Obama: 80% of the people want some tax hikes
posted at 2:10 pm on July 15, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
Barack Obama tried to claim ownership of the mighty middle in today’s press conference while casting opposition on both ends as extreme. In response to a question from Chuck Todd, Obama said that 80% of Americans support his “balanced approach” to deficit reduction and the debt-ceiling increase. But is this really true? Via RCP:
“The American people are sold,” President Obama said.
“The American people are sold, I just want to repeat that.”
“You have 80% of the American people who support a balanced approach. 80% of the American people support an approach that includes revenues and includes cuts. So the notion that somehow the American people aren’t sold is not the problem. The problem is members of Congress are dug in ideologically.”
Frankly, it appears that the problem is that members of the West Wing can’t do math. The latest national survey on the topic came from Gallup, which expressed some support for the “balanced” approach, but hardly showed 80% of Americans backing tax hikes — excuse me, “revenue increases.”
Americans’ preferences for deficit reduction clearly favor spending cuts to tax increases, but most Americans favor a mix of the two approaches. Twenty percent favor an approach that relies only on spending cuts and 4% favor an approach that uses tax increases alone.
That puts 76%, not 80%, somewhere in between the two points. But Gallup breaks this out more effectively:
- Only/Mostly with spending cuts: 50%
- Only/Mostly with tax increases: 11%
Only 32% prefer a balance between spending cuts and tax increases, which added to the bottom option would still tilt the public far more in favor of spending cuts, 50/43. Among independents — the most non-ideological group possible in this survey — it’s 51/41, a wider split. This is hardly a public that is “sold, sold!” on tax hikes.
And that’s just in the Gallup poll. Two months ago, The Hill conducted its own poll that showed opposition to tax hikes at 45%, with only 13% favoring an even split between tax hikes and spending cuts to solve the deficit problem, with another 11% supporting a 2/1 split for spending cuts to tax hikes, and 15% for a 3/1 split. Even under the most liberal (pun intended) definition of “balanced,” only 39% in that poll opted for the idea.
Obama has fallen very clearly out of step with the American public on spending and taxes, and the 80% remark just demonstrates his cluelessness.
Blowback
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Back up your facts please.
BTW, we can those people Oppressives
Chip on July 15, 2011 at 4:10 PM
Michael Goodwin, writing in the NY Post is tired of President Obama’s speeches and says they are repetitive. He writes:
There it is. Barack Obama’s speeches are like Groundhog Day. The best description yet.
Blaise on July 15, 2011 at 4:13 PM
Gates isn’t progressive. If you want millionaires to pay more money because they have lots, $250K is very far from a millionaire. If you want millionaires to pay more as an ethical obligation, then you are trying to force your morality on other people. The only rational goal for taxation is maximizing receipts while minimizing economic detriment. There’s no evidence that tax increases on the rich fit this goal. Increasing taxes and then giving tax breaks on the same people for creating jobs is a ridiculous Rube Goldberg effort. Just simplify the tax code, end corporate income taxes and the preferred capital gains rate, and slash spending. Business will boom and people can get back to work, which is the most pressing need right now.
alwaysfiredup on July 15, 2011 at 4:13 PM
the people: 100% of the people think obama is an idiot
ConservativePartyNow on July 15, 2011 at 4:13 PM
Political Entrepreneurs vs. Market Entrepreneurs.
visions on July 15, 2011 at 4:14 PM
Well if the tax hikes are on the 50% that pay no taxes, I could go along with that. Then they might care.
derft on July 15, 2011 at 4:14 PM
4 out of 5 people agree:
Let’s take the 5th guy’s money!
That’s not something I want to base my fiscal policy on, champ.
stevezilla on July 15, 2011 at 4:16 PM
Schadenfreude on July 15, 2011 at 4:18 PM
The Obamas live like billionaires, based on nada; yet, they play the class warfare, fooling the fools.
Expose this charade, nakid.
Schadenfreude on July 15, 2011 at 4:19 PM
Wow. Okay, I’m out. I’d mistaken you for a serious person before this post.
Thanks for saving me some time, though.
rogerb on July 15, 2011 at 4:20 PM
Listen, pinhead, do you have to continue with your ad hominem attacks? You don’t seem to grasp how much income is generated by the top 1% given their control over most of the nation’s assets. Why don’t you do some research before you make blanket statements? As for Gates, Buffet, Zuckerberg, and other great entrepreneurs, these men continually transfer assets from one investment to another, each transaction incurring capital gains.
