Taxing and Spending is the Way to Prosperity

Certainly Obama  thinks taxing and spending will lead to some utopia like world where everyone is equally rich or poor, happy or miserable, or something or other.

But, Obama is not the only one that thinks that way. It is no secret that the southern European countries of Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece are essentially bankrupt. The grabbing most of the headlines of late is Spain. We have heard that the EU is going to bailout the banks of Spain to the tune of $120 billion. But Spain has more troubles than just their banks. They have 24% unemployment (50% for those 25 years of age and younger), their economy is in recession, and their cost of borrowing is now around 7%. Spain needs to grow their economy and they need to keep government services going. So, what is their solution? Raise taxes!

From CNBC we learn:

Rajoy, of the center-right People’s Party, proposed a 3-point hike in the main rate of Value Added Tax on goods and services to 21 percent, and outlined cuts in unemployment benefit and civil service pay and perks in a parliamentary speech interrupted by jeers and boos from the opposition.

Can you imagine that? The people of Spain were already paying an 18% VAT and now the government wants to raise it to 21%. Unbelievable! VAT taxes, as you know, are paid by everyone, including the unemployed and low-income people. Folks, I live in a country that has a 15% VAT. It’s a killer! Here in Venezuela 80% of the population would, by American standards, be considered as living in extreme poverty. Yet, like their Spanish brethren, they pay an outrageous VAT tax on everything other than some foods (foods that are in any way processed are not exempt from VAT). So, how does the government of Spain think this three percentage point increase in the VAT tax is going to help their economy? I don’t get it.

Okay. Let’s get back to our sad excuse for a president, Barack Obama. He too likes taxing and spending. He would probably love to have a VAT tax; but for now it doesn’t fit with his class warfare strategy. Lately he has been pushing to extend the so-called Bush tax cuts, which have been the income tax structure for a decade now, for everyone except those earning more than $250,000 per year. And, by the way, aren’t these “Bush tax cuts” one of the things Obama has blamed for causing our painfully slow recovery; along with oil companies, ATM machines, and Europe? Then, of course, there is his favorite the “Buffet Tax”. For some reason, these tax proposals are getting a lot of support in our House of Representatives. So, Obama’s minions have come up with what they believe will be a tax that will be easier to sell to the American people. They call it the Robbin Hood Tax.  Fox News has the story:

Backed by the AFL-CIO and National Nurses United, the measure would impose a  tiny three-hundredths-of-a-penny tax on financial trades. Supporters say the  bill would cost the average investor just $1 per year, but could raise up to $35  billion annually from the high-stakes, high-volume high-speed computer trades  critics claim increase market volatility.

Wow! $35 billion! That ought to keep our bloated government going for a couple of more days. Who could complain about a tiny three-hundredths-of-a-penny tax? You don’t suppose our government, if they once got such a tax on the books, would ever raise to a hald of a percent like the UK, do you? And who would pay this tax. Well, of course, those rotten-to-the-core Wall Streeters and billionaires and millionares would have to pay. But, what about all of those pension funds, including union pension funds. I wonder if the AFl-CIO and the National Nurses United thought about that?

Does Obama reaally want to tax the rich or is it all show to impress his followers? In my opinion it is all show. He doesn’t need more money to spend. He has already $800 billion per year to spend as he sees fit. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I want to remind you that the 2009 stimulus package never went away. Through Continuing Resolutions that $800 billion has been there every year of the Obama administration. No one talks about this. Not the MSM, including Fox Newa, nor Paul Krugman who is alway bewailing the fact that the “Stinulus Package” hadn’t been much bigger. By October of this year, Obama will have spent $3.2 trillion stimulating our economy. Assuming there will be another Continuing Resolution this Fall, the next President will have another $800 billion to spend.

So, no I don’t think Obama is serious about taxing the rich. It is all show. Most of his “stimulus” spending has gone to his crony friends, which he says he wants to tax. I’m not buying it.

Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?