Last week, we reported on Maryland Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen’s tax plan that redistributes wealth in part by charging fees on financial transactions and cutting tax breaks for top earners while providing greater tax incentives for families earning less than $200k a year. Not to be outdone, President Obama appears to be borrowing liberally from Van Hollen and plans to do some additional “taking from the rich and giving to the poor” of his own.
The President’s plan would raise $320 billion over the next decade to pay for some tax cuts and other liberal spending policies including K-14 education (i.e., his higher education plan of two free years of community college for everyone). When that $60 billion free community college plan was released, the White House was mum on how it would be funded. Now, we see it would be by soaking this rich and preventing them from investing in new ventures of their own choice.
The President’s tax plan would eliminate the ''trust-fund loophole'' which shields inherited assets from taxation each year, increase the top capital-gains tax rate to 28 percent from 23.8 percent for couples with incomes above $500,000 annually, and asses a new fee on banks with assets over $50 billion.
Relief to middle class taxpayers would be welcome but should it be at the expense of those who support charities or reinvest earnings back into their businesses to grow them and hire other workers? The White House knows divisive language is popular with its base and inspires populist anger. The White House has signaled that tonight night the President will throw down the gauntlet of what macro-economic approaches he believes are the best for Democrats going into 2016.
The Hill reports:
The White House wants President Obama to play the part of Robin Hood at Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
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Obama wants to move forward with all of these populist proposals for the poor and middle class, and he wants to do so by taking from the rich in the form of higher taxes on the wealthy and Wall Street.
Few of the proposals are going anywhere with a GOP Congress, but the White House sees Obama’s penultimate State of the Union as the president’s last, best chance to lay down policy markers for the next two years —and to frame the 2016 battle for the White House.
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If Obama is casting himself as the hero, he also hopes to cast newly-empowered congressional Republicans as the villains — multiple Sheriffs of Nottingham defending the rich and influential.
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Republicans are working to combat this, and quickly moved to label Obama’s tax proposals as dead on arrival.
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Wh ile Republicans will do what they can to make sure Obama’s Robin Hood story doesn't have a merry ending, the White House thinks its issues will resonate at the State of the Union and through some of the less formal media settings.
I was never a fan of the Robin Hood tale because it reminded me too much of big government anyway.
Even worse to know that the White House is framing their next two years as the President’s escapade to rehabilitate his image as being a hero for the poor by penalizing those whom the administration deems wealthy and who might, if not overly taxed, be able to really benefit the poor by providing jobs.
It is critical that every American enjoy the prosperity of freedom but the means should not be to rip off those whose ingenuity, business acumen, and even investment smarts have built them big or small fortunes. Why not empower and inspire all Americans to secure the most economic security for themselves and their families by creating an environment where the economy creates jobs and makes it easier for entrepreneurs and small businesses to launch out?
Robin Hood fed the poor for a moment, but they continued to be poor. Perhaps Robin Hood should’ve focused on removing the barriers to the poor helping themselves so that he wouldn’t have to keep rescuing them forever.