Axelrod Endorses Romney: "Will You Be Fooled, Again?"

Music to read by:

The change, it had to come.
We knew it all along.
We were liberated from the fold, that's all.
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they are flown in the next war.

Pick up my guitar and play.
Just like yesterday.
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again.
Don't get fooled again,
No, no!

Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss. 

Obviously, the DNC/Obama 2012 campaign mistakenly loaded 2008 talking points into David Axelrod's programmer, but, as journalist Michael Kingsley famously said, "A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth - some obvious truth he isn't supposed to say."  The same applies to a politician's operatives.  

On Fox News Sunday, David Axelrod said, “The choice in this election is between an economy that produces a growing middle class and that gives people a chance to get ahead and their kids a chance to get ahead and an economy that continues down the road we’re on.”

Nothing that Obama has done has produced an economy that helps grow the middle class, gives people a chance to get ahead and their kids a chance to get ahead.  In fact, if you hated the supposedly bad road that we were going down under Bush, then, honey, you must really, really, really hate the expressway that Obama has had the country on since assuming office.   You don't have to take my word for it.  Nope.  You do not.  Take the word of the über Progressive, Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labour in the Clinton Administration, to-wit:

"The top 1% got 45% of Clinton-era economic growth, and 65% of the economic growth during the Bush era.

According to an analysis of tax returns by Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Pikkety, the top 1% pocketed 93% of the gains in 2010. 37% of the gains went to the top one-tenth of one percent. No one below the richest 10% saw any gain at all.

In fact, most of the bottom 90% have lost ground. Their average adjusted gross income was $29,840 in 2010. That’s down $127 from 2009, and down $4,843 from 2000 (all adjusted for inflation).

Meanwhile, employer-provided benefits continue to decline among the bottom 90%, according to the Commerce Department. The share of people with health insurance from their employers dropped from 59.8% in 2007 to 55.3% in 2010. And the share of private-sector workers with retirement plans dropped from 42% in 2007 to 39.5% in 2010.

If you’re among the richest 10 percent, a big chunk of your savings are in the stock market where you’ve had nice gains over the last two years. The value of financial assets held by Americans surged by $1.46 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2011.

But if you’re in the bottom 90%, you own few if any shares of stock. Your biggest asset is your home. Home prices are down over a third from their 2006 peak, and they’re still dropping. The median house price in February was 6.2% lower than a year ago.

Official Washington doesn’t want to talk about this lopsided recovery. The Obama administration is touting the recovery, period, without mentioning how narrow it is."

For some, it might "feel" good to hate the "evil rich," but make no mistake:  Obama and his cronies are appealing to your basest nature.  They do not care about you.  Governments and those with power never truly do.   Even the Soviet Union, which is the closest the world has ever come to "pure" Marxism in practise -- even though the leftist intelligentsia continue to claim that it wasn't even Socialism and that Stalin "perverted" Marx's philosophy -- had a dacha class!  Party members in good standing lived better than everyone else.  They had access to better food, housing, healthcare, transportation, etc.  In China today, party members in good standing have it better than everyone else.  The Socialists and the Fascists both understood what Bismarck did:  Satiate the masses with enough to keep revolution away.  Bismarck Germany was known as a "satiated state."  The Soviets tried to keep the peasants satiated enough to curtail revolution.  When that did not work, they turned to tyranny and starvation.  Eventually, it was the failure of the Soviet government to satiate the society's desire for both economic and personal liberty that led to the fall of the Soviet Union.  Today in China, many have economic freedom, but not personal freedom and we are seeing an increasing amount of turmoil, as a result.

Anyhoo, back to the subject, throwing the peasants a few Obamacare and unemployment extension bones...

