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Obama, In Rich Irony, Can't Afford To Wage War On Nation's Wealthy
IBD Editorials ^ | August 18, 2009 | W. MICHAEL FOX

Posted on 08/18/2009 6:08:14 PM PDT by Kaslin

Barack Obama's political fate depends on a group of Americans he hasn't done much to cultivate — the rich.

Presidencies can succeed or fail on one transcendent issue. With George Bush, it was Iraq. Obama's burden lies in delivering on his ambitious policy goals without bankrupting the country.

Obama wants to spend at a time when America's fiscal prospects are dire. In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, Washington's red ink has swelled beyond anything ever seen in peacetime — $1.8 trillion this year, $1.4 trillion in 2010, $970 billion in 2011 and $658 billion in 2012, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

All told, the CBO estimates that Obama's four-year deficits will push the public debt from 40% to 70% of GDP — profligacy exceeded only in the 1940s by Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, who had a world war to win.

These numbers cast a dark shadow over Obama's re-election prospects and political legacy. Once the economy pulls out of its current crisis, he'll be judged — fairly or not — on how well he handles an out-of-control fiscal crisis.

That's where the rich come in.

Right now, Americans with fat wallets aren't getting much respect in a country disgusted by Wall Street's greed and corruption. In time, though, Obama will discover that the rich hold the key to boosting tax receipts fast enough to close mammoth budget deficits while expanding health care and other government programs.

A Tax Too Far

High-income households already shoulder the lion's share of the federal tax burden. The top 1% of America's income earners paid 40% of the taxes in 2006, up from 19% in 1980. The richest 5% saw their share go from 37% to 60%.

(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bho44; bhotaxincrease

1 posted on 08/18/2009 6:08:14 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: bareford101; BerniesFriend; blaveda; Bookwoman; Celeste732; dsc; FrdmLvr; FreedomPoster; ...

2 posted on 08/18/2009 6:09:18 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for 0bama: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

He has already ragged war on the entire nation. The very people who elected him were the first to feel the pain. Many lost their jobs. Not the outcome they thought would happen.

We are witnessing those who “have never done anything substantial” tear down those who do things. When the man who sleeps in the White House has never run any type of organization holds successful businessmen in contempt the die is cast. The outcome is Tragedy.


3 posted on 08/18/2009 6:13:11 PM PDT by Texas Fossil (The last time I looked, this is still Texas where I live.)
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To: Kaslin

“...without bankrupting the country.”

I think we finally have the root of the problem here....the “intelligentsia” clearly has’nt yet grasped, along with the financial and political elite running the place, that by any reasonable standard...we are already bankrupt on paper...


4 posted on 08/18/2009 6:15:28 PM PDT by mo
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To: mo
"without bankrupting the country"...

I thought that was his first accomplishment???

5 posted on 08/18/2009 6:19:20 PM PDT by hope (don't listen to what they say..watch what they do.)
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To: Kaslin

sooner or later you run out of other people’s money to spend


6 posted on 08/18/2009 6:21:15 PM PDT by Gillsie
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To: Kaslin

And I think China, our lender, is telling this administration to back off of all this outrageous spending now and do not even consider the Death Care legislation. If it is killed it will China that does that.


7 posted on 08/18/2009 6:24:41 PM PDT by shield (A wise man's heart is at his RIGHT hand;but a fool's heart at his LEFT. Ecc 10:2)
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To: Kaslin

It’s not just the wealthy. He’s waging war on everyone who’s not a deadbeat. Of course, millions of these morons voted for him, so they deserve what they get, but the rest of us don’t.


8 posted on 08/18/2009 6:28:30 PM PDT by 3niner (When Obama succeeds, America fails.)
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To: 3niner

Amen. What you said.


9 posted on 08/18/2009 6:33:46 PM PDT by Rocky (OBAMA: Succeeding where bin Laden failed.)
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To: 3niner

Exactly


10 posted on 08/18/2009 6:40:42 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for 0bama: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

Obama is too much of an ideologue to do the right thing. He would rather castigate the wealthy than help ordinary folks.

He still has not understood the basis of wealth in a nation. If you hate the rich, you cannot love the poor.


11 posted on 08/18/2009 6:56:31 PM PDT by cookcounty ("Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire." ---Yeats)
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To: cookcounty

>>He still has not understood the basis of wealth in a nation.

Anyone with half a clue who read Dreams from my Father knows that this is a man without a clue on the concept of wealth creation. His only corporate job, just out of Columbia undergrad, he worked for a very short time, and saw himself as a “sellout”.

The rest of his career, he has worked hard to take money hard-earned from others better than he, and redistribute it to the welfare class.


12 posted on 08/18/2009 8:12:39 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (No Representation without Taxation!)
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To: Kaslin

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually, run out of other people’s money.”

Margaret Thatcher

At this rate Obama and Co are going to get to that point in record time.


13 posted on 08/18/2009 9:03:17 PM PDT by dervish (I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself)
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To: Kaslin

This is what most people fail to understand.

0bama and his Marxist comrades don’t want the nation to recover. They want to see to see capitalism fail so they can throw their Marxist economy on the nation.


14 posted on 08/19/2009 2:57:44 AM PDT by TennTuxedo
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