Obama’s Plan Is About Fleecing, Not Fairness

With nowhere else to turn to fund a very expensive agenda, Democrats are focusing their pre-election rants on the lie of the unfair tax break. The pain of financial downturns has always provided governments with the opportunity to target an enemy. If you are fortunate enough to live in America and own a business that weathered the recession, or to have kept your well-paying position, you have become that enemy.

The tax rates that the Obama administration portrays as grossly unfair divest successful Americans of one-third or more of their earnings. There is no presumption that those in the higher brackets are wealthy, as higher rates begin at annual incomes of less than $200,000. Revenue-starved lawmakers are telling a different story, though, insinuating that the wealthy do not pay nearly enough, such as Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky’s announcement, “Schakowsky Introduces Bill to Tax Millionaires and Billionaires.” Schakowsky informs us that “Income inequality in America is the worst we’ve seen since 1928.” ¹ She suggests we correct this injustice fairly by creating new tax rates beginning at 45% for those making $1 million per year.

President Obama used last Wednesday’s pre-campaign speech to continue his own divisive rhetoric, his words suggesting that we are handing over $1 trillion to every millionaire and billionaire in America:

In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans.  But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society.  We can’t afford it.  And I refuse to renew them again.²

The president may be misguided, and he may need a better speechwriter, but he is no dummy. He knows that entitlement cuts are coming. In a preemptive strike, Mr. Obama has already started to blame selfish higher earners for the pain that spending cuts will bring:

I don’t think it’s right to ask seniors to pay thousands more for health care, or ask students to postpone college, just so we don’t have to ask those who have prospered so much in this land of opportunity to give back a little more.³

The power to make laws does not come with a higher income. Our elected officials determine how much we will spend, and where the money will go. America’s fiscal problems result from their bad decisions, not the decisions of taxpaying constituents. The president is blaming those he categorizes as wealthy for the consequences of federal and state spending binges, while informing us that even if the tax brackets were raised, the money would go to funding entitlements like Medicare.

Giving back “a little more” is not going to solve our debt problem, but fleecing higher earners will be a vital part of  the 2012 Democratic platform. Senate Democrats tell us that “…the wealthy already have ample spending money, so they tend to save any extra dollars they receive.”⁴ Raising our tax rates to seize those extra dollars to fund the Winning the Future spending agenda, to pay for unaffordable social insurance and entitlement spending, and to retain Democratic congressional seats and a room in the White House, is an appalling take on income redistribution. After two years of Recovery Act spending we know what this scheme will accomplish. It will dig us a deeper hole.

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