Taxing Obama's brain on tax policy
Marc Sheppard:
Obama supporters are outraged this kind of question was asked during last night's debate. Of course, its spot on, issue-oriented and tells the voters very important things about the candidate. Hey, maybe that's why they call it the "worst.debate.ever".
When Barack Obama repeated his call to nearly double the capital gains tax rate last month, most observers wrote it off to fiscal naivety. But during last night's debate, the Democrat frontrunner let slip that his motives were more socially than economically driven. And that his reasoning was nothing short of ridiculous.
Charlie Gibson reminded Obama of a March 27th statement he made to Maria Bartiromo on CNBC's Closing Bell that he'd return the rate to the 28 percent it was under Bill Clinton. Said Gibson: [emphasis added throughout]
"It's now 15 percent. That's almost a doubling if you went to 28 percent. But actually Bill Clinton in 1997 signed legislation that dropped the capital gains tax to 20 percent .... And George Bush has taken it down to 15 percent.
"And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased. The government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected? "
And Obama's remarkable response:
"Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness. We saw an article today which showed that the top 50 hedge fund managers made $29 billion last year -- $29 billion for 50 individuals. And part of what has happened is that those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries. That's not fair."
Wow. Democrats have typically ignored or outright denied the supply-side benefits of lower taxes -- particularly capital gains.
But with that statement, Obama betrayed first his intellectual dishonesty, then his economic idiocy. The candidate is well aware that his hypothetical hedge fund manager pays a much higher rate on wages than does his supposed secretary. And that they both pay the same rate on capital gains - yes Senator, millions of Americans of varying income, including secretaries, own stock.
...
Obama is admitting he would rather punish achievers than increase revenue to the government. That is just incredibly bad public policy.
There is a tax question Obama needs to be asked that he has not yet. What percentage of taxes should be paid by the top one percent, the top 10 percent, and the top 25 percent. I would bet that he will understate the percentage they are currently paying.
POSTED BY MERV
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