribute the wealth.
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