The Glaring Inequality of Obamaville

Townhall.com ^ | March 20, 2012 | Pat Buchanan

[Kaslin]

Rising inequality "is the defining issue of our time," said President Obama in his Osawatomie speech that echoed the "New Nationalism" address Theodore Roosevelt delivered in that same Kansas town a century ago.

In the last two decades, the average income of the top 1 percent in the U.S. has grown by 250 percent, bemoaned our populist president, while the income of the average American has stagnated.

"This kind of inequality -- a level we haven't seen since the Great Depression -- hurts us all," said Obama.

"Inequality ... distorts our democracy. ... It gives an outsized voice to the few who can afford high-priced lobbyists ... and runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder."

But is the president, a former disciple of radical socialist Saul Alinsky, truly serious about closing the inequality gap?

Or is this just political blather to frame the election year as a contrast between Barack Obama, champion of the middle class, and a Republican Party that supposedly hauls water for the undeserving rich?

Obama's retort to those who say he is waging class warfare?

Republicans alone prevent him from raising the top U.S. income tax rate from 35 to 39.6 percent, where it stood under Bill Clinton, and advancing America toward true equality.

Republicans reply that the top 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers already carry 40 percent of the income tax load, while half of the nation and a majority of Obama voters pay no income tax at all. Moreover, these free-riders also consume almost all of the $900 billion the nation spends annually on Great Society programs.

Yet, a path has just opened up to test the seriousness of the president, to determine if he is a phony on the inequality issue, or a true egalitarian eager to close the gap.

That opportunity comes from a report last week that income inequality in America is at its greatest in the electoral precinct where Obama won his largest majority: Washington, D.C.

In Washington, the top 5 percent of households have an average income of $473,000, highest of all of the 50 largest cities in America. The average income of the top 20 percent of district households is $259,000. Only San Francisco ranks higher.

Moreover, that $259,000 average household income for the top 20 percent is 29 times the average household income of the bottom 20 percent, which is only $9,100 a year.

The citadel of liberalism that Obama carried 93-7 has a disparity of incomes between rich and poor that calls to mind the Paris of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Washington is a textbook case of the inequality that Obama says "distorts our democracy," and it is the ideal place to prove that he is serious.

For Washington is Obamaville. The mayor is a Democrat. The city council is Democratic. There are more lawyers and lobbyists concentrated here than in any city in America.

Here we have the perfect test case -- the most liberal city in the republic, with the greatest income inequality, where Obama's political clout and personal popularity are highest. And there is no obstructionist Republican cabal to block progressive reforms.

If Obama and the Democratic Party will not use their power to close the inequality gap right here in their own playpen, how do they remain credible in Middle America?

How to proceed, if the left is serious about inequality?

Consider. The District of Columbia income tax reaches 8.5 percent after the first $40,000 in income. A 5 percent surtax takes that rate to 8.95 percent for incomes over $350,000.

Yet, half a dozen states have higher and more progressive income tax rates than that.

Obama should call on his allies in the city government to raise the district income tax to the 15 percent level New York had in the 1970s.

Since district income taxes are deductible against federal income taxes, this would translate into an actual top tax bite on the Washington rich of 9.75 percent. Is that too much to ask of true progressives?

The new revenue could be transferred to Washington's working class and poor through tax credits, doubly reducing the district's glaring inequality.

Republicans will argue that raising the district tax rate to 15 percent on incomes above $250,000 will precipitate an exodus into Maryland and Virginia, where the top tax rates are not half of that. Conservatives believe as an article of faith that tax rates heavily influence economic behavior.

But Obama, who has kept the U.S. corporate tax rate among the highest in the world and wants U.S. personal tax rates raised closer to European levels, rejects this Republican argument.

Has he the courage of his convictions?

When the district's schools were desegregated in the 1950s, liberals fled. Let us see if they will stick around for a "progressive income tax" to reduce this unconscionable inequality between Kalorama and Spring Valley -- and Anacostia and Turkey Thicket.

