Posted by
RepublicanEvangelist on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 1:18:00 AM
Obama wants to share the wealth, your wealth specifically. This is class warfare at its worst. Taking him at face he is betting the 95% getting a cut have more votes than the 5% getting shafted or dare I say being more patriotic. The problem is it is a losing proposition for society and even government revenues. Even, Bill Clinton knew that if you cut capital gains taxes, for example, the government gets more revenue because government makes money on the movement of assets, not people just sitting on them. Tax revenues went up during tax cuts under JFK, Reagan and Bush.. The converse is also true. It is true because people change their behavior. People work less overtime. The invest less. They buy fewer cars. All of these have a negative impact on the economy. This politics of envy may be a winner for Barack and the Democrats but it is an ultimate loser for society.
I think PJ O'Rourke puts it best commenting on the 10th Commandment "What is that doing in there? Why would God, with just ten things to tell Moses, choose, as one of them, jealousy about the things the man next door has? And yet think about how important to the well-being of a community this commandment is. If you want a donkey, if you want a meal, if you want an employee, don't complain about what other people have, go get your own. The tenth commandment sends a message to collectivists, to people who believe wealth is best obtained by redistribution. And the message is clear and concise: Go to hell.
A friend of mine sent me a quotation that has been falsely attributed to Abraham Lincoln but is nonetheless true:
You cannot bring prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and
independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do
for themselves.
It seems that Barack Obama and the Pelosi and Reid lead Democratic Party is trying the opposite of each of those truisms. When you are robbing Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on the support of Paul. Barack even acknowledged earlier in the year that his capital gains increase may result in less government revenue but still wants it for "fairness."
This is a partial transcript of the interchange between ABC's Charlie Gibson and Barack Obama:
GIBSON: All right. You have, however, said you would favor
an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC,
and I quote, "I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill
Clinton," which was 28 percent. It's now 15 percent. That's almost a
doubling, if you went to 28 percent.
But actually, Bill Clinton, in 1997, signed legislation that
dropped the capital gains tax to 20 percent.
OBAMA: Right.
GIBSON: And George Bush has taken it down to 15 percent.
OBAMA: Right.
GIBSON: And in each instance, when the rate dropped,
revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the
1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down.
So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100
million people in this country own stock and would be affected?
OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at
raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.
So in the interest of fairness check out the exchange between Barack Obama and one of the unlucky 5% who is a plumber in Ohio:
http://www.breitbart.tv/html/195153.html