Are you sitting down? Obama plans to pay for his $3.6
trillion-dollar spending bill by raising taxes on "the rich." I
know, I know ... I was pretty shocked, too.
The bad news is, by hiking taxes in a recession, Obama will
turn a disaster into a catastrophe. But there's good news, too.
The "rich" include most of Obama's biggest supporters.
While liberals love being praised for their looks, their
style, their brilliance and their courage, the one quality they
don't want talked about is their money. To the contrary,
Democrats are constantly boasting about how poor they are -- as
if that's a virtue in a capitalist society with no class
barriers.
No matter how much money they have, liberals will be damned if
they're giving up the poor's mantle of angry self-righteousness.
This is especially true if their wealth came by inheritance,
marriage or the taxpayer, the preferred sources of income for
Liberalus Americanus.
Democrats' claims of poverty merely serve to show how out of
touch elected Democrats are with actual incomes in America.
At the Democratic National Convention, for example, there were
heartfelt tributes to the daunting self-sacrifice of both Barack
and Michelle Obama for passing up lucrative jobs to work in
"public service" -- which apparently is now defined, such as in
Michelle Obama's case, as "working as a 'diversity coordinator'
at a big city hospital for $300,000 a year."
Seriously, even with a company car, full medical benefits and
six weeks' paid vacation thrown in, how do people live on
that?
Meanwhile, the average salary for a lawyer with 20 years or
more experience in the U.S. is a little more than $100,000. If
Michelle Obama doesn't lay off all this "giving back" stuff
pretty soon, she's going to find herself in Warren Buffett's tax
bracket.
During the campaign, Joe Biden was also praised by the
Democrats for being the poorest U.S. senator -- as if that were a
major accomplishment.
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee,
touted Biden as "a good example of a working-class kid," adding
that, to this day, Biden was "one of the least wealthy members of
the U.S. Senate." Only a Democrat would list "never really made
anything of myself" on his resume.
On the Huffington Post, operated by a woman who acquired her
wealth by marrying a rich gay guy connected to Big Oil, liberal
blogger Steven Clemons gloated that, unlike John McCain, Biden
wouldn't "forget the number of houses he owns," adding that, in
2006, Biden was ranked the poorest U.S. senator.
And at his high school reunion Biden was voted "most likely to
try to bum a ride off of somebody." Vote Biden!
According to tax returns for Biden and his public
schoolteacher wife, in 2006, their total income was $248,459; in
2007, it was $319,853 -- putting the couple in the top 1 percent
of all earners in the U.S.
This, my friends, is the face of poverty in America. At least
in the Democratic Party. It's located just below that row of hair
plugs. The Bidens are yet another heart-rending example of
America's "hidden poor" -- desperately needy families hidden
behind annual incomes of a quarter million dollars or more paid
by the taxpayer. My fellow Americans, we can do better.
The national median household income was $48,201 in 2006 and
$50,233 in 2007. Working for the government pays well.
If liberals are going to show how in touch they are with
normal Americans by demanding a Marxist revolution against the
rich every time they control the government, how about taking a
peek at the charitable giving of these champions of the little
guy?
According to their tax returns, in 2006 and 2007, the Obamas
gave 5.8 percent and 6.1 percent of their income to charity. I
guess Michelle Obama has to draw the line someplace with all this
"giving back" stuff. The Bidens gave 0.15 percent and 0.31
percent of the income to charity.
No wonder Obama doesn't see what the big fuss is over his
decision to limit tax deductions for charitable giving. At least
that part of Obama's tax plan won't affect his supporters.
Meanwhile, in 1991, 1992 and 1993, George W. Bush had incomes
of $179,591, $212,313 and $610,772. His charitable contributions
those years were $28,236, $31,914 and $31,292. During his
presidency, Bush gave away more than 10 percent of his income
each year.
For purposes of comparison, in 2005, Barack Obama made $1.7
million -- more than twice President Bush's 2005 income of
$735,180 -- but they both gave about the same amount to
charity.
That same year, the heartless Halliburton employee Vice
President Dick Cheney gave 77 percent of his income to charity.
The following year, in 2006, Bush gave more to charity than Obama
on an income one-third smaller than Obama's. Maybe when Obama
talks about "change" he's referring to his charitable
contributions.
Liberals have no intention of actually parting with any of
their own wealth or lifting a finger to help the poor. That's for
other people to do with what's left of their incomes after the
government has taken its increasingly large cut.
As the great liberal intellectual Bertrand Russell explained
while scoffing at the idea that he would give his money to
charity: "I'm afraid you've got it wrong. (We) are socialists. We
don't pretend to be Christians."