I never said that. I stated very clearly that the great capitalist entrepreneurs, men who build great businesses and fortunes from the ground up, are primarily progressives. Look at today’s high growth industries or the 3 wealthiest men in the US.
As for the
bayam on July 15, 2011 at 4:20 PM
2nd that
cmsinaz on July 15, 2011 at 4:22 PM
Back up your facts please.
BTW, we can those people Oppressives
Chip on July 15, 2011 at 4:24 PM
Wow. Sample size of three. Your statistical analysis could use some work.
alwaysfiredup on July 15, 2011 at 4:25 PM
Governor Palin is relentless in taking the fight to President Obama. She tweets today:
Sarah Palin tweets a post-press conference slam on President Obama after he provides an update on the debt-ceiling stalemate:
“Obama lies, economy dies. He says “default’s catastrophic” then opposes deal to avert it. Nonsense. Gold stars to GOP trying to deal w/this.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59101.html#ixzz1SCvNE2Rs
SheetAnchor on July 15, 2011 at 4:25 PM
You’re gonna have to prove that with some facts. 4 or 5 doesn’t constitute even a majority. Heck even hollyweird isn’t uniformly socialist.
dogsoldier on July 15, 2011 at 4:26 PM
The top 1% make 30% of the income and pay 38% of the taxes. they already pay much more than their share.
alwaysfiredup on July 15, 2011 at 4:27 PM
Oh and skippy went out into the weeds with this flyer. What IS he smokin’?
dogsoldier on July 15, 2011 at 4:30 PM
superb analysis, Ed.
Maybe the West Wing can attribute the remark to a ’rounding error?’
ted c on July 15, 2011 at 4:31 PM
Breaking News::: Most people OK with tax hikes on somebody else.
taznar on July 15, 2011 at 4:32 PM
How nice of him, He tell Eric that he is going to take it to the American people, then gets ups and tells us what we are telling him, and repeats it like a parent scolding a child to make sure they understand.
Franklyn on July 15, 2011 at 4:33 PM
Things just wouldn’t be correct if the left hadn’t played the race card:
Jackson Lee: Congress complicating debt ceiling because Obama is black
NMRN123 on July 15, 2011 at 4:36 PM
And those investments they have their money parked in are taxed at much lower rates than actual earned income. So once again their arguments to raise the income tax rates really have only a marginal affect on them.
chemman on July 15, 2011 at 4:40 PM
Look at Forbes’ list of US billionaires. It addresses the concerns of those who say that progressives don’t ‘get it’ when it comes to free markets and capitalism. When Facebook goes public, the top 4 US billionaires will all be progressives.
bayam on July 15, 2011 at 4:42 PM
I missed the presser. I was flying around in my corporate jet. That’s right, just flying around – no real destination. I had the pilot do a couple of loop-dee-loops and then spell out “I AM RICH” in the sky! It was awesome!
Mr_Magoo on July 15, 2011 at 4:43 PM
No American in his or her right mind should want tax increases. Why in the world would anyone want to transfer their hard earned money to the Government for distribution?
Our government does not make or create income or wealth. It merely consumes the income and wealth created by hard working citizens. Rich, poor, or in the middle, it makes no sense – especially in view of the fact that our Government has virtually bankrupted this nation.
Our representatives have demonstrated their complete inabibilty to manage financial resources. They have shown complete incompetence in managing money. Why would any sane person give them more of his or her money at this point in time? Most of the people in Congress do not understand even basic economics and financial management. In fact, the only way the hard working citizens can impose sound fiscal management and control over our government is to give them less money to work with.
Every American, poor, middle, and rich, should be ashamed at the financial disaster our elected representatives have created. Fortunately, at least fiscal and social conservatives, and the tea party, may be able to save the country from self-destruction. We sent the new House to do oone thing: Stop Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress from destroying this country at all costs.
The President evidently threatened Mr. Cantor the other day, telling him not to call his bluff, because he was going to the American people on this. Well Mr. Cantor should have told him, “Mr. President, We are the American People! And you do not tell us what to do, or how to spend our money. We, in the Congress decide how money gets spent around here.”
