One Guy's Opinion on the Political Scene By: Jim Herndon
A reporter, naively thinking he might actually get a direct answer, asked Barack Obama whether he still plans to raise the tax on business and the capital gains tax, or, because of the problems with the economy to postpone such taxes until the country had made substantial recovery.
In typical Obama style, the president-elect answered the question by not answering the question – a lot of treading water with words. The long circuitous non-answer tells me, because of his ignorance of macroeconomics, he either needs someone to tell him what to do or he still plans to raise taxes but is unable to answer a direct question which might motivate a follow-up question and force him to display his ignorance. This is Economics 101: Tax increases right now will further depress our economy, further damage small businesses, and add to the already stressed American consumer. Raising the capital gains tax will depress investment and stock sales; the decreased activity will push the price of stocks down; the majority of Americans – two out of three Americans are invested in the stock market in either individual investments, IRAs, or union funds – will see their investments decrease in value. In the end, everyone, including non-investors, will suffer with the resultant drop in the Economy. It’s the new economics: take money from consumers and business, give it to the government so that it may grow and reward non-contributors and convert an economic downturn into a recession; it is called Obamanomics.
