Video: Paul Ryan previews the SOTU

Paul Ryan appeared on CBS this morning to preview tonight’s State of the Union speech from Barack Obama and to offer a counterpoint to the campaign messages about to come forth. Charlie Rose and Ericka Hill also asked Ryan to give a prediction for tonight’s speech:

Oh, wait … wrong prediction. Instead of “pain,” Ryan predicts “divisiveness”:

Well, no kidding.  Obama has already signaled that he plans to play the class-warfare card in tonight’s speech by inviting a special guest:

The State of the Union guest list has become an annual rite, with the first lady’s box taking on the sort of gravitas shown at the Academy Awards’ Red Carpet ceremony. The guests often have ties to a proposal or initiative the president will outline in the address.

The White House said Debbie Bosanek, the secretary for billionaire Warren Buffett, would be among those attending the speech. Obama has frequently cited Buffett’s complaint that the tax code is unfair because he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

I’m sure Ms. Bosanek will appreciate the glamour of the event, but it’s a specious argument.  Buffett doesn’t have access to some secret tax rate that only billionaires can access.  Anyone who makes capital gains — which can come from the sale of property or stocks — pays 15% on that income.  Wages get taxed at higher rates because they don’t come from the proceeds of risk-taking, which even this President recognizes should have a lower tax rate.  And as I wrote earlier, Obama’s solution of a millionaire surtax, about which Rose and Hill ask Ryan in this interview, doesn’t address capital gains anyway.  It hikes taxes on wage-based income.

Ryan’s prediction is dead-on, but it didn’t take a psychic to predict an avalanche of class-warfare arguments tonight, anyway.  Obama wants to kick his presidential campaign into high gear tonight, and the only hope he has is to pit people against each other, since his economic policy has produced the worst post-WWII recovery ever.  Obama wants to blame everyone but himself, and so Ms. Bosanek will serve as his political human shield tonight.  This is what passes for leadership in the Hope and Change era.

Update: Guy Benson has more on the SOTU at Townhall.