Yesterday I told you my feelings on LinkedIn.  Then we get this ridiculous question that came out of yesterday’s LinkedIn townhall with Barack Obama.  A man by the name of Doug Edwards bellies up to the mic.  Doug Edwards is a liberal, who has donated $300,000 to Democrats over the last decade.  That’s a lot of dough.  What does this man do?  He classifies himself as “unemployed by choice.”  Why?  Because he started out as a little company called Google and had enough money to retire.  Good for him.  But then Doug Edwards comes to the LinkedIn townhall and asks Barack Obama this insipid question: "Would you please raise my taxes?"

Now before we get to Obama’s answer, let’s talk about the question itself.  If Doug Edwards is “unemployed by choice” this must mean that he doesn’t pay income taxes.  It’s hard to have taxable wages when you aren’t working.  We must assume, then, that when Doug Edwards asks for his taxes to be raised, he is talking about capital gains taxes.    

Here’s the big secret for people like Doug Edwards.  Well … apparently it is a secret, because these footstools don’t seem to realize this.  The Treasury Department accepts checks.  You don’t actually have to OWE the IRS money to write a check to the Treasury Department.  If you feel so inclined, you can simply take out your check book and write away!  Any amount will do!  One dollar?  Fine!  One million dollars?  Knock yourself out!  You don’t have to ask Dear Ruler to raise your taxes .. you can set your own tax rate!  The tax rate quoted by the IRS is a minimum!  There is no maximum.  You can even borrow money to pay over 100% of your earnings if you care to!  So just DO IT AND SHUT THE HELL UP!  

But let’s move on to Dear Ruler.  His response was that he does not want to punish the rich.  Now this is just a flat-out lie.  Obama has made it clear throughout his adult life that he harbors a great resentment towards those who have acquired great wealth.  Just check the record and read his books.  Obama believes that if you acquire wealth in America you do so by taking advantage of others – by exploiting and holding others down.  That’s where his “we need to spread the wealth around” answer came from for Joe the Plumber.  Obama’s national wealth envy campaign is based on the idea that the rich need to pay their fair share .. that they shouldn’t be able to keep the money they earn but must be forced to give it to the government to redistribute.  This is punishment.  You can’t keep your money, hand it over.

Obama then goes on to explain that he wants tax rates to return to the level of the 1990s.  He says, "During that period, the rich got richer.  The middle class expanded. People rose out of poverty.”  OK .. the question here is whether or not Obama is as economically ignorant as he sounds, or if he actually knows the truth and is trying to mislead his voting base.  Yes .. the 1990’s turned out to be pretty good economically, especially after the Republicans gained control of the congress and slowed down Bill Clinton’s spending and regulatory plans.  Also --- ever heard of the dot-com revolution?  That’s where the incredible growth of the 90s came from, not from higher tax rates. 

This idea that if we return to the 1990s level of taxation we will see the same economic success is nonsense.  Taxes do not generate economic prosperity, and therefore more revenue.  The private sector, the success of our free-enterprise economy is what generated these revenues.  Again --- the 1990s was one of the greatest economic boom times in US history thanks to the dot-com boom.  This had nothing to do with taxation and everything to do with private enterprise.  To compare the 1990s to our current economic climate is … economic apples and oranges.  Sure, you can re-impose the tax rates from the 1990s, but it will not bring about economic prosperity or the revenues Obama wants.

Obama is wedded to the idea of tax increases on the wealthy because (a), he does not believe they deserve to keep what they have earned; and (b), he knows that in these economic hard times many in the lower income brackets are envious of those who have more, and this envy can easily be exploited for votes.