We’ll soon see how much backbone our representatives have. If you have not called or e-mailed your Rep yet, do it. And tell them if you do not stop this President, we will end your political career in November of 2012, whether or not its too late to save America. Deliver the message folks.
SheetAnchor on July 15, 2011 at 4:46 PM
Scratch a Leftist-Oppressive, find a hypocrite I always say.
Chip on July 15, 2011 at 4:49 PM
Companies that support Obama’s socialist government get hefty tax breaks. Google paid nowhere near the 35% they were supposed to, and GE paid ZERO taxes.
darwin on July 15, 2011 at 4:50 PM
Exactly why should those who make more pay more again?
darwin on July 15, 2011 at 4:51 PM
Please name them. All of them, with credible cites.
Del Dolemonte on July 15, 2011 at 4:55 PM
All of them expose and exploit you.
Schadenfreude on July 15, 2011 at 4:56 PM
Actually, no. When someone says that you’re the smartest person in the country, that doesn’t mean the sample size is one. Hope that makes sense.
Eric Schmidt has said that tax loophole should be closed for all corporations. It’s a loophole that allows any company with overseas operations and profits to dodge paying taxes on those profits. And no, not all those companies support Obama, far from it.
This loophoole is why the US corporate tax rate is far, far less than 35% and why some companies are unfairly taxed at a much higher rate than others.
bayam on July 15, 2011 at 4:56 PM
NOTE TO OBAMA:
That thing that you feel when you talk to a citizens about taking more of their money is a “WEDGIE“…not a “TAX HIKE“…and it’s not a sign of support: it is a message to BACK OFF!!!
landlines on July 15, 2011 at 5:00 PM
As president, Obama is charged with the Constitutional requirement to pay the nations debts. The constitution does not say, if he has enough in his budget, or in Obama’s case the lack of one, to pay the debt and everything else.
The current incoming revenue is more than enough to pay for the dept payment as it now stands, and social security / VA payments which the government long ago hauled off what would have been the fund paying those “entitlements”, and Medicare. What it does not have is enough to pay for all the rest, without some reduction of funding of pork and other none essential government expenses.
If Obama defaults, it is because he has chosen to put the Constitutionaly mandated debt payment as the bottom of the priority list of who gets funds and payments. His own priorites that further his goals move to the top of the list
Keep in mind, Marx said socialism was the step between Capitalism and Communisum, now known as social justic.
Socialism has to fail to succeed. Communism results from socialism’s success.
Franklyn on July 15, 2011 at 5:00 PM
3 men is a sample? That’s just as hallucinogenic as your earlier claim that 2 polls are sufficient proof that 80% of Americans want higher taxes on the rich.
When you find 10 or 12 polls that all have that same result, we’ll believe you. But you can’t, and you know it.
LOL, you just moved the goalpost again. Are you sure two shovels and a manure spreader are enough?
Del Dolemonte on July 15, 2011 at 5:00 PM
Heh, it does with Obama, except not “in the country”. It’s in the world.
Schadenfreude on July 15, 2011 at 5:01 PM
No, some companies pay a higher rate because they don’t support the Obama socialist regime, or the socialists use them as an example of an “evil business” that must be taxed to death.
darwin on July 15, 2011 at 5:02 PM
Bayam, you are incoherent. Why don’t you address Google and GE? Focus your brain.
Schadenfreude on July 15, 2011 at 5:03 PM
The majority is in favor of tax hikes as long as they affect “someone else” and not them.
Just like the majority support entitlement cuts as long as it isn’t them or their family that is affected by those cuts.
What gets me most about anyone that supports tax increases is that they always fail to comprehend the reality of who is impacted by those tax increases.
The mantra of “tax the rich” over and over and over sounds good to the “oppressed”. But they cannot understand that they will be paying those taxes. Not the “rich”.
ButterflyDragon on July 15, 2011 at 5:03 PM
A bummed America.
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 5:03 PM
Anway, I’d like to know exactly why should those who make more should pay more. Got any answers?
darwin on July 15, 2011 at 5:04 PM
It’s called crony capitalism and Obama supports it more than any other president that I can recall.
