Speaking yesterday in California President Obama said that his budget -- which increases taxes in the top bracket to nearly 40 percent from the present 35 percent -- was necessary to "bring balance back to our economy." Now, as this chart shows, there certainly is a lack of balance:
How increasing taxes on the top income bracket solves this problem I haven't a clue, but then again I suspect that the president and I have very different views of what balance means.He then went on to press for more government intervention in health care:
"[The new budget] allows us to pay for health-care reform for a lot of people out there working every day but are one illness away from bankruptcy," Obama said. "I don't think that's unreasonable. I don't think that's socialism. I think that's a realization that we're all in this together."Keen observers will note that Obama has been advancing this bankruptcy meme for some weeks now, declaring during his semi-State of the Union speech that medical bills cause a bankruptcy every 30 seconds. Trouble is, at the Cato Institute points out, that would amount to just over 1 million bankruptcies every year. Actual number: 41,000.
I'll leave it to the reader to decide if all of this amounts to socialism, but in case you're interested the wikipedia definition is available here.
1 comment:
i read that Obama is just re-adjusting the highest tax rates to what they were under Clinton's term.
unfair, probably
socialism?!! nah.
[that said, we already live in a socialist society - medicare, Security, taxation in general: taking money and re-distributing it for the common good. what's left to debate now is the matter of degree.]
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