“A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy” — President Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009
There you have the liberal philosophy in a nutshell. Transfer wealth to the wealthy? Transfer from whom to the wealthy? The government? The context of this question came regarding taking more in taxes from the wealthy to pay for all the new goodies, Obama and Pelosi are handing out, by letting the Bush tax cuts expire. But what really happens with a tax cut? It basically means that an individual gets to keep more of their own money that they have earned. After all it is the income tax. So where is the wealth transfer Obama speaks of? Is President Obama really trying to say that everything we earn belongs to the federal government and that by letting us keep any of it, it is a transfer of wealth from the rightful owner, the government, to the unworthy and greedy individual? If that’s not straight out of Karl Marx, I don’t know what is.
“Tax cuts alone can’t solve all of our economic problems — especially tax cuts that are targeted to the wealthiest few.” — Obama, Feb. 24, 2009
This is his other gem. What tax cuts were targeted to the rich? The fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives regarding tax policy is the same difference throughout their respective philosophies. Liberals believe in groups, conservatives believe in individuals. Perhaps that is why President Obama is so confused.
Conservative tax policy is that a tax cut should apply to all individuals who pay taxes. By reducing the tax burden there is an incentive to invest and grow the economy. If you make more you get to keep more. At the same time, under Bush, many low income people were removed from the tax rolls altogether.
Liberal tax policy, like all of their policies, depends on to which group you belong. If you are in a group that has a low income, you have to get something, so you get tax money whether or not you pay taxes (aka welfare). If you are in a group, that has a high income, regardless of how much of the tax burden you are already carrying, not only do you get nothing, you have to pay more. That’s targeting. The Bush tax cuts were not targeted they applied across the board. We’re all Americans, we all get a break. Even after the Bush tax cuts, the wealthiest Americans carried a larger share of the total tax burden than before the cuts, but that is not enough for the liberals. They want it all, but they’ll settle for as much as they can get away with.
We Need a Dose of Honesty
The more President Obama speaks, the less honest he is with the American people. He makes statements like the above that are misleading at best, outright lies at worst. He does not include the role of government in creating the economic mess we are in, when he speaks of how we got here. Without addressing the role of government, what they did wrong cannot be fixed, and just like if you ignore a leak in your roof, it’s not going to get better over time.
President Obama promised a new beginning in Washington, but so far he is selling the same old tired ideas, brightly dressed up in his impressive oratory. It is only he has left the stage and the lights have dimmed that people start scratching their head and wondering, “Did he really say that?”
