Beyond absurd: Obama thinks 80% of Americans want more taxes

Dees Illustration

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

With a tanking economy and average Americans struggling to pay the bills, our so-called President is under the impression that 80% of the people of the United States seek even more taxes.

If Obama was only referring to taxing the extraordinarily wealthy, I would not have an issue with his proposal and indeed I think many Americans would agree with him.

For instance, if the top 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers paid taxes like every other working American, the deficit would instantly be reduced by roughly $44 billion.

Is this the tax increase that Obama is proposing? Is he planning on ending the billions in corporate welfare and off-shoring tax incentives?

Obama claims that the American public is sold on his hybrid approach of spending cuts and tax increases. As the Christian Science Monitor points out, Obama seems to have pulled his 80% figure out of thin air.

The survey Obama appeared to be referencing in his comment was by Gallup, released Wednesday. US adults were asked how they’d like to see Congress tackle federal deficits.

At one end of the spectrum, 20 percent opted for ‘only with spending cuts.’ At the other end, 4 percent said ‘only with tax hikes.’ And 69 percent voiced support for something in between – mostly for either an equal mix of tax hikes and spending cuts (32 percent) or a blend emphasizing ‘mostly spending cuts’ (30 percent).

We can give Obama the benefit of the doubt and assume he just can’t understand basic statistics and is not lying, yet again, to the American people.

Based on Obama’s history and his corporate supporters in 2008, it would be ignorant to think that he will justly tax the absurdly wealthy while not increasing or even decreasing taxes on the middle and working classes.

Keep in mind the table linked above is a list of donations from individuals from the corporations, not the corporations themselves. If anything, this lends more credence to the notion that the extremely wealthy of America are confident in Obama’s support and protection from being fairly taxed.

Obama remarked: “I hope [Republicans are] not just listening to lobbyists and special interests … I hope they’re listening to the American people as well.”

If the American people were actually being heard by Barack H. Obama,  we would realize that the last thing a struggling public needs is more taxes.

Before a single cent in tax increases gets pushed through, it is an absolute necessity that we enforce fair taxes on every strata of the American economy.

General Electric is a horrific example of corporate tax abuse in America. In 2009 GE paid absolutely no taxes on their massive profits and even received a $1.1 billion tax benefit from the IRS.

2010 was an even better year for the thieves at GE: after posting $14.2 billion in worldwide profits, General Electric claimed over $3 billion in tax benefits without paying a single cent in American taxes.

While the world’s most massive multinational corporations make windfall profits and walk without paying any taxes, why is Washington even entertaining the notion of raising taxes on the people?

David Cay Johnston writes:

John Paulson, the most successful hedge fund manager of all, bet against the mortgage market one year and then bet with Glenn Beck in the gold market the next. Paulson made himself $9 billion in fees in just two years. His current tax bill on that $9 billion? Zero.

It is nothing short of criminal to allow individuals like this to pull in mind-blowing profits and keep every cent while people like you and I who barely scrape by have to support an over-inflated governmental structure.

Instead of increasing any taxes, the people who avoid paying the taxes that already exist must be forced to give up their cash like every other American.

Similarly, there is plenty of room for budget cuts in our national budget without even considering the social safety net that includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, disability assistance, etc.

The Pentagon’s classified spending in 2010 was over $50 billion, while the Department of Defense had a total budget authority of (which means they are allowed to spend) $695,646,000,000. That is over $695 billion.

Clearly there is a lot of room for spending cuts just within a single department of the behemoth that is the federal government of the United States of America.

However, this is not the only option we have to bring America out of the black hole of debt and the massive spending deficit.

How about legalizing, regulating, and taxing medical marijuana just like alcohol or tobacco?

What about prosecuting the criminal bankers and demanding every cent of the fraudulent stimulus package back, with interest?

What about refusing to pay interest on debt which the American people did not accrue, nor consent to?

There are so many options to explore that do not involve raising taxes on the struggling working and middle classes of America that Obama’s claims are nothing short of ludicrous.

We must demand that every option be exhausted before any new taxes are levied against Americans.

We must demand that those extremely wealthy individuals and corporations who find ways around the current tax laws be held accountable for their actions. They must be forced to pay back taxes and fines just like any other American would be.

Setting aside the fact that the 80% figure Obama quoted is just plain untrue, we must realize that new taxes are not necessary or acceptable.

Demand accountability and equal treatment of every single person earning an income in the United States. Without doing this, we will continue to see the deficit grow while our taxes rise.

Along with the gigantic black hole of debt’s exponential growth, the wealth of the upper-crust of Americans will continue to rise as well.

The disparity of the extremely rich and impoverished citizens of the United States is only growing and so-called compromises like that proposed by Obama will continue this dangerous trend.