Would you pass the malaise please?

By Tom Quiner

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWAdt07XPgY]

You’ve got $5000 in your pocket. Who is going to spend that money better:  you or a stranger?

Answer quickly, please.

Do you really think a stranger is going to take your five grand and spend/invest it better?

It’s an interesting question, because Warren Buffet says rich (productive) Americans need to pay more taxes. And yet he gives a lot of money away to charity. And yet he’s got a fancy foundation that gives even more money away. And yet he doesn’t give that money to the government, even though he says he and other top producers need to be taxed at a higher rate.

He acknowledges by his inaction that a stranger (aka bureaucrat or legislator) is not going to spend his money better than he is.

But that is the foundational principal of liberalism. From Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, the cry is always that the most productive Americans are under-taxed, that government can spend their money better than they can. (For the record, I am not one of these super producers. Nonetheless, I commend their significant contribution to our nation’s economy and tax base.)

America has had two dramatic periods of stagnation in my lifetime: the Jimmy Carter years and the Barack Obama years. Both of them blamed problems on others. Mr. Obama says we’ve gotten soft. Mr. Carter lamented a national malaise, a crisis of confidence.

Mr. Carter screamed for windfall profit taxes. That was the solution to our problems.

Mr. Obama’s mantra is tax increase on the rich. That is the solution to our problems.

Each of them shared a similar vision: that problem was not them; it is us.

Laura Ingraham juxtaposes the words of these two liberal presidents. The similarity of their floundering rhetoric is scary.

 

1 Comment

  1. Kurt Johnson on October 7, 2011 at 7:49 pm

    They talk about shared sacrifice, but only ask the wealthy to pay more taxes. I would feel a lot better if all the Bush Tax Cuts were allowed to expire. Then we would have shared sacrifice.