ButterflyDragon on July 15, 2011 at 5:05 PM
So you mean if everyone had to pay taxes, then more people would be against tax increases?
darwin on July 15, 2011 at 5:05 PM
Frankly, I have no problem whatsoever with anyone rich or getting rich. I have no moral or ethical right to the fruit of someone else’s labor. In fact, I hope that all of you get rich, because that means you will be producing some product or service, and need to hire someone to help you get the job done, and by virtue thereof, raise the standard of living.
It now seems that half the country thinks that “Capitalism” is a bad word. Anyone who thinks that way should go study “Socialism;” and the attendant eoonomic disasters it leads to; most recently Greece, with others pending. Obviously, and as we know based upon empirical evidence, the public school system in this country has been failing for the past few decades.
In short, as much money as possible needs to stay in the individual citizen’s hands; that is how wealth gets created; and that is how this country became economically strong and prosperous.
SheetAnchor on July 15, 2011 at 5:05 PM
In their top 10, I see two evil Koch Brothers, and a bunch of redneck Wal-Mart race fans. You’re not doing too well today.
10-20? Leading Republican donor and anti-union guy Sheldon Adelson, directly followed by Halliburton part-owner George Soros, who made his billions trashing the economies of Europe and is trying to do the same here.
Sure you don’t need more shovels?
Del Dolemonte on July 15, 2011 at 5:07 PM
Yes.
But the majority of people who don’t pay federal tax think they pay federal taxes.
That’s what is really screwed up about our country.
ButterflyDragon on July 15, 2011 at 5:08 PM
The Republican Party has often been claimed to be the party of the rich.
I say .. let’s make that true … let’s tax rich Democrats into Republicans today.
I support taxing the living hell out of Democrats
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don’t take it all.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
J_Crater on July 15, 2011 at 5:08 PM
You make good points.
The salient points are these:
1. American businesses ship jobs overseas because the overseas markets are more market friendly.
2. Obama is a failure; the US knows this and so does the rest of the World economy.
3. Jobs will continue to be shipped overseas because Obama doesn’t seem to get the memo that states “Don’t denigrate businesses”
4. Obama’s EPA.
5. Obama’s tax policy.
6. Obama’s inability to grasp the most basic accounting; relying on pure Marxist tacticts to git it done.
7. Obama’s unwillingness to embrace Free Market Principles.
8. Obama’s inability to admit that he is Wrong.
9. Obama’s inability to educate himself on the cncept of Capitalism vs. Marxism.
10. Obama’s inabilit to connect with the American populace.
………..
There ya go, Obama. Use up AF1. Let your wife fly hither and yon. Let your daughters continue frowning at the cameras. Enjoy your short stint. Good bye, and Good night, Obama.
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 5:10 PM
Exactamungo! Raise corporate taxes on WalMart and WalMart simply ups the prices to cover that new cost. Corporations back into profit. They determine what profit they can realistically make, add up fixed and variable costs and mark prices accordingly.
Prices on food and consumer goods are increasing right now. Why? Corporations are looking at the ObamaCare Freight Train coming down the track.
Raise taxes = Raise the cost of consumer goods.
katablog.com on July 15, 2011 at 5:13 PM
As if these were one-man operations, run by one Leftist in one office. These are big businesses. The founder came up with the great idea, then wisely surrounded himself with talented business/marketing/etc. specialists. Are 100% of all employees of, say, Google, “Progressives?” Is it within the realm of possibility that some of the large staff, those that put the ideas into the market successfully, centrists or conservatives? What about the third party contractors? All Progressives?
Furthermore, Just because, say, Bruce Springsteen is a great entertainer does not mean he is knowledgeable about government-run health care. Just because, say, Mark Zuckerberg was the first to develop a great social network does not mean he understands the reasons for skyrocketing black youth unemployment.
These are highly successful people in extremely narrow fields of expertise. To assume that they therefore must be great, or even competent, at anything else, is folly.
visions on July 15, 2011 at 5:28 PM
Will become the biggest joke in American History.
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 5:32 PM
Tax Hollywood. 98% tax on all Actors.
Propose it, Obama
See how it flies.
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 5:33 PM
Eighty Percent, huh?? Hide yo wife, hide yo kids, cuz they’s rapin’ everbody. Today’s presser’s theme song.
hoosiermama on July 15, 2011 at 5:35 PM
Hmmm. $50 in and $100 out seems balanced to me. I’m sold /s
shick on July 15, 2011 at 5:36 PM
This is quite correct. The Narcissist is well known in the work place everywhere. He or she is the one that screws up and deserves to get fired, but, manages to put the blame on others and get a promotion in the deal. When things go well, they are quick to position themselves as being the reason it did well. They also are the ones that move closer to those who they want to be associated with.
