Who Is Barack Obama

Three recent articles from respected sources have some interesting information about Senator Obama and what Senator Obama really stands for.

1. Investors' Real Fear: A Socialist Tsunami Investors Business Daily
2. Obama to Plumber: My Plan Will 'Spread the Wealth Around' Fox News
3. Obama's 95% Illusion Wall Street Journal Online

All of the publications make the case for Mr. Obama taking the Country far to the Left. In fact Senator Obama's ideas are very Socialistic in nature.

First consider the Investors Business Daily article Investors' Real Fear: A Socialist Tsunami.

The freeze-up of the financial system — and government's seeming inability to thaw it out — are a main concern, no doubt. But more people are also starting to look across the valley, as they say, at what's in store once this crisis passes.

And right now it looks like the U.S., which built the mightiest, most prosperous economy the world has ever known, is about to turn its back on the free-enterprise system that made it all possible [Emphasis Mine].

How is this going to be made possible?

It isn't only that the most anti-capitalist politician ever nominated by a major party is favored to take the White House. It's that he'll also have a filibuster-proof Congress led by politicians who are almost as liberal.

Throw in a media establishment dedicated to the implementation of a liberal agenda, and the smothering of dissent wherever it arises, and it's no wonder panic has set in. [Emphasis mine]

The Economy is the main issue at present. So how will Senator Obama's agenda affect the Economy?

What is that agenda? It starts with a tax system right out of Marx: A massive redistribution of income — from each according to his ability, to each according to his need — all in the name of "neighborliness," "patriotism," "fairness" and "justice."

It continues with a call for a new world order that turns its back on free trade, has no problem with government controlling the means of production, imposes global taxes to support continents where our interests are negligible, signs on to climate treaties that will sap billions more in U.S. productivity and wealth, and institutes an authoritarian health care system that will strip Americans' freedoms and run up costs. [Emphasis mine]

Holly Cow!! What else can this agenda be called besides Socialism? Do we really want to join and follow Europe's failed policies? One of Senator Obama's policies is to send $50 Billion a year to foreign countries, which Senator Obama calls Foreign Aid. Couldn't we better use that money here? How does any of this massive Tax and $pend agenda help secure our oil Independence? How does a greater Tax and $pend agenda help our Businesses Grow?

The businesses that create jobs and generate wealth are already discounting the future based on what they know about Obama's plans to raise income, capital gains, dividend and payroll taxes, and his various other economy-crippling policies. Which helps explain why world stock markets have been so topsy-turvy.

But don't take our word for it. One hundred economists, five Nobel winners among them, have signed a letter noting just that:

"The prospect of such tax-rate increases in 2010 is already a drag on the economy," they wrote, noting that the potential of higher taxes in the next year or two is reducing hiring and investment.

If you want to control something, reward that which you want more of, and punish what you want less of - Classic Carrot and Stick principles. Apparently, Senator Obama applies this principle in reverse. Punishing a Business Owner, a Job Creator, is not the way to expand an Economy. The last time raising Taxes in a downturn Economy Happened, President Hoover was in Office. We spent the next 10 years in a Depression. Why would the result of Senator Obama's agenda of Tax and $pend result in anything different? It Will Not!!!

As proof of what Senator Obama's agenda will mean, look at what he said recently. Obama to Plumber: My Plan Will 'Spread the Wealth Around' reports on Senator Obama's words to a Plumber at a campaign speech.

Barack Obama told a tax-burdened plumber over the weekend that his economic philosophy is to "spread the wealth around" -- a comment that may only draw fire from riled-up John McCain supporters who have taken to calling Obama a "socialist" at the Republican's rallies. [Emphasis mine]

Senator Obama's agenda is a "Robin Hood" take from the rich and give to the poor agenda. So no one thinks this statement is taken out of context, Here is the full exchange.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Is there any way this attitude can be characterized as anything other than Socialistic and Anti-Capitalistic?

In the third article, Obama's 95% Illusion makes the argument that Senator Obama's agenda is a Redistribution of Income and therefore by definition Socialistic.

One of Barack Obama's most potent campaign claims is that he'll cut taxes for no less than 95% of "working families." He's even promising to cut taxes enough that the government's tax share of GDP will be no more than 18.2% -- which is lower than it is today.

It's a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he's also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income taxes at all? There are several sleights of hand, but the most creative is to redefine the meaning of "tax cut." [Emphasis mine]

It doesn't matter how you slice it, when about 40% of all Americans, (those who pay not income tax now), get a check from the Government, it's not a "Tax Cut". It's Welfare, a handout. This requires a "Redistribution of Wealth".

For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase "tax credit." Mr. Obama is proposing to create or expand no fewer than seven such credits for individuals:

- A $500 tax credit ($1,000 a couple) to "make work pay" that phases out at income of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 per couple.

- A $4,000 tax credit for college tuition.

- A 10% mortgage interest tax credit (on top of the existing mortgage interest deduction and other housing subsidies).

- A "savings" tax credit of 50% up to $1,000.

- An expansion of the earned-income tax credit that would allow single workers to receive as much as $555 a year, up from $175 now, and give these workers up to $1,110 if they are paying child support.

- A child care credit of 50% up to $6,000 of expenses a year.

- A "clean car" tax credit of up to $7,000 on the purchase of certain vehicles. [Emphasis mine]

Except for the 'clean car' credit, these are refundable credits. That means even if you have no tax liability, the Government will give you a check for these credits. That's Welfare, or Redistribution of Wealth.

The Tax Foundation estimates that under the Obama plan 63 million Americans, or 44% of all tax filers, would have no income tax liability and most of those would get a check from the IRS each year. The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis estimates that by 2011, under the Obama plan, an additional 10 million filers would pay zero taxes while cashing checks from the IRS.

The total annual expenditures on refundable "tax credits" would rise over the next 10 years by $647 billion to $1.054 trillion, according to the Tax Policy Center. This means that the tax-credit welfare state would soon cost four times actual cash welfare. By redefining such income payments as "tax credits," the Obama campaign also redefines them away as a tax share of GDP. Presto, the federal tax burden looks much smaller than it really is. [Emphasis mine]

And that's not all.

Some families with an income of $40,000 could lose up to 40 cents in vanishing credits for every additional dollar earned from working overtime or taking a new job. As public policy, this is contradictory. The tax credits are sold in the name of "making work pay," but in practice they can be a disincentive to working harder, especially if you're a lower-income couple getting raises of $1,000 or $2,000 a year.

How will this help our Economy? It Will Not!! We cannot afford to turn our backs on the system that has made us the richest country in the world.