Obama has staked out a very dogmatic and inflexible position on class-warfare tax hikes and he obviously wants all of us to think only the “rich” will be impacted.
I think it’s foolish to penalize investors, entrepreneurs, small business owners and other upper-income taxpayers. What nation, after all, has ever prospered by placing obstacles in front of those who create jobs? France? Don’t make me laugh.
But I’m also amazed that anyone believes Obama isn’t going to screw the middle class as well. The simple reality is that there aren’t enough rich people to finance big government.
There are some honest folks on the left who admit that they want ordinary people on the chopping block.
- The New York Times endorsed higher taxes on the middle class in 2010.
- The then-House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also gave a green light that year to higher taxes on the middle class.
- Earlier this year, MIT professor and former IMF official Simon Johnson argued that the middle class should pay more tax.
- The Washington Post also called for higher taxes on the middle class this year, as did Vice President Joe Biden’s former economist.
- A New York Times columnist also called for broad-based tax hikes on the middle class this year.
Now we can add another honest statist to the list. I debated some guy from a left-wing think tank and he wants Obama to push all of us off the fiscal cliff.
I think this was a civilized debate, by the way. We both got equal time, and we both had a chance to make our points.
I’m hoping that viewers heard – and understood – these two points.
- We don’t need higher taxes since we can balance the budget merely by restraining government spending so that it grows by an average of 2.5 percent per year.
- The only budget deal that succeeded (as the New York Times accidentally admitted) was the one in 1997 that cut taxes rather than increasing them.
P.S. If I had to guess, I would say that Obama’s ultimate goal for hurting the middle class is a value-added tax. Notwithstanding the fiscal crisis in Europe, he actually said the VAT is “something that has worked for other countries.”
[…] some honest leftists (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) admit that their agenda requires big tax hikes on lower-income and middle […]
[…] Senior Fellow from Demos also argued for higher taxes on all Americans that year, specifically targeting the middle […]
[…] Senior Fellow from Demos also argued for higher taxes on all Americans that year, specifically targeting the middle […]
[…] Senior Fellow from Demos also argued for higher taxes on all Americans that year, specifically targeting the middle […]
[…] Senior Fellow from Demos also argued for higher taxes on all Americans that year, specifically targeting the middle […]
[…] warned (over and over and over again) that supporters of larger government want big tax hikes on ordinary […]
Just an admission by the socialists that they can’t run a government takeover of everyone’s lives without getting all of the people’s money. SAD!!!
[…] warned (over and over and over once more) that supporters of bigger authorities want big tax hikes on bizarre […]
[…] warned (over and over and over again) that supporters of larger government want big tax hikes on ordinary […]
[…] warned (over and over and over again) that supporters of larger government want big tax hikes on ordinary […]
[…] Senior Fellow from Demos also argued for higher taxes on all Americans that year, specifically targeting the middle […]
[…] Senior Fellow from Demos also argued for higher taxes on all Americans that year, specifically targeting the middle […]
[…] Senior Fellow from Demos also argued for higher taxes on all Americans that year, specifically targeting the middle […]
[…] already cited a bunch of semi-honest leftists who admit that their real goal is taxing the middle class (probably with a value-added tax!), so […]
[…] year, a Senior Fellow from Demos argued for higher taxes on all Americans, specifically middle […]
[…] already cited a bunch of semi-honest leftists who admit that their real goal is taxing the middle class (probably with a value-added tax!), so we […]
[…] already cited a bunch of semi-honest leftists who admit that their real goal is taxing the middle class (probably with a value-added tax!), so we […]
[…] already cited a bunch of semi-honest leftists who admit that their real goal is taxing the middle class (probably with a value-added tax!), so we […]
[…] year, a Senior Fellow from Demos argued for higher taxes on all Americans, specifically middle […]
[…] already cited a bunch of semi-honest leftists who admit that their real goal is taxing the middle class (probably with a value-added tax!), so we […]
[…] course, since more and more leftists are admitting they also want to tax the middle class, I’m not sure why anyone thinks that’s a controversial […]
[…] the ultimate target will be the middle class, as more and more statists are admitting, and the most worrisome threat is the value-added […]
[…] the ultimate target will be the middle class, as more and more statists are admitting, and the most worrisome threat is the value-added […]
[…] Another Leftist Admits the Real Goal Is Taxing the Middle Class […]
Obama now says it’s no longer just millionaires who need a tax increase.
I saw a news-clip of Obama saying people like me (Obama himself) earning $250,000 a year need higher taxes…
So he’s now extending the reach of his proposed tax hikes to the middle class.