If anyone or situtation becomes a threat to them by association, they quickly disassociate themselves and deny any such association to the extent they can.
A successful narcissist is skillful in lying, but not always so skillful at keeping the lies stright.
Narcisisist have a self image of themselves as being superior to those around them and tend react negatively if that image is threatened.
Is this ringing any bells with what we know of “The One”?
Franklyn on July 15, 2011 at 5:37 PM
Chiming in late..haven’t had a chance to read all the comments yet. Still waiting for the poll that asks the question: HOW MUCH ARE YOU WILLING TO HAVE YOUR TAXES RAISED? Because everybody wants ‘the other guys taxes to go up’. There just aren’t enough ‘other guys’ floating around.
red131 on July 15, 2011 at 5:55 PM
Sold…?
… More like “hoodwinked” and “bamboozled”.
Seven Percent Solution on July 15, 2011 at 5:56 PM
It is true, you know. The American People Are Sold;
Into slavery.
And Barack is the most successful slave seller in history: As of now, he is getting $46,140.12. for every man, woman and child in America
LegendHasIt on July 15, 2011 at 5:59 PM
Eh, Nobody knows how it feels to live in poverty. Nobody knows how it feels to sell a food stamp coupon for a real stick of butter.
Everyone knows the rhetoric of Buh Rock Hussein Obama.
/We ain’t buying your chit. You let us down.
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 6:05 PM
This is not even the most egregious lie, that one was “I have thick skin”.
carbon_footprint on July 15, 2011 at 6:08 PM
The true test of America is going to be the ability to keep the troops on the ground from Revolt.
We can make it, folks, just hold on. Don’t let this marxist deliver you to evil.
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 6:08 PM
You will note that the “rich’ that the leftist presents as proof that the great capitalists are ‘progressives’… Are pretty much only guys that got there by manipulating bits and bytes, They got it by dealing with ephemeral things.
How many that got rich by producing food, raw materials, machines, clothing and shelter are ‘progressives’.
It is easy to have a ‘progressive attitude’ if you got rich by manipulating 0s and 1s.
A little harder to be a progressive if you spent your life dealing digging ore, Building mills, making metal, building engines, by didding earth and planting seeds, fighting nature to produce your crops.
LegendHasIt on July 15, 2011 at 6:11 PM
Sorry, was supposed to be is diGGing earth.
LegendHasIt on July 15, 2011 at 6:12 PM
You’re a queen of the fallacious argument.
CW on July 15, 2011 at 6:12 PM
Now is the time for Jesse Jackson to come out and say, with certitude: “Our people will not come out for tax increases against the White peoples because they pay our bills” .
/Oh, wait.
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 6:14 PM
Yesterday.
All your troubles seeemed so far away. Now it looks as though they’re here to stay…
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 6:17 PM
Suddenly! I’m not half the man I used to be.
Wah
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 6:20 PM
Point.
Key West Reader on July 15, 2011 at 6:23 PM
Americans are less free than at any time in our history, yet many citizens prefer to keep their heads lodged in the sand – comfortable in their denial. Yet, government at all levels has intruded into our lives to a degree scarcely imagineable even a few decades ago. Consider how many aspects of your life fall under direct or indirect govt. control. The leviathan tells us what foods and beverages we may consume, and who shall grow them. It also presumes to tell us whether or not we may ingest drugs or pharmaceuticals, including alcohol and tobacco – and regulates who may manufacture or grow these products. Big Brother tells manufactuers how to design cars, how they may be fueled, and who may drive them. It also regulates the number and kind of safety devices installed in vehicles; the consumer has no choice in whether to buy them or not. Removing them is against the law. Uncle Sam also tells you how much water your shower and toilet may use, and what type of light bulbs you may use to light your home. It regulates how you defend yourself and your loved ones, the second Amendment notwithstanding. The same applies to the clothes you wear, the home in which you live, the land upon which your home rests, and everything else in your life – all regulated by the govt. It is easier to list the ways in which we are not regulated, than the ways we are. We live in a tyranny, one whose iron fist is clothed in a velvet glove, but a tyranny nonetheless. A gilded cage is still a cage.
