Friday, October 17, 2008

The Obama Tax Delusion

Obama’s Tax policy is not a tax cut. There is no reduction in the percentage that people have to pay to the government. What he has proposed is a complicated system of tax credits. Some of these tax credits are actually reverse related to your income, so the more you earn, the less you qualify for in terms of credit. (In case you think, Oh Obama said he would make taxes easier - he is getting to do it by granting the government access to all your private financial information).

Now the numbers. Obama’s tax credit plan only targets 80% of Americans, not 95% (this 95% number seems to have just appeared on the campaign trail one day). 38% of Americans already don’t pay any Federal taxes, but they are eligible for Obama’s tax credit. This means half of those that qualify for Obama’s “tax cut” are actually going checks from the government for doing nothing.

Let me illustrate. Let’s take Bob. Bob works, but his income isn’t that high. He sits in the bottom 40% income bracket. Bob pays nothing, zero to the federal government in taxes. He represents half of those targeted by Obama’s tax plan. He qualifies for certain tax credits totaling, let’s say $2,000.00. Now Bob pays nothing to the federal government, but come tax return time the government is going to hand him a check for $2,000.00, apparently just for being Bob.

Now, let’s take Sue. Sue pays $6,000 in federal taxes per year. Because she earns more, and so actually pays taxes, she is eligible for less money back from the government than Bob who pays nothing. So if Sue was eligible for the same set of tax credits, she would get less money credited to her. So under the Obama plan she’s eligible for let’s say $1,500.00 back. The end result for Sue is that she pays $4,500.00 to the government. After all, the government needs some of her middle class money so it can give Bob a check for $2,000.00, apparently because he’s Bob.

Now let’s take Joe the plumber. He wants to start a business, but that business will sit in the 20% bracket that Obama wants to raise taxes on so he can give Bob a check for $2,000.00, apparently for being Bob. So now Joe can’t afford to start his business. This means that Joe can’t hire and employ people. This means that if Bob loses his job, he isn’t going to be able to find another one as business can’t grow anymore. Well, at least Bob got a check from the government for $2,000.00. That’ll help when he can’t find a job.

The end result: Obama’s plan essentially expands the welfare rolls to 40% of the population (most of whom have jobs) on the backs of small businesses and the middle class. Good job, Obama you’ve made us Obamunists.

Next article, the scary similarities between Obama's economic policy and the economic policy's that launched us into the great depression. Oh, and in case you are like the democrats in the House and hadn't heard (or read an unbiased account of the Great Depression), The New Deal was not successful and actually caused the Depression to drag on for 10 years and caused a depression within a depression.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good post. And while it's not as kosher to discuss, it's (always been) weak of libs to suggest the upper class should necessarily bear the burden of services they don't even use. A flat tax is fair, a percentage tax is tolerably unfair, and a progressive percentage is basically robbery. I'd rather live poor in a country where I can dream of wealth than live mid-level in a country where I have no incentive to hustle and climb.

On the formalities: Typos - end of para 2 ("going" instead of "getting"); last paragraph ("deomocrats", unless this is a new play on words which I'm not familiar with). Sorry to be a pedant, just don't want hippies to have any excuse to attack the substance.