As I have written elsewhere, the Left doesn't much like "trickle-down economics," but they love "trickle-down taxation."  They may claim to be the people that fight for the little guy, but that's a joke...unless you consider taxing the little boy in York making $49,000 at an equivalent of a 33.75% income tax rate and the little girl in Londonistan making $66,900 at 40%.  The "evil rich" in the UK pay taxes at 50% (The Coalition raised the tax rate to 50%, but instead of the billions of pounds it was expecting, revenues fell by £500 million.  As a result, the top rate will fall to 45% next year.) and in Sweden, everyone earning more than $50,764 pays between 49% and 60% in income taxes.  The wealthy stay wealthy and the lower classes are locked in where they are.  There is a reason that there are only a few JK Rowlings that come out of Europe and the United States can turn the poorest of the poor into millionaires and billionaires.  Hint:  The government has nothing to do with it.

If you love crony capitalism, static wages, decreasing standards of living, and a "freeze-frame" (I could have used that song) sort of approach to life, then Obama is your guy.  The rich will continue to get richer under either Obama or Romney.  The question is whether you want the opportunity to become rich yourself.  I've asked this question many, many times of the Left and have never received a cogent response:

 How will increasing the taxes on the wealthy increase the incomes of everyone else?

Perhaps, someone out there might want to take a whack at it...or not.

Update #1:  From a troll...

"The most important thing to protect and preserve are the tax cuts for the rich.  We can no longer afford the 20% to 33% capital gains tax rates that were in effect during the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's.  There were no jobs during those decades and people lived in cardboard boxes.

We must keep the capital gains tax rate at 15% AT ALL COSTS!

Even if it means destroying the middle class in this country.  Our freedom (well at least the freedom of the rich ruling class) depends on it"

Sophie:

Why is it that you always look at things as if the world is frozen in amber? The US was in a very unique position following World War II. Europe was in shambles. Japan was destroyed. Russia was the Soviet Union - 'nuff said. China was a closed society. In other words, the US was the only game in town. That is NO LONGER TRUE.

Now, growing economies are CUTTING taxes, including CGRs (Canada cut its down to 10% this year), and you want to go back to the 1950s???  Talk about reactionary! 

What do you propose that we do with Europe, Russia, Japan and China? Nuke them back to a post WWII state? What about Brasil and India?


Update #2:

From the TaxProf Blog:

For anyone paying AMT, typically the affluent but not rich, the capital gains tax rate is already 22%. Reason: The phaseout of the AMT exemption adds 25 cents back to your AMT-taxable income for every dollar of capital gain. That 25 cents is taxed at 28% (26% for low-rung affluent), meaning an extra 7 cents (or 6.5 cents) of tax on the dollar of capital gain.

[Throw in California’s 9.3% tax rate (which is not deductible under the AMT and which California’s legislature would like to increase further), and the total rate is currently 31.3%. Increasing that tax rate to 41.3% is guaranteed to depress realization of taxable gains. People will not sell unless they absolutely have to.]

The result will be an income tax under which the financially pressed (people who are forced to sell assets) pay more than the financially secure. That’s not progressive, no matter how you look at it.

Incidentally, there are other phaseouts, notably the education tax credit, which increase the actual marginal rates on capital gains even further. One student adds 12.5%; two students add 25%. You need to double those percentages for single or head of household filers!

See http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/issues/upload/Phaseouts_11.xls for a startling summary of just how many phaseouts there are, and how much each one boosts our marginal tax rates.

Related Reading:

Big Government Robs The Middle Class Because That's Where The Money Is!

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death...You Can Keep The "Equality"

There Hasn't Been So Much Fire At The White House Since Dolley Madison Saved Some Of Our Most Cherished, National Treasures 

The Non-Existent Stairway To Socialist Heaven In Sweden

Hey, Progs! Wanna Be Like Europe? How 'Bout You Start By Eliminating Estate Taxes?

The Symbolic Presidency

Obama's Neo-Nationalism

Gradually, Then All of A Sudden 

Buffett Rule Fools

Capital Gains Tax Rates Around The World

The Taxman Cometh Differently On Either Side Of The Pond....Although Probably Not For Long Divide

Axelrod Endorses Romney: "Will You Be Fooled, Again?"

Forget The Buffett Rule! The Reagan Rules Rock!

 

 

 "Won't Get Fooled Again"

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they are flown in the next war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss