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Obama’s debt limit plan: $1 trillion in tax increases…after the 2012 election
Several of my Liberal friends on Facebook are wringing their hands over the debt limit stalemate between Democrats and Republicans, as though it’s the GOP that is obstructing the deal. This particular status update struck me as much for its partisanship as for its naiveté:
“The clock is ticking. I’m wondering if the Republicans are going to give in to compromise or just allow their little temper tantrum screw us over a bit more.”
I find it sad that some are so addled to believe that Democrats are not also to blame for the impasse. But no, it’s just those eeeevil Wepubwicans who are throwing a “little temper tantrum” for refusing to go along with more federal spending supported by more confiscatory taxes. The only reason there’s not an agreement yet is because both sides refuse to give in. Obama and the Dems are insisting on tax increases. They’re just trying to spin it as a tax on the so-called “wealthiest Americans,” as if that makes it all ok.
But it’s not always been this way.
In 2009, President Obama told us: “The LAST THING we want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession, uh, because that would just suck up… take more demand out of the economy and put business further in a hole.”
How quickly this man abandons his principles! Well, fiscal responsibility and doing what’s right for America have never been among Obama’s principles. But it is a little startling that he’s so quick to reverse his rhetoric.
Now that our President and the Democrat Party have exploded the rate of federal spending and maxed out our country’s proverbial credit card, raising taxes is the FIRST THING they want to do.
President Obama once again demanded that more than $1 trillion in tax increases be part of any deficit reduction package attached to a vote on the debt ceiling. In the session, Obama rejected a Republican proposal to seek $2.5 trillion in spending cuts and reforms, and insisted on higher taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals.
Read that again: “…more than $1 trillion dollars in tax increases.”
For Liberals, the last thing they really want to do is cut spending. They dare not cut back on their empty-headed spending programs and the payoffs that keep them in power. As usual, the Left’s calls for compromise are nothing more than thinly-veiled demands for Republicans to surrender to Democrat priorities.
Never forget, Democrats could have passed these tax increases in 2009 and 2010 when they controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress. Obama is just attempting to hoodwink the GOP into repeating President George H.W. Bush’s “Read my lips…no new taxes” folly.
Now, with Republicans holding fast against Democrat efforts to plunder achievers, Obama is ramping up his rhetoric, trying to somehow portray himself as a parental figure who just wants to do the right thing. By indignantly lecturing us to “pull off the Band-Aid” and “eat our peas,” he’s still trying — and failing — to establish himself as the adult in the room.
Of course, this completely overlooks the fact that it is Obama and his Democrat minions who are responsible for tripling the deficit, and they now want everyone else to pay for what they’ve done. And to keep paying even more to allow them to expand America’s debt and deficit.
Another point of clarification: with the jobless rate at 9.2%, President Obama doesn’t want to raise taxes immediately. He certainly doesn’t want Americans to feel the additional pinch of his policies in April of 2012, right before the election. He wants to inflict these higher taxes after he gets reelected.
I wonder if Liberals are eager to go along with Obama’s call for $1 trillion in tax increases because they’ve already forgotten —or are unaware of — the other $438 billion in tax hikes he snuck in with Obamacare:
• Starting in 2013, the bill adds an additional 0.9% to the 2.9% Medicare tax for singles who earn more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.
• For first time, the bill also applies Medicare’s 2.9% payroll tax rate to investment income, including dividends, interest income and capital gains. Added to the 0.9% payroll surcharge, that means a 3.8-percentage point tax hike on “the rich.” Oh, and these new taxes aren’t indexed for inflation, so many middle-class families will soon be considered rich and pay the surcharge as their incomes rise past $250,000 due to tax-bracket creep. Remember how the Alternative Minimum Tax was supposed to apply only to a handful of millionaires?
Taxpayer cost over 10 years: $210 billion.
• Also starting in 2013 is a 2.3% excise tax on medical device manufacturers and importers. That’s estimated to raise $20 billion.
• Already underway this year is the new annual fee on “branded” drug makers and importers, which will raise $27 billion.
• Another $15.2 billion will come from raising the floor on allowable medical deductions to 10% of adjusted gross income from 7.5%.
• Starting in 2018, the bill imposes a whopping 40% “excise tax” on high-cost health insurance plans. Though it only applies to two years in the 2010-2019 window of ObamaCare’s original budget score, this tax would still raise $32 billion—and much more in future years.
• And don’t forget a new annual fee on health insurance providers starting in 2014 and estimated to raise $60 billion. This tax, like many others on this list, will be passed along to consumers in higher health-care costs.
To provide a politically correct smokescreen for their tax-and-spend plan, the Democrats are perusing every page in their playbook, seeking to find ways to excuse and continue their spending binge. So they’re calling upon their usual tricks, calling their plan “a balanced approach.” But whether they cloak it as “shared sacrifice,” eliminating an “unfair break,” removing an “unjust loophole,” or their newest euphemistic catchphrase “increasing revenue,” they’re afraid to call it what it really is: raising taxes.
Everything the Democrats do involves taking more from those who work hard under the guise that “the rich” can afford to give more. To these Left-wing vampires, the only solution to every problem to is to suck more lifeblood from the American people and put it in the belly of the federal government. They’re just counting on the notion that going after these so-called wealthiest Americans will make it palatable to the majority of voters who believe the Democrats are sticking it to the man, thinking it won’t affect the middle class.
Put aside for a moment the fact that when taxes are raised on businesses, the increase gets passed along to the consumer in the form of fees and/or higher prices. And put aside for a moment the fact that when taxes are raised on businesses, the resulting reduction in profits means slower expansion, lower wages for employees and fewer new employees hired. After Obama raises taxes on those eeevil rich, he’ll be coming for you next. Because there will always someone who makes less than you, who would like more of a piece of what you earn and own. And there will always be politicians who will gladly stick their hands deeper into your pocket to guarantee the votes of those aforementioned leeches.
So long as certain Americans are short-sighted enough to continue electing and supporting politicians who engage in class warfare, there will be an ever-growing population draining the ever-dwindling public teat.
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RELATED: Jim Geraghty juxtaposes some of President Obama’s recent rhetorical flip-flops (or blatant hypocrisy, take your pick) which have no doubt contributed to the partisan rancor and panic over the stalled debt negotiations. (h/t: Crush Liberalism)
President Obama, July 05, 2011: “I’ve asked leaders of both parties and both houses of Congress to come here to the White House on Thursday so we can build on the work that’s already been done and drive towards a final agreement. It’s my hope that everybody is going to leave their ultimatums at the door, that we’ll all leave our political rhetoric at the door.”
President Obama, July 06, 2011: “The debt ceiling should not be something that is used as a gun against the heads of the American people to extract tax breaks for corporate jet owners, for oil and gas companies that are making billions of dollars because the price of gasoline has gone up so high.”
Sounds like more of that “new civility” from Dear Leader.
And here’s this week’s Janus moment from the President:
President Obama, Monday: “This is part of the problem with a political process where folks are rewarded for saying irresponsible things to win elections or obtain short-term political gain, when we actually are in a position to try to do something hard we haven’t always laid the groundwork for. And I think that it’s going to take some work on his side, but, look, it’s also going to take some work on our side, in order to get this thing done.”
President Obama, Tuesday: “President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks. ’I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it,’ Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.”
Whenever Democrats — especially President Obama — demonize their opponents for doing something, you can almost bet the farm that it’s actually something they are doing themselves.
Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
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