President Lyndon Johnson’s administration was known for his War on Poverty. President Obama’s will become notable for his War on Prosperity.
We’re speaking, of course, of Obama’s plans to hike income taxes on the most wealthy 2 or 3 percent of the nation. He’s not just raising the top rate to 39.6 percent; he’s also disallowing about one-third of top earner’s deductions, whether for state and local taxes, charitable contributions or mortgage interest. This is an effective hike in their taxes by an average of about 20 percent.
The composition of the tax hikes in the 2010 budget is frighteningly similar to the Revenue Act of 1932, the much-maligned Hoover tax hikes that put the “Great” in Great Depression by putting an enormous tax burden on millions of Americans, largely through excise taxes. These taxes, raised even further by FDR, were justified by the promise that the funds would be returned in the form of relief programs, which is to say that some portion of the tax revenue, after administrative costs in Washington, would go back to the states with strings attached, often to further political rather than economic objectives.
Despite President Obama’s promise that “If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increase a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime,” his new budget raises 45 percent of its revenue from energy taxes that will be paid by everyone who fills a gas tank, pays an electric bill, or buys anything that was grown, shipped, or manufactured.
If we continue down a path of repeating the policies of the 1930s we risk a repeat of the same results. Let’s hope Congress has the good sense to say no to these Hoover-style tax hikes.
“My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. As you can imagine, this is a process that will take some time. But we’re starting with the biggest lines. We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade.”
But, lamentably, a few days later, The Washington Post reported: “A senior administration official acknowledged yesterday that the budget does not contain $2 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade. Instead, the figure represents Obama’s total efforts at deficit reduction, including tax hikes [of more than $1 trillion] on families making over $250,000 a year. It also includes hundreds of billions of dollars ‘saved’ by not continuing to spend $170 billion a year in Iraq.”
Only a big government man would think of calling a trillion-dollar tax increase a spending cut or “saving.” Technically, of course, it is true. A trillion-dollar tax increase will reduce spending by a trillion dollars for those private citizens who were taxed. And, from the perspective of the federal government, a trillion dollars taxed is a trillion dollars saved from the greed of the taxpayers who produced the wealth
If the founding fathers were alive today they would apply the same standard to the Obama administration as they would King George. The Boston Tea Party was a protest against a 4 percent tax on tea. How do you think they would have reacted to a 39.5 percent tax?
Have you read the Declaration of Independence? Read it in the context of what is happening to our Nation today and see if it still fits. I have provided an excerpt below.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
What would happen if millions of Americans showed up in Washington DC armed with pitchforks? You know the answer. Mass imprisonment. Gitmo would stay open for years.
On the other hand how much longer can the country stand by while the Obama administration and the Democrats deliberately destroy the United States economy? Are we willing to accept economic imprisonment? That’s what we are getting.
When do the actions of Obama and company meet the definition of a conspiracy? It sure looks to me that they are out to destroy the United States and everything we stand for.
In his campaign and inaugural address, Barack Obama cast himself as a moderate man seeking common ground with conservatives.
Yet, his budget calls for the radical restructuring of the U.S. economy, a sweeping redistribution of power and wealth to government and Democratic constituencies. It is a declaration of war on the Right.
The real Obama has stood up, and lived up to his ranking as the most left-wing member of the United States Senate.
Markets are not infallible. But the stock market has long been a “lead indicator” of where the economy will be six months from now. What are the markets, the collective decisions of millions of investors, saying?
Having fallen every month since Obama’s election, with January and February the worst two months in history, they are telling us the stimulus package will not work, that Tim Geithner is clueless about how to save the banks, that the Obama budget portends disaster for the republic.
The president says he is gearing up for a fight on his budget.
Good. Let’s give him one.
From a read of the comments in Pat’s article I think a sleeping giant may be stirring.
What happened to the empty promise of tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans? Now we hear that the Obama Administration plans to raise taxes big time.
I wish to remind the new administration that the last guy to raise taxes during a recession was Herbert Hoover. How did that work out, mister president?
The Washington Post presents an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office…
Taking Apart the $819 billion Stimulus Package
Interesting to note, $100,000,000,000.00 are tax credits, (welfare payments) to Americans that don’t pay taxes.
Remember what Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Taxes should be collected to fund government not to give a “refundable tax credit” to a portion of the population that doesn’t pay taxes.
This is insanity!
How long can you take from the producers and give to the non producers before our whole economic system collapses?
The first conservative voice I heard on the radio was Paul Harvey. I was 13 and the “old man” just seemed to make sense to me. America has lost a great radio broadcaster!
Paul Harvey passed away today at 90 years young. Godspeed Mr. Harvey. America will miss you.
A truthful look at the global warming movement and how the world is being mislead. Al Gore and his elite buddies want to use flawed science to push their agenda. This film is an attempt to shine the light of truth on Al Gore’s fantasy.
They hope to have it shown in every theater, university and school in America. You can donate to their success at their web site.
From Ludwig von Mises, the Austrian Economist come some quotes to think about while the government (cough, cough, Democrats) abandons all control and catapults our nation toward financial ruin.
If the practice persists of covering government deficits with the issue of notes, then the day will come without fail, sooner or later, when the monetary systems of those nations pursuing this course will break down completely. The purchasing power of the monetary unit will decline more and more, until finally it disappears completely.
A nation cannot prosper if its members are not fully aware of the fact that what alone can improve their conditions is more and better production. And this can only be brought about by increased saving and capital accumulation.
What the doctrine of balancing budgets over a period of many years really means is this: As long as our own party is in office, we will enhance our popularity by reckless spending.
What the government spends more, the public spends less. Public works are not accomplished by the miraculous power of a magic wand. They are paid for by funds taken away from the citizens.
Democrats defended the spending increases, saying they were needed to make up for cuts enacted in recent years or proposed a year ago by then-President George W. Bush in health, education, energy and other programs.
Republicans countered that the spending in the bill far outpaced inflation, and amounted to much higher increases when combined with spending in the stimulus legislation that President Barack Obama signed last week. In a letter to top Democratic leaders, the GOP leadership called for a spending freeze, a step they said would point toward a “new standard of fiscal discipline.”
A “new standard of fiscal discipline.” Are you kidding?
Rick Santelli doing some real time reporting from Chicago strikes a nerve with the truth.
Or would we like to at least buy cars and buy houses in foreclosure and give them to people that might have a chance to actually prosper down the road and reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water?
How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills? Raise (your) hand.
Loud boos heard in response and not a single hand was raised.
Cuba used to have mansions and a relatively decent economy. They moved from the individual to the collective, now they’re driving ‘54 Chevys, maybe the last great car to come out of Detroit.
I’ll tell you what, if you read our founding fathers, people like Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson, what we’re doing in this country now is making them roll over in their graves.
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.
Norman Thomas, presidential candidate, Socialist Party of America
The Democrat and Republicans In Name Only, (RINO)s, have lost touch with the American People. They have become the political elite and We the People have become "fly-over country." I am not a Nazi, a terrorist, a member of the KKK, a racist, or a member of an angry mob. I'm not a birther, teabagger, truther or astroturfer. I do, however believe in the original intent of the Founding Fathers, the United States Constituton and the rule of law. I believe that Government should serve the People, not the other way around. I’m an American and conservative to my very core.
