Thursday, March 12, 2009

Punish, er tax the rich!

This, my friends, is why I have such a hard time swallowing Obama's agenda. His plan is to not just raise taxes on "the rich" in the middle of a recession, but to punish them for their wealth. Just take a look at his budget, explained well in this WSJ article.

*One example of punishing investment: A relative of mine recently purchased a very expensive home, encouraged to do so because of the mortgage interest deduction he would receive. (I'm sure the builder was grateful for this purchase given the fact that it had been sitting on the lot for many months.) He also regularly gives a sizable percentage of his income in charitable donations. President Obama plans to dramatically reduce both mortgage interest and charitable donation deductions. My relative said he would not have purchased that home had he known about the reduction. Of course he'll continue to give to charity, but giving more money to the government means he won't have as much to give away. He certainly won't be making any big purchases, stimulating the economy, anytime soon.

It seems ironic to me that President Obama is so concerned for those who are less fortunate and wants to decide which "charities" our taxpayer money should go toward, when a look at his public record of giving shows that he hasn't indicated the same compassion in his personal life. It's quite something to learn that my parents, who make a tiny fraction of Obama's salary (which in 2005 was $1.7 million), gave a FAR greater percentage of their income to charity. Biden isn't even on the radar screen. But then again, he's the "poorest" Senator in Congress, and he only made $319,000 in 2006. Our last VP gave 77% of his income to charity one year! Unbelievable.

You may also want to check out this ABC News story about upper-income taxpayers now finding a way to side-step Obama's tax hike plan - as in trying to lower their incomes! And here's another fantastic piece: "Why Make $300,000 When $250,000 is So Much More?"

One woman in the above piece is quoted as saying, “The motivation for a lot of people like me – dentists, entrepreneurs, lawyers – is that the more you work the more money you make, but if I’m going to be working just to give it back to the government — it’s de-motivating and demoralizing.”

*shakes head in disbelief*

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is absolutely astonishing. I don't know why more people aren't talking about it... Where is the motivation to work hard to earn more if those who don't get handed a check?!

Brett G said...

I just cannot understand how someone could logically come to those conclusions! His plan makes no sense at all! I'm seriously just baffled.

Pissin' me off!

m said...

What I don't understand is how you can say in one breath that God has a plan for you and your life and in the next complain about Obama and what he's doing. Doesn't God have a plan for this country and it's people in which he's placing Obama in command to carry out what he feels is best for this country? I feel that he's doing the best he can for what he's given and I feel that God placed him in his position to help us. I definitely am not critizing God's plan and in result I'm trusting God and Obama to help the people of this country. I'm just wondering why you are questioning God's plan?

And I'm almost on welfare getting ready to get handed a check and I take serious offense to the comment that people are getting handed checks who aren't working hard. People are getting handed checks because this country has gone to crap and there are plenty of good people who aren't making it in this country. I'm dealing with it and putting on a happy face because apparently that's God's plan, but I'm also not questioning the person that God placed in the presidency to help my family out of our crappy situation. We are hard workers and though we're not getting handed a check yet we're damn close and it's not because we're sitting on our butts.

Anonymous said...

For Michigan Mom:

Did you question President Bush when God "placed" him in the presidency?

my life is brilliant said...

Yikes ... I definitely believe in God's plan, but I don't believe for a second that God expects us to be complacent and hope everything just works itself out.

Anonymous said...

Right now if Bill Gates gives one dollar to a charity, he gets to write $0.35. If someone making, say $250K or less give one dollar to charity, they get to write off $0.15. That's not fair... right? So this knocks Bill Gate's write-offs down to $0.25...Which the percentage put into place by Reagan during the 80s. Just sayin...

Anonymous said...

The dangerous thing about "going after the rich" is that you are letting someone else (the income czar??) define who is rich. The truly wealthy didn't get that way by being stupid, they will find a way to shield their incomes. So when all that much anticiapted tax revenue doesn't materialize, they,will come for the rest of us. For example, a married couple of school teachers could earn in excess of $100,000 (and earn every dime)and be considered quite well off where I live. SO do we go after them?? BTW Em, Reagan CUT taxes for everyone. I was in retail then and it really helped . Just the facts mam.

Anonymous said...

Right and Pres Obama is moving back to the rate put into place by him.

Anonymous said...

Bottom line people is that the government never is as effective as private enterprise or charities. The budget just proposed by our President is as I understand it larger than all the other budgets combined including Bush( who by the way made conservatives upset for this very reason-his overspending). We can not get our minds around this. What good are promises that can not be kept no matter how much you tax the rich. If we bankrupt our country we all have nothing and can not give to the poor. My husband has made the same amount of money for years and far less than he did in the 90s and I have always felt God has provided for every need in spite of the fact that we made below the median income. I do not look for government to bail me out.