A summary of Obama’s speech — he will essentially say take more from the thieving rich have the well to do contribute more, provide more free stuff like community college for everyone, more in loco parentis, and also tell us how he is “working 24 hours a day” to keep America safe from something he is reluctant to define (Islamic terrorism). What follows are some solid responses, even innovative, to some of Obama’s tax and spend proposals. The last part is an important admonition to Republican congressional leadership.
First, from Gary Bauer regarding taxing the super rich, which echoes the challenge our own Senior Editor DLH suggested earlier today:
Several media outlets have referred to Obama’s “Robin Hood” tax plans because of their emphasis on class warfare. Obama is attempting to portray himself as the champion of the middle class and cast Republicans as the party of the rich.
I don’t think the GOP should fall on its sword over tax increases on billionaires. Heck, many billionaires are liberal Democrats anyway. If Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and George Soros want to pay more in taxes, I’m all in favor of a new liberal billionaire’s tax — on them!
That said, it is important to understand the facts about tax policy. According to an analysis by the Heritage Foundation, the top 1% of income earners paid 37% of all federal income taxes collected. The top 10% of income earners paid 71% of all federal income taxes.
It’s hard to argue that the rich are not paying their fair share. The problem for the left is that there aren’t enough rich people to tax and they aren’t rich enough to fund all the big government the socialists want. Rather than trying to find more ways to tax the rich, Obama should be trying to grow the economy in order to create more wealthy taxpayers!
Also from Bauer is this expose of what amounts to a give and grab by Obama. Give more child care tax credits in exchange for . . . your children . . . or dependence on government for child rearing.
. . . Initially I thought Obama was stealing pro-family ideas from Senators Mike Lee and Marco Rubio. Last year, they recommended that the credit be increased from $1,000 to $2,500 per child.
But that’s not what Obama has in mind. Instead, the president wants to increase the tax credit for child care expenses, which is available only for children five and under.
Expanding the per child tax credit is the better option. It would benefit all families, including those with stay-at-home mothers, without making demands on how each family spends its money. Obama’s plan is typical big government social engineering, picking winners and losers in the tax code.
Here’s something else: The man who promised better health care at lower costs is now promising two years of free community college! Except it really costs $60 billion. And Obama is paying for it by taxing popular middle class educational savings accounts.
A more detailed response to Obama’s “free” community college boondoggle is this thought-provoking essay in the Federalist by Daniel Oliver.
Forget College For Everyone: Forgive Student Loans And End Further Subsidies
While providing a way to out maneuver Obamacrats politically, it deserves serious consideration because it proposes to cancel federal support to higher educational institutions. That’s a good thing because federal largess has worked to raise the costs of higher education more than the money benefits students. Reasons include easy money inflation, strings that necessitate expensive bureaucracies and compliances including that of the political correct nature. Oliver suggests an interesting and in many ways compelling quid pro quo .
For us, the highlight of today’s conservative blog offerings was this article, also from The Federalist. It is a strong admonition by Joy Pullman, managing editor of the publication, calling on Republicans to live up to their promises and the mandate of the election. We could not agree more.
Americans Don’t Vote For Republicans To Be Governed By Democrats Republicans should not squander two years they could have used to set up a contrast between themselves and Democrats for 2016.
Here is one excerpt of the entirely worthwhile article:
Americans Don’t Want Congress As Usual
It’s the same with other policy areas. A recent missive, resoundingly titled “The Citizens’ Mandate from the November 2014 Elections,” recounts the centrist drift Republicans are taking before their new congressional control has even begun (disclosure: I’ve signed it). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declared no more attempts to repeal ObamaCare, although Americans of all political stripes are only growing in their disgust for the thing as its provisions lock in. As the Mandate document complains, the post-election Congress decided to undercut the new majority’s ability to control Obama’s Wild West executive agencies by passing the Cromnibus, which funded ObamaCare and many of the executive overreaches Republicans keep telling people they’re against. Leave it to Republicans to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
R Mall