Lon Chaney on July 15, 2011 at 6:27 PM
McCartney’s playing Yankee Stadium this weekend.
Del Dolemonte on July 15, 2011 at 6:29 PM
We can’t really tell how many business leaders are true believers and how many are scared sh1tless by little Bammie’s thuggish administration. He has no respect for the law. If I was the CEO of a corporation, or the proprietor, and my business and employees depended on our success, when little Bammie came by I would say “yes massa” and help polish his turds. I would still vote against the SOB of course.
This is the power of incumbency, but when you can tell bankers that “I’m all that stands between you and the pitchforks”, that’s a powerful incentive to just shut up about your politics. We don’t know how many of these business leaders are simply making a pragmatic decision to protect their life’s work, and how many really are progs.
slickwillie2001 on July 15, 2011 at 6:29 PM
You still smoke pot don’t you?
–
Why does Bayam bring up the politics of some business owners?
If every business owner was a liberal that would not prove the validity of any argument concerning our tax and fiscal policies.
CW on July 15, 2011 at 6:40 PM
O’bama (and bayam) actually believe that the US’s transportation infrastructure was created by the Government, when in fact the vast majority of American railroads were privately capitalized, and so were the first turnpikes. In fact, the US Government didn’t start building roads until about 100 years ago.
Del Dolemonte on July 15, 2011 at 6:48 PM
Notice how bayam only cites successful liberal business owners, while conveniently ignoring the Epic Failures by such Leftist “businessmen” as Pinch Sulzberger at the NYT, or the Epic Failure of Airhead America?
Del Dolemonte on July 15, 2011 at 6:52 PM
Which reminds me of what Nat Taggart did to that congresscritter that tried to stop his railroad.
LegendHasIt on July 15, 2011 at 7:07 PM
Fine, than start with the 53% who don’t pay taxes, and tax them…that’s a good start.
Then after the next election, you can go after the other 27%…if you are still around, and you won’t be.
right2bright on July 15, 2011 at 7:07 PM
The fact that the assembled reporters in the room did not laugh Obama off the stage with this 80% mark is ridiculous.
Kevin71 on July 15, 2011 at 7:18 PM
There’s lies.. Damn lies.. And. Statistics.
Anyone said that, yet?
franksalterego on July 15, 2011 at 7:25 PM
I don’t understand. I thought that Republicans refuse to raise taxes on the rich because they are protecting their fellow Republicans.
But now you’re telling me that the richest Americans are liberals?
That doesn’t make any sense.
blink on July 15, 2011 at 7:39 PM
When asked about slavery in modern times Obama responded, “The American people are sold!”
recklessprocess on July 15, 2011 at 7:44 PM
You are clueless.
1. The average tax rate for US C corporations is NOT far, far less than 35%. It is approximately 35%.
2. Foreign companies shouldn’t be paying US taxes except on the profit of their US operations. For you or anyone else to suggest otherwise is stupid.
blink on July 15, 2011 at 7:46 PM
“OBAMA LIES….ECONOMY DIES”
–Former Governor Sarah Palin today after the press confab of the DOTUS.
My favorite quote of the day.
PappyD61 on July 15, 2011 at 7:49 PM
He’s confusing the 80% with his disapproval numbers.
Fuquay Steve on July 15, 2011 at 7:55 PM
yeah…down the river. savor the irony.
Fighton03 on July 15, 2011 at 7:56 PM
DE-Stress Obama!!!
Let’s help him retire to a life of leisure on the courses (Chicago/Hawaii/etc).
V-A Day!!!
November 6, 2012
November 6, 2012
PappyD61 on July 15, 2011 at 7:59 PM
bayam, they are successful businessmen, but they still don’t ‘get it’ regarding the actual effects of their policy prescriptions. Billionaires have the luxury of being progressives. Progressives are found at the ends of the bell curve of various social metrics. They are people who are not or who don’t want to be seen as bourgeois. If I tell you Mr. X is progressive, well he could be a pothead slacker who has never worked a full day in his life sitting on his couch playing X-Box or a one of the beautiful people absent any other information.
