Return of the real Obama
(2) Ideological Breakthrough
Obama’s ultimate ambition is to break the nation’s 30-year thrall of low taxes — so powerful that those who defied the Reaganite norm paid heavily for it. Walter Mondale’s acceptance speech at the 1984 Democratic convention, promising to raise taxes, ended his campaign before it began. President George H.W. Bush’s no-new-taxes reversal cost him a second term.
On this, too, Obama is succeeding. He not only got his tax increase passed. He did it with public opinion behind him.
Why are higher taxes so important to him?
First, as a means: A high-tax economy is liberalism’s only hope for sustaining and enlarging the entitlement state. It provides the funds for enlightened adventures in everything from algae to Obamacare.
Second, as an end in itself. Fundamentally, Obama is a leveler. The community organizer seeks, above all, to reverse the growing inequality that he dates and attributes to ruthless Reaganism. Now, however, clothed in the immense powers of the presidency, he can actually engage in unadorned redistributionism. As in Tuesday night’s $620 billion wealth transfer.
Blowback
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Then, though it pains me to say it, we need another Cromwell!
OldEnglish on January 4, 2013 at 8:41 PM
Yeah, we’ll see about that $620B. The problem for Obama is that he needs people to work to get his money. If you pay income taxes in a blue state, there’s a decent chance you’re now the minority partner in your labor – ie, taxed at over 50%. How many people are going to bust their asses to work harder? Maybe if you’re a gazillionaire it won’t matter, but if you’re pulling down $1-2M, maybe you’ll decide enough’s enough.
The Count on January 4, 2013 at 9:14 PM
the wheelchair has now officially rotted kraut’s brain.
he doesn’t want to level the playing field….he wants to destroy the whole darn thing.
renalin on January 4, 2013 at 9:41 PM
the caliph president will tax u
Mormontheman on January 4, 2013 at 9:46 PM
We engage in too much internecine warfare, although some is both necessary and helpful.
Dr. Krauthammer is both brilliant and wise, and his heart is in the right place, even as he’s praised with slight damning by Mark Steyn.
Drained Brain on January 4, 2013 at 9:48 PM
CK nails it once again. Obama is out to reverse the Reagan Revolution, and all it stands for.
Do I notice Dr. K is becoming more adamant about what Obama is up to, or is that just my imagination?
petefrt on January 4, 2013 at 9:57 PM