Tuesday, January 20, 2015
From: Gary L. Bauer
Obama Plays Robin Hood
President Obama will deliver his annual State of the Union address tonight. He is expected to present a wish list of new tax hikes and spending increases.
Virtually none of it is expected to pass Congress, but that’s really not the point. Several media outlets have referred to Obama’s “Robin Hood” tax plans because of their emphasis on class warfare. Obama is attempting to portray himself as the champion of the middle class and cast conservatives in Congress as beholden to the rich.
I don’t think the conservatives should fall on their sword over tax increases on billionaires. Heck, many billionaires are liberals anyway. If Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and George Soros want to pay more in taxes, I’m all in favor of a new liberal billionaire’s tax — on them!
That said, it is important to understand the facts about tax policy. According to an analysis by the Heritage Foundation, the top 1% of income earners paid 37% of all federal income taxes collected. The top 10% of income earners paid 71% of all federal income taxes.
It’s hard to argue that the rich are not paying their fair share. The problem for the left is that there aren’t enough rich people to tax and they aren’t rich enough to fund all the big government the socialists want. Rather than trying to find more ways to tax the rich, Obama should be trying to grow the economy in order to create more wealthy taxpayers!
It’s Your Money
In recent days a number of leading news outlets have written that Obama is proposing to triple the child tax credit. For those with families, that’s a big deal.
Initially I thought Obama was stealing pro-family ideas from Senators Mike Lee and Marco Rubio. Last year, they recommended that the credit be increased from $1,000 to $2,500 per child.
But that’s not what Obama has in mind. Instead, the president wants to increase the tax credit for child care expenses, which is available only for children five and under.
Expanding the per child tax credit is the better option. It would benefit all families, including those with stay-at-home mothers, without making demands on how each family spends its money. Obama’s plan is typical big government social engineering, picking winners and losers in the tax code.
Here’s something else: The man who promised better health care at lower costs is now promising two years of free community college! Except it really costs $60 billion. And Obama is paying for it by taxing popular middle class educational savings accounts.
Militant Islam Marches On
As the Paris attacks fade from the headlines, it’s worth noting that the militant Islamists (who Obama, Kerry and Holder insist have nothing to do with Islam) are once again on the march. The latest attacks aren’t making front page news because they aren’t taking place in Paris, New York or Washington.
Over the weekend, Islamic mobs took to the streets in Niger. They were not protesting the perversion of Islam by radical militants. Instead they were rioting in protest of the Paris newspaper Charlie Hebdo. And they took out their anger against the most logical target they could think of — Christians.
The BBC reports that 45 churches were burned to the ground. Christian schools and orphanages were also attacked. At least ten people were killed and scores were injured.
I doubt if there will be any marches in Paris or anywhere else in solidarity with these African Christian victims of radical Islam.
Meanwhile, there is breaking news today that the French government has arrested five Russians. Translation: The French government arrested five Muslim Chechens who were in the process of planning another attack in France. And, of course, their actions have absolutely nothing to do with Islam.
In Mosul, Iraq, ISIS thugs executed 13 teen-age boys for watching soccer on TV. Elsewhere in the country, ISIS has begun rounding up and executing people for the un-Islamic crime of breeding birds.
In Gaza yesterday, Hamas authorized a march of sympathy for the Paris jihadists. Many of the marchers wore ISIS uniforms and carried the black flag of jihad.
The same people who repeatedly tell us that all of these radical militants have nothing to do with Islam also insist that Gaza will be part of a new Palestinian state, living side-by-side in peace with the state of Israel.
Israel On Alert
Israeli forces Sunday launched an airstrike on a convoy in Syria, killing 11 people. Among the dead were six Iranian military officers, including General Mohammed Allahdadi, and several top Hezbollah commanders.
The airstrike was carried out in response to “high-level intelligence” indicating that a significant terrorist attack, or perhaps even an invasion of northern Israel, was imminent. Iran is vowing a “crushing response” in retaliation for the Israeli airstrike.
Presumably, Israel shares such intelligence with the White House. But tonight, Barack Obama will likely stand before Congress and the American people and defiantly insist that no more sanctions be levied against the Iranian regime so that he can continue negotiating with the Islamic Republic.
Rather than lecturing us, Obama should be telling the Iranians to stop threatening Israel or the negotiations are over.
A Christian Response To Insult
After the Charlie Hebdo attacks, one left-wing commentator attempted to deflect criticism of radical Islam by suggesting there was a lot of Christian extremism as well. Unbelievably, he pointed to a lawsuit filed by Reverend Jerry Falwell as evidence of such extremism.
If only more people followed Jerry Falwell’s example! Read more in my latest opinion piece at washingtontimes.com.
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