Only the most brainwashed Obama Zombie would find this surprising. It’s like being told: “Obese people are addicted to overeating.” Statists are addicted to taxes. Rich folks, middle-class-folks . . . doesn’t matter to the statist. If there’s a pocket, they want to pick it. The poor only get off lightly because they have less wealth to loot.
Reblogged this on Cummings America and commented:
Dan Mitchell on taxes
Jason, abolition of borrowing by government will destroy the economy only to the extent that businesspeople are dependent upon this method of redistribution. There will be a prolonged period during which malinvestment is liquidated. Still, the improvement will be good medicine for commerce, and it will give the Austrians a fine opportunity to test their business cycle theory.
Of course the warmongers will oppose abolition as bitterly as the bleeding hearts. And just think of all the unhappy central bankers who’ll be driven to anxiety when they contemplate their greatly reduced control over money and credit. Many (most?) Jews will oppose abolition because it entails reduced support for precious Israel. The public transit fanatics will oppose abolition because it means reduced support for operations like the Chicago Transit Authority and Metra, the commuter rail division of the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority. Abolition of borrowing by government is so dangerous to the religion of statism that even the Tea Party will obstruct it lest they have to pay more up front to support the militarism AND the few welfare programs that they cherish.
Most all taxes, regardless of the deception initially directed, end up being paid either indirectly or directly by the 95%, not the 5%.
[…] […]
And if you want a snapshot evidence of Europe’s trajectory of decline, read the recent growth rates for the continent form the Europeans themselves:
http://m.spiegel.de/international/europe/a-867461.html
In Europe, if you can ride a growth trendline of more than one percent annual growth, you classify as a tiger economy. What to best encapsulate the generalized acceptance of a destiny of decline?
But I know, I know,… the slow growth is temporary – only until Europe can figure out how to take the corks out of socially-managed-capitalism. Once people realize how much benefit they get from state programs (unconditionally BTW, whether they work or not) they will start enthusiastically leaving their families every morning, and rush out of their one thousand square foot apartments, to go work in a cubicle four or more hours ever day for the benefit of distant others in their country, and now with an additional layer of Pan-European solidarity, for even more distant others in Greece, Spain, Italy etc. Their enthusiasm, motivation and lifetime choices will actually be so great that their products will for sure outcompete the rising quality of products made in the rising sea of three billion ascending souls of the liberating emerging world. Good luck indeed. American lemmings follow suit….
It may not be exactly the “goal” in the mind of HopNChange voters, but an elementary projection (which presumably even leftist politicians must have done) tells us it is inevitable arithmetic reality. The leftist politicians are being dishonest in not admitting that while they wish that were not the case, financing HopNChange, the Europeanization of America, involves taxing the middle and lower classes to levels not seen before in America.
If you have any doubts about this inevitability of taxing the middle class, given current spending levels, look at Europe. The main difference in taxation burden between Europe and the US is not in the high incomes — where Americans living in California and New York already pay European level marginal tax rates — but in the middle and lower classes. In Europe the top tax rates of roughly 40-55% (often even excluding healthcare deductions) kick in at about two to three times average income, i.e. roughly around the 60-90K annual income range. In addition, everyone, rich or poor, pays a hefty 20-25% VAT on virtually everything they buy.
But if you still live in the delusion that HopNChange does not really mean the inevitable Europeanization of America, just look at the US state that seems to be on the vanguard of HopNChange: California. Where the top tax rate of 9.30% kicks in at a mere $48,942 of annual income.
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2012_California_Tax_Rates_and_Exemptions.shtml
Of course California recently instituted a couple of additional tax rates topping at 12.3% (more after the recent election) in part probably because it had started looking sort of odd to start the “war on the rich” all the way down from the $48,942 annual income level. I mean that war had started including a lot of “occupy” protesters in Berkeley.
Zorba, you’ve nailed it! Basic math and economics are hardly understood any longer. It’s why our voting public fails to see the real problem – spending. Instead they believe that we can “tax the rich” and that additional 80 billion a year will take care of the 1.4 trillion deficit we’re currently running.
Honestly, although I’m normally promote less taxation I believe we should raise taxes immediately to eliminate the deficit. People voted for Obama and spending, so let’s give them what they asked for!
I believe the only way to eliminate deficits is to eliminate the ability to borrow. After doing so, we know they cannot cut spending so we’ll need to immediately raise taxes to pay for everything. Not just for the rich but everybody! Once everybody is hit with a 60% increase in federal taxes, maybe we can get some serious motivation about cutting government spending.
Of course, I realize this would destroy our economy but better to get it done and over with instead of delaying the inevitable.
