President Barack Obama’s attacks on “the rich” doesn’t help the economy, doesn’t create jobs, and it does not inspire excellence. Obama in his most recent rant against wealthy citizens said, “Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that.”
However the facts are, once again, at odds with the president’s words.
On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government. Good grief! According to IRS data, 47% of Americans don’t even pay a dime of income taxes at all.
Clearly, our nation suffers far more economically, not because Warren Buffet won’t cough up more tax dollars, but because nearly half the population has no skin in our nation’s financial future at all. And, by the way, please contact Mr. Buffet directly and let him know that he is free to practice what he preaches and donate directly to the debt fund.
So, why does Barack Obama relentlessly convey such animus toward financially successful Americans?
For starters, the president essentially marinated himself in the “ideals” of collectivism during his childhood, throughout his academic years, and into his political career.
Here’s a quick snap shot. (Note, for time and space considerations, this is just a sampling)
Barack Hussein Obama Sr. – Barack’s father was an African socialist. While he was not with his son for much of junior’s childhood, they did keep in touch through routine correspondence according to the future president’s premature memoir, Dreams From My Father.
Frank Marshall Davis – “Frank,” as Barack Obama refers to him in his book, was a member of the Communist Party (USA). He was also a former community organizer in Chicago. In his younger years, Barack was exposed to many of Davis’ rants about white supremacy, white Christianity, and undoubtedly was aware of Davis’ pro-Soviet writings. In his memoir, Obama merely says he was “intrigued” by Davis.
Stanley Ann Dunham – Barack’s mother was a 60′s liberal feminist, avowed atheist, and communist sympathizer.
Saul Alinsky – Mr. Alinsky was an avid and open socialist and the tsar of social activism, commonly called the “father of community organizing.” Barack even wrote a chapter on community organizing in his book, based on Alinsky. Observe how Obama pushes specific agenda items such as his recent “jobs bill” (another stimulus) and you will see explicit evidence of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals being put into practice from the White House. Saul Alinsky’s son, Lee David Alinsky, recently praised Obama on his ability to perform Saul’s tactics, saying that Barack “learned his lesson well.”
Reverend Jeremiah Wright – “Uncle J” was Barack’s former pastor and mentor at Trinity United Church of Christ. The philosophy of the Church is based on the teachings of James Cone’s black liberation theology. As Cone admits, Black Liberation Theology is simply a conglomeration of “black religion and Marxist philosophy.” Wright’s repugnant anti-white, anti-capitalist, and anti-USA sermons landed him in a media controversy that eventually led to Barack’s denouncement of him in the spring of 2008, after 20 years of friendship…
DSA –Obama’s socialist political backing dates back to at least 1996, when he received the endorsement of the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for an Illinois state senate seat.
In completing my research for The War on Success, it became increasingly evident that Barack Obama is a disgruntled, anti-American, anti-free market crusader committed to implementing the dreams “from” his father (a self-avowed communist) and “fundamentally transforming” or “re-making” the United States of America into an impotent and mediocre country modeled, at best, after the morally and financially bankrupt nations of the European Union.
President Reagan once asked, “Since when do we in America believe that our society is made up of two diametrically opposed classes—one rich, one poor—both in a permanent state of conflict and neither able to get ahead except at the expense of the other? Since when do we in America accept this alien and discredited theory of social and class warfare? Since when do we in America endorse the politics of envy and division?” Envy eats up individuals, and class envy weakens nations.
Although Reagan took a public stance against envy, our current president has a different attitude. Obama stokes envy, especially class envy. He spreads it and stews in it. In Obama’s eyes, America is divided between the evil rich and the virtuous exploited, and the only solution is to take from the former group and give to the latter.
In fact, Obama demonizes not only the “rich,” but the very act of engaging in business and making money. For him, financial success is a dishonorable goal—perversely; money is something to be taken from others, not to be earned for oneself. As he told graduating students at a commencement ceremony at Southern New Hampshire University, “In a few minutes, you can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and go chasing after the big house and the large salary and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy. But I hope you don’t. Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled.”
First Lady Michelle Obama is even blunter than her husband, admonishing a group of Ohio women, “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.”
Anti-business resentment and class envy infuse the Obamas’ speeches. Consider their careful choice of words—“chasing after the big house and the large salary and the nice suits,” “focusing solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition,” and “move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry.” Wow, I didn’t realize all those people with nice suits and big houses didn’t help anyone. I always thought they created a lot more jobs than community organizers do, paid a lot more taxes, and donated a lot more to charity to boot.
These themes, which the Obamas repeat in speech after speech, reveal a poverty of understanding about capitalism and about the myriad ways society benefits when individuals succeed.
President Calvin Coolidge spoke along the same lines, observing, “The wise and correct course to follow in taxation and all other economic legislation is not to destroy those who have already secured success but to create conditions under which everyone will have a better chance to be successful.” These words speak to the distinctively American mindset.
What citizen can possibly think that class envy is a good thing for the moral fiber of our country or the integrity of the individuals involved? What American can claim that pitting one group of people against another is patriotic?
Americans are the most generous, giving, and compassionate people on the planet. We all want to help and support those who are needy and deserving. But we don’t reach new heights as a nation by poisoning the spirit and the vision of success.
Whoops, Where Did the Wealth Go?
Putting aside the moral issue, everyone needs to understand the practical consequences of redistribution schemes. Before the government can redistribute another citizen’s wealth, that citizen must be highly productive and earn enough wealth to be redistributed. Once this citizen begins to lose what he has rightly earned, the incentive to produce and excel in the future diminishes. The entire scheme punishes the successful, but it also inevitably causes the bottom to fall out from under the recipients of the free money. Over time, there is simply less and less to distribute.
No American likes high taxes, especially with the atrocious record of government inefficiency, waste, and fraud in handling our tax dollars. As the federal government’s track record reveals, advocating for higher taxes is akin to advocating for poor stewardship. And raising tax rates on the most productive inevitably harms the rest of the population.
So, why does Barack Obama relentlessly convey such animus toward financially successful Americans?
He simply cannot help himself.
