Chicago Commune (IBD Series: The Audacity Of Socialism)

IBD Editorials ^ | September 23, 2008

[Kaslin]

Election '08: Barack Obama summed up well the perversity of Democratic Party thinking when he told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that it is "neighborliness" for Washington to hike taxes on those who are "sitting pretty."

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His running mate, Joe Biden, followed up last week with the observation that it's "patriotic" for the country's highest earners to pay more in taxes. Interesting that the party that doesn't want to talk about patriotism is now using a form of the word to obscure its devotion to socialist policies.

O'Reilly was right to point out to Obama that the senator is supporting a "socialist tenet" with his "neighborly" comment earlier this month. But a reminder of the facts isn't likely to change the Democratic candidate's inveterate stance. This is the man who told ABC's Charlie Gibson that "I would look at raising the capital-gains tax for purposes of fairness," even if hiking the tax would ultimately result in shrinking federal revenues.

It's galling that Obama thinks his definitions of "neighborliness" and "fairness" should be codified into tax law while ignoring the possibility that others might not agree with his personal interpretation of those words. Why should Obama's definitions carry more weight than someone who believes that being a good neighbor and being fair means supporting one low rate for everyone?

[BobbyT]

In his own words:
"just tax the heck out of people at the end and just redistribute it"
-- Arugula O'Teleprompter (D-Rezko)
August 22 2008

[kitkat]

Good post. IDB gets it right.

[Nathan Zachary]

"His running mate, Joe Biden, followed up last week with the observation that it's "patriotic" for the country's highest earners to pay more in taxes."

Oh yea, real "neighborly for people in the 90% tax bracket to be forced to "pay more". The FACT remains that raising taxation on the 10% of the population who already are over taxed will not add any measurable tax revenues to government coffers. As usual, Democrats are dishonest, and only create this perception of "rich" people not paying taxes to fool low wage and middle income earners into supporting them. The fact remains that middle income earners are the main source of tax revenue, and any program promises made by democrats WILL be paid for by middle income earners through higher taxation.

[kitkat]

I meant IBD. Past my bedtime.

[philman_36]

...it's "patriotic" for the country's highest earners to pay more in taxes.
These people need to read, and heed, their history. Taxation was one of the leading reasons for the American Revolution...and the rich led, they didn't follow.

[philman_36]

The guy's a walking disaster. (and I love it!)
"I don't think he (Biden) really understands that we have 250 years of coal in this country, and it would be ridiculous not to use that supply."
He doesn't know his history.

[philman_36]

scrambling (Biden's Coal Gaffe)