[Kartographer]

OBAMAVILLE

Gett’n a head fake,
watchin' msn’s take;
All of their pundits oozing foul oil.
Clean’n my six gun on my front porch swing.
Felling my blood--
It’s beginnin' to boil.

Wasted away again in Obamaville,
Searchin' for a job so I can earn my salt.
Some people claim that Bush is to blame,
But I know it's Obama’s fault.

There’s no rhyme or reason,
They are all commitin’ treason
With nothing to show but a brand new tax or two.
But they are real beauties,
Despotic duties, how they got passed
I haven't a clue.

Wasted away again in Obamaville,
Searchin' for a job so I can earn my salt.
Some people claim that it’s Bush we should blame,
Now I think,-- hell with them it’s Obama’s fault.

I blew out my flip flop,
Stepped on a pop top;
Cut my heel, but I just cruise on back home.
Because no medical care will the doctors render
They say there’s little service I can tender
And there’s no need for me to hang on.

Wasted away again in Obamaville
Searchin' for a job so I can earn my salt.
Some people claim that Bush is to blame,
But I know, it's my own damn fault.
Yes, and some people claim that Bush is to blame,
And I know because of my vote it's my own damn fault damn fault.

[erkyl]

Trust that this president would figure out a way to only raise the tax on Republicans in DC, while the Dims would all get a waiver.

[ThunderSleeps]

"Inequality ... distorts our democracy. ... It gives an outsized voice to the few who can afford high-priced lobbyists ... and runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder."

And just what do you think government imposed attempts to force equality would do to "our" democracy hussein? Distort? Ha, try destroy. Government enforced "equality" is fascism by another name.

[onedoug]

The death of Liberty for the rise of “equality”.

[cuban leaf]

—...the average income of the top 1 percent in the U.S. has grown by 250 percent, bemoaned our populist president...—

Hmmmm. Looks like he’s using OWS talking points, or vice versa. Nobody else I know of uses that language (top 1%).

[cuban leaf]

—The death of Liberty for the rise of “equality”.—

Yeah, but some are more equal than others...

Are people really so stupid as to not see just how Orwellian this is? Seriously?

The battle cry of our founding fathers was NEVER “Give me equality, or give me death!”

[Michael.SF.]

But is the president, a former disciple of radical socialist Saul Alinsky, truly serious about closing the inequality gap?

Correction: But is the president, a former disciple of radical socialist Saul Alinsky, truly serious about closing the inequality gap?

[JudgemAll]

THe issue is that Obama does not want close competition. It’s easier to be king if there is no subking, but a bunch of hapless souls around a few elites, without any continuity in the system of chain of command. Terror me terror you, is all it is. It is incipient.

ONce you elect a “Messiah” and declare him intelligent because you do not want to think and you are terrified by the consequences of your vote - as paranoiac conspiracy theorist liberals are, you have invited the so called “Social disparities” liberal idiot conformists were so afraid of.

[JudgemAll]

Equality is the death terror call for the weak, and, once they are given weapons of equality, they do not want this equality, as in fighting with equals, they will crush all around into weakness, intimidation and bulliness.

Equality in means but not in character is what they want to congratulate and brag about... THese people will fail with or without the science, just like the one man in the forest who does not know what to do with his brains, terrified, without faith and desperate.

Too big to fail? Ah! Watch this. They will keep terrorizing people into inaction, making people with guns fighting to their right to feed themselves freely look bad, just like with the smoking ban where a person is terrified.

These are terror tactics, and the government is indulging into it. More and more cops are trained to play this “Be nice as I am giving you a ticket” type threatening manipulation.

These people indulge and they know it. They are trained to it and they bully others to it. It is sick.

[cuban leaf]

—More and more cops are trained to play this “Be nice as I am giving you a ticket” type threatening manipulation.—

I get pulled over about four times a year. I usually argue with the cops - assertively, not agressively. I get about one ticket every 18 months.