As Obama explains how VAT has worked in other countries, I would be very interested in hearing how a one to two percent growth trendline in a world that is growing by five percent can lead to anything but predictable deterministic decline. Is that Obama’s demagogic definition of “has worked” ?
Perhaps liberals are right. Perhaps American education is so poor that most Americans fail to understand the elementary arithmetic of relentlessly compounding slow growth. Perhaps by spending another five percent of GDP on education they will at least learn that, so that Obama’s demagogic statements become a little more obvious. But I doubt that this will be the lesson learned. For all their presumably better education, most Europeans fail to see that they are deterministically headed into decline, or, worse, think that the way out of that condemnation is redoubling with a new additional layer of mandatory collectivism.
The three billion awakening emerging world souls of this planet have neither the patience nor the desire to see how western civilization’s repudiation of individualism and adoption of collectivism turns out (as if humanity has not had enough historical lessons on such dreams of mandatory collectivism). The once exceptionally prosperous western world will be absorbed into worldwide averagedom in short order.
Obama will simply promote spending from his mythical perpetual motion machine of free stuff paid only by the top one percent (ok perhaps two percent, or maybe even five percent). REALITY will take care of the rest. The roughly one hundred billion additional annual revenue that will be raised by imposing more tax “fairness” represent about three hundred and thirty dollars per American — available for redistribution to “the people”. Some pocket change, but clearly inadequate to satisfy the ultimate redistribution expectations of HopNChange voters. Thus the very HopNChange voters Obama sold his perpetual motion machine of prospetity to will have to be called upon to contribute, but, for sure, only temporarily, ONLY UNTIL HopNChange finally gets the traction of economic efficiency and high growth on flatter effort-reward curves that everyone is hoping for – i.e. forever.
The details of how exactly will REALITY dismantle the delusional myth of the HopNChange perpetual motion machine of prosperity, are a little harder to predict. My guess is that the inevitable realignment to arithmetic reality will first appear as a minor lack of confidence on American ability to repay debt. A population that has amassed a huge debt comprised of individuals mired into the complacency of welfare state incentives cannot possibly create products of enough value to repay its debt. That will become obvious to the foreign creditors who don’t have to pander effortless prosperity to the American electorate. This initially small crisis of confidence in American debt will quickly unfold into a vicious cycle crisis where rising interest rates on public debt increase interest payments – and the widespread admission that this vicious cycle will quickly lead to catastrophe in months or a few short years. In the ensuing crisis, Obama (or his HopNChange successor – which BTW may by now be wearing a Republican big government mantle) will blame the crisis on an inherent mechanistic shortcoming of markets and capitalism which are essentially simply forcing the inevitable return to reality. In the midst of the mounting crisis the new president will call upon his supporters to make a sacrifice (since the rich proved so intransigent that they actually even started withdrawing from the workforce and started enjoying more non pecuniary activities once they were taxed to European levels). This is how taxation of the middle class to the same European levels the middle class requested will happen. Most likely through VAT which has proven to be more digestible to the electorate compared to income tax, although the end result on standard of living is more or less the same.
I wish there were some parallel universe. A universe with an expendable America where we could send Obama to his ultimate punishment: To be president forever, until the deterministic end result of his policies of prosperity through flatter effort-reward curves show their terminal result on the overall prosperity of “the people”, once the wealthiest people on earth.
[…] Surprise! No doubt, if it happens, this will be blamed squarely on Boehner for not caving but I think he and Romney probably could have a struck a deal quicker than he and Obama. For a whole myriad of reasons that have nothing to do with Boehner or Conservatives’ desire to see a middle class tax hike. Sucks. But then, I voted for the other guy so I guess I don’t feel as bad about it as others. That is to say I’ve had time to process it because I KNEW ABOUT IT WHEN I VOTED. The Distinguished Veteran has a good post about this… […]
INFLATION CLAUSE!!!
Just wait and see. They will ‘forget’ to put in an inflation clause (like they did for the AMT) 5 years from now, the top 10-15% will be above 250,000.00
Both parties are hunting for revenue instead of cutting spending…so what’s new?
One of the slogans used recently in Chicago is “a people’s budget”. See my remarks at https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/very-funny-left-wing-cartoons/ about “A PEOPLE’S RALLY FOR A PEOPLE’S BUDGET” held here last Friday. Note well also the part about ending “the Bush Tax Cuts for the Top 2%”. It would seem that the 1% are no longer a big enough target for these greedy looters who have been clucking more frequently also about the alleged origins of fascism in capitalism.
[…] Another Leftist Admits the Real Goal Is Taxing the Middle Class […]
Misdirection is Obama’s game.