Obama: Spread the Wealth
In a conversation with a plumber in Ohio, Obama said the following [Emphasis mine]:
“It’s not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance for success too,” Obama responded. “My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody … I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
Obama can claim all he wants that 95% of the people will get a tax cut. First, that is impossible since about 40% of the people do not pay taxes now. Obama’s plan is income redistribution because those 40% will get checks from the government. That is a massive welfare program that does punish the Ohio plumber, many electricians, other plumbers, truck drivers, doctors and a multitude of other self-employed small business owners.
Income redistribution does not work. It has been tried in a multitude of socialistic countries. The lower income people do not create jobs, small businesses create the most jobs. Taxing them is punishment and they will lay off employees when their taxes are increased.
The tax policies of Barack Obama will not enable the poor to live the American Dream, but they will cap the American Dream for those who work hard and are trying to live the American Dream.
As a side note, Biden is spreading the wealth by paying family members and their firms around $2 million dollars.
Before you get all wrapped around the axle about how a refundable tax credit of $2500 is reform but a $500 payroll tax credit is socialism, I would like to direct your attention to the 800lb gorilla in the room:
Take note that every time WalMart gets tax credits, real estate tax deferrals and abatements to place a store in a community, that’s an example of socialism. Equally, whenever a new stadium for baseball, football, or NASCAR events is placed in a community, these otherwise unprofitable ventures become profitable because taxpayer money is funneled to these specialized corporations. That’s socialism too.
In fact, whenever government collects tax dollars and sends them directly into the coffers of a specific corporation or organization, that’s socialism. If the government sends you more money than you’ve been taxed. That’s socialism. If the government sends you less money than you’ve been taxed, that’s just a reduction in your tax rate. If the government lets you collect taxes and keep them, that makes you WalMart, and AT&T and Enron, and part owner of the Texas Rangers. A progressive income tax system is an example of socialism. A flat consumption tax is not socialism, but generally destructive to low-wage workers’ ability to support themselves.
There are necessary amounts of socialism that are good in that they maintain the strength of the middle class, and in turn maintains the strength of our democracy. Public money spent on public schools and public colleges is a great example of government socialism that is a good investment. The building of bridges, roads and parks for common use is also good socialism. The drinking water supply and electrical supply are also appropriate examples of good socialism in that they are investments in the common good and have long-lasting dividends for society.
The more narrow socialism we’ve seen in the way Steinbrenner’s shipyard got government money to not actually build ships, and oil depletion allowances that drain the taxpayer’s money without enhancing the common good are examples of bad socialism.
The Bush Administration’s decision earlier this year (2008) to ‘drop money from airplanes’ with the tax rebate check to American taxpayers is an example of classical economics (not Reaganomics) being applied when a recession is imminent. Putting money in the hands of the wage earners (rather than the captains of industry) is what was necessary to stimulate the economy in the short term. Long term stimulation of the economy will require some changes in the philosophies and rules to select which industries get their socialism dollars (autos? banking? housing? retailing? renewable energy? …)
If we were to assess the health care industry in the US on three main metrics, we’d see that we have all three kinds of health care systems running concurrently, and that all 3 are so poorly managed that the US with only 4% of the world’s population is in 5th place worldwide in overall human health, while spending fully 40% of the world’s overall healthcare spending. Yet, WalMart employees depend on taxpayer socialism to get health care because they can’t live on the WalMart wages and afford health care too. We the taxpayers assist WalMart in keeping those low-low prices. That’s socialism.
We can’t keep going this way. If the middle class disappears, then the US will become like many of the nations that we derided and preached to over the decades of our prosperity.
I’ve grown tired of the sniping and intellectual dishonesty among the rivals for office and among the supporters. Good ideas get swamped and crushed because they didn’t come from people you like. Bad ideas get pushed and supported simply because it’s different from the opponent’s idea. That kind of thoughtless clashing will get us nowhere but stuck where we are.