The country’s in for a rude awakening if it elects Barack Obama next month (and it’s certainly on the path to doing so). Yesterday I posted a video of Obama telling a plumber the following (transcript via HA):
Plumber to Obama: “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more. Isn’t it?”
Obama: “It’s not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too. I think that when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
Yes, he’s telling a plumber that he wants to spread the wealth around. Our potential next president advocating redistributionism on the stump. That’s a whole bunch of comfort. And it got Jonah Goldberg remembering a comment Obama made during a debate last year:
GIBSON: All right. You have, however, said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, “I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton,” which was 28 percent. It’s now 15 percent. That’s almost a doubling, if you went to 28 percent.
But actually, Bill Clinton, in 1997, signed legislation that dropped the capital gains tax to 20 percent.
OBAMA: Right.
GIBSON: And George Bush has taken it down to 15 percent.
OBAMA: Right.
GIBSON: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down.
So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?
OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.
The man sees imposing higher taxes on successful people as being “fair” and advocates redistributionism. We’re in for a rocky four years, folks.
by Stephan Tawney on Tue, Oct 14, 2008