Obama pledges to "spread the wealth around" and that is not a lie. He will. He will redistribute income and wealth just as he has said he will. There are no lies here. He will not disappoint his socialist friends. He is a socialist to the core.
But, most politicians do lie. Most believe the best way to win an election is by promising many people things that cannot be delivered. Obama has done this in a big way. He has pledged to do all of these things:
- Give a reduction in taxes to 95% of the people.
- Add a trillion dollars of new programs on top of the huge increase of spending for the government bailout package.
- Eliminate disease, worldwide.
- Eliminate poverty, worldwide.
- Create 5 million new jobs in the alternative energy industries.
- Strengthen the economy by increasing taxes on businesses, capital gains, and on the "wealthy," whom he will not allow to then invest their money and talent abroad where taxes will be much lower.
If he offers 95% of the people tax reductions, the taxes on the remaining 5% will have to be so confiscatory that there will be no reason at all for them to even bother to work. I suppose they will soon no longer be the wealthiest 5% and the next 5% will then bear the burden until they are broke and broken. Then it will be the turn of the next 5%. They came for the Jews and I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Gypsies and I was not a Gypsy. Then they came for the mentally handicapped and I was not mentally handicapped. It is clear that he is simply buying votes here from those who are ignorant and unthinking. Fortunately, a few, including my new hero, Joe the Plumber, do not fall for this and stand upon the firmer ground of principled thinking.
Besides, when the taxes on businesses are increased, don't you suppose that that will mean they will have to charge higher prices which all of us will have to pay? How could it be otherwise?
You may be incredulous that he pledged to end disease and poverty throughout the world. But, he did so in his widely heard acceptance speech for the Democratic Party nomination for the Presidency. That had to have been a carefully prepared speech, so it is highly unlikely that he simply misspoke. How much money would it take to eliminate world poverty? Well, there is no way to do that except to encourage people to insist upon government which protects the rights of the individual with enthusiasm, as our Constitution does, but relatively few other countries do. A simple transfer of every American's income to the poor in the rest of the world would make us poor and help them only briefly. In the end, without the American economy to pull the world into a better, more productive future, the poor of the world will be left worse off. Disease.....we do not have the technology to end it. There are only so many people available to do the research and they will not have time in their lives, let alone in an Obama presidency, to find all the cures to disease. Perhaps he intends to be President for more than two terms, in violation of the Constitution, but his life will still be too short for this pledge. These are both absolutely insane claims, which is why you were incredulous that he made them.
He might create more than 5 million jobs in the alternative energy industries, but if he does, the necessary subsidies and mandates will kill many more than 5 million jobs elsewhere in the economy. But, yes, he can keep this pledge, though not in the way he intends you to understand it. With respect to my argument, the high cost energy that will result will be a very effective tax upon the 95% of the people he is claiming will get a tax reduction. Sometimes, the most insidious taxes are laid upon others, who then transfer many of the costs to still others. Governments are masters at spreading the taxes over many methods of taxation. They pretend your employer is paying half of the Social Security and Medicare taxes, for instance. But that is really money which otherwise would have been paid to the employee. All taxes on business income are simply transferred into the costs of goods and services. Money is printed and inflation ensues. This is a tax on everyone. Then, our telephone service is taxed, our utility service is taxed, tobacco and alcohol are taxed, fishing and marriage licenses are taxed, tariffs and tolls are paid, and in the end, all these taxes actually fall upon all of us as individuals. Yet, this very complex taxation scheme is understood by few, so governments are always able to pretend that most voters are not heavily taxed. They get away with it too.
I cannot believe that he gets away with claiming that he will strengthen the economy by increasing taxes on business activity. Yes, he claims he will reduce some taxes on small businesses, but he is talking only about very small businesses here. He is always unclear about where he is drawing the line at that. When he talks about it, he says he will help companies with incomes below $250,000. Those are not just small businesses, they are micro businesses. Perhaps he means net income, but he never says that. Maybe he does not know the crucial difference. Frankly, if you want to strengthen the economy, it is necessary to reduce taxes on all businesses, not just those with the most votes. He is clearly buying votes and that is all.
So, he cannot deliver what he has promised. He will not even be within the usual loose bounds that we commonly allow over-promising politicians these days.
But worst of all, his first act as President will be a lie. That first act is to swear to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. He stated in a National Public Radio interview in 2001, when he was a state Senator of Illinois, that he opposed the Constitution because it did not allow for the redistribution of income. More on that in my next post. This man must swear to preserve the Constitution while knowingly opposing it! Could any President's lie be more insidious and evil?
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