If you ever wondered what Obama would do in a reprise of America’s Got President, the Next Term, you only have to look at Obama’s European hero, French President Francois Hollande.
The guy’s becoming a Taxinator: half man, half machine, all taxes, all the time.
As a result France is becoming the juggernaut of worldwide taxation.
While it stinks to be a producer of tax revenues in France, man if you want to leach off the rest of the European economy- or what’s left of it- France is the place for you.
Hollande not only wants to the tax the rich and the super rich- and everyone else too- but he’s also been successful at it in a way that only Obama can dream of.
“The 2013 [French budget] blueprint relies on 20 billion euros ($26 billion) in tax increases,” reports the Washington Post, “including a levy of 75 percent on incomes over 1 million euros, and eliminating limits on the wealth tax.”
Imagine that: no limits on taxing the wealthy.
Total taxation.
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You make, we get. You don’t make, we still get. Heads they win, tails you lose. And no, that’s not your franc you’re flipping in the coin toss, it’s theirs.
It’s a progressive dream come true. Obama can almost feel the jingle of coin running up his leg.
Tthe great thing is that if everyone comes together, and if the rest of Europe- or what’s left of it- does its part, next year the economy of France just may grow by less than one percent.
That’s by design too.
The government is forecasting economic growth for next year of 0.8 percent.
All that has to happen to make that pipedream come true is to get the German economy to grow much more robustly.
Seriously.
France gets to tax the hell out their own citizens, and hope that German economic growth will bail the French government out.
So far, the socialist paradise that Hollande and company have crafted, really sucks- again, that’s by design.
The government recently announced the second quarter GDP growth for France was zero. That goes with the previous quarter’s GDP growth of… zero. In all, France has enjoyed- thanks to the Germans- ZERO economic growth in four of the last five quarters, says the Post.
Without Germany, France might have done something economically, like SHRINK the economy.
It’s so much easier for French economists- not to mention the French economy- to not have to worry about all that addition and subtraction and those decimals.
“France’s economy has failed to grow in four of the past five quarters,” writes WaPo. “In the third quarter of last year, the only one to show an advance, the gain was 0.3 percent. Hollande’s government currently predicts growth of 0.8 percent next year.”
Just so you know: The zero percent growth rate was right in line with what French government economists forecast.
“Hey, I got it,” said one French economist to the next. “Zero is much easier to figure. All you have to do is add nothing to nothing.”
You can almost hear those economists in France shouting out the chant: “We’re number zero; we’re number zero!” with their oversized foam fingers, imported from Germany, circled to form a perfect naught.
Much closer to home, our own president Naught sure has picked a perfect time in history to make the case that America should look a lot more like those European socialist countries created by socialists such as Hollande.
Because what becoming very clear is that about 47 percent of European states contribute zero to the European Union- or what’s left of it.
Perhaps president Naught can lead us from behind and show the rest of the world how we can harness American ingenuity and know-how and hard work and do so much less.
I can’t wait until American economists can chant: “We’re -0.3; we’re -0.3!”
The foam fingers from Mexico, however, will be a bit harder to figure out.
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