What do the billionaire and the slacker have in common? They are personally pretty much unaffected by progressive policies in any meaningful way. Slacker-X doesn’t pay income tax because he’s all cash in his budding pot business. Mr. Billionaire doesn’t really pay income tax because he’s living off trusts, dividends, corporate swag, and capital gains, or he is unaffected by it because it has no net impact on his lifestyle. The bourgeois owner of a motel or factory or restaurant who is busting his ass to improve his station is the one who gets bitten. Imagine a pizza restaurant owner looking to expand and who is making good money and is saving capital to buy an adjacent lot or to buy more pizza ovens and has a ten year schedule for it. Some dumbass progressive law that cuts his ability to save capital in half pushes that out to 20 years — half an adult lifetime. The progressives have just wrecked a middle class dream, but it’s okay because he’s not one of the beautiful people. Once progressives praised the “Horatio Alger” character. Now they spend their energy making fun of him and dismissing his concerns.
Bill Gates was a rich scion who went to Harvard before starting Microsoft. He was never middle class. Mark Zuckerberg is another Harvard child of privilege. Steve Jobs gets paid in gifts like, yes, corporate jets and big blocks of restricted stock taxed at the lower capital gains rate. His annual salary is $1 to avoid income tax. Warren Buffet makes his money off of dividends and by acquiring properties that have to be sold due to the death tax. John Kerry married his money. These people were never in a situation where they tried to save up, say, a six figure sum for some entrepreneurial venture over the span of 10 years by being hardworking and frugal — in other words, bourgeois. They don’t know what that’s like. Also, the ostensible magnanimity vis-a-vis taxes is a social marker that tastefully informs everyone that they’ve already made it and now float above petty mundane concerns like how the price of laundry detergent will cut into margins at the hotel. And finally there is the “Caddyshack” phenomenon. Their brand of politics pulls up the ladder after themselves so that — as someone more eloquent than I put it — they can rest easy that they don’t have to share their country clubs with the guy that invented the Sham-Wow.
shazbat on July 15, 2011 at 8:00 PM
Everyone please go back and read the entirety of this comment. I know we’re all preaching to the chior here, but this puts all into proper perspective. We are already slaves.
runawayyyy on July 15, 2011 at 8:02 PM
The poor that are progressives are in it for the free stuff and to tell other people how to live. The rich that are progressives are in it because they have been culturally conditioned to be embarrassed by their success,and they like to tell other people how to live.
The crux of progressivism is a G-D complex. Progressives believe they are the Supreme Being, and everyone else is below them. They have to tell everyone how to live because they see other people as whole flawed, infantile and unable to make any good choices.
Progressives are deluded that they know best. And a strong central government is where they want to work the most so naturally a bunch of our politicians are progressives. As long as we have such a strong over-reaching central government we will be plagued by progressives
batterup on July 15, 2011 at 8:20 PM
80% want Obowma’s tax hikes and the other 920% don’t want tax increases.
dthorny on July 15, 2011 at 8:30 PM
You might enjoy this: The Soft Dictatorship
slickwillie2001 on July 15, 2011 at 8:35 PM
bayam, Chew on this: ObaMao is not seriously negotiating in this debt-ceiling impasse at all. Take a look at Rep. Paul Ryan’s summary, filled with facts and statistics about this president’s profligacy and what this president says are off the table in terms of negotiations.
http://www.budget.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=252211
onlineanalyst on July 15, 2011 at 8:55 PM
From Rep. Paul Ryan’s Budget Committee report:
onlineanalyst on July 15, 2011 at 9:00 PM
Gee, ya think?
Not only did they not laugh him off the stage, none of them asked him where he got that 80% number.
Had Bush made the same claim, they would not only challenge him about it on the spot, they would also spend the rest of the day and night on CNN and MSDNC attempting to refute it.
Krauthammer had a brilliant observation earlier today on “Inside Washington” on PBS, when he challenged the other (all Democrat Media) panel members:
h/t Newsbusters
Del Dolemonte on July 15, 2011 at 9:01 PM
Obama…trying to hoodwink the American people? He knows what he is doing, right? It’s not like we elected Urkle in 2008, right?
coldwarrior on July 15, 2011 at 9:02 PM
You have to pass it to know what is in it.
CW on July 15, 2011 at 9:07 PM
Too funny. +1
CW on July 15, 2011 at 9:08 PM
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