Obama’s Big-Government Vision
It’s old-fashioned-liberal tax, spend, and regulate.

By Larry Kudlow


Sen. Barack Obama is very gloomy about America, and he’s aligning himself with the liberal wing of the Democratic party in hopes of coming to the nation’s rescue. His proposal? Big-government planning, spending, and taxing — exactly what the nation and the stock market do not want to hear.

Obama unveiled much of his economic strategy in Wisconsin this week: He wants to spend $150 billion on a green-energy plan. He wants to establish an infrastructure investment bank to the tune of $60 billion. He wants to expand health insurance by roughly $65 billion. He wants to “reopen” trade deals, which is another way of saying he wants to raise the barriers to free trade. He intends to regulate the profits for drug companies, health insurers, and energy firms. He wants to establish a mortgage-interest tax credit. He wants to double the number of workers receiving the earned-income tax credit and triple this benefit for minimum-wage workers.

The Obama spend-o-meter is now up around $800 billion. And tax hikes on the rich won’t pay for it. It’s the middle class that will ultimately shoulder this fiscal burden in terms of higher taxes and lower growth.

This isn’t free enterprise. It’s old-fashioned-liberal tax, spend, and regulate. It’s plain ol’ big government. The only people who will benefit are the central planners in Washington.

Obama would like voters to believe that he’s the second coming of JFK. But with his unbelievable spending and new-government-agency proposals he’s looking more and more like Jimmy Carter. His is a “Grow the Government Bureaucracy Plan,” and it’s totally at odds with investment and business.

Obama says he wants U.S. corporations to stop “shipping jobs overseas” and bring their cash back home. But if he really wanted U.S. companies to keep more of their profits in the states he’d be calling for a reduction in the corporate tax rate. Why isn’t he demanding an end to the double-taxation of corporate earnings? It’s simple: He wants higher taxes, too.

The Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore has done the math on Obama’s tax plan. He says it will add up to a 39.6 percent personal income tax, a 52.2 percent combined income and payroll tax, a 28 percent capital-gains tax, a 39.6 percent dividends tax, and a 55 percent estate tax.

Not only is Obama the big-spending candidate, he’s also the very-high-tax candidate. And what he wants to tax is capital.

Doesn’t Obama understand the vital role of capital formation in creating businesses and jobs? Doesn’t he understand that without capital, businesses can’t expand their operations and hire more workers?

Dan Henninger, writing in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, notes that Obama’s is a profoundly pessimistic message. “Strip away the new coat of paint from the Obama message and what you find is not only familiar,” writes Henninger. “It’s a downer.”

Obama wants you to believe that America is in trouble, and that it can only be cured with a big lurch to the left. Take from the rich and give to the non-rich. Redistribute income and wealth. It’s an age-old recipe for economic disaster. It completely ignores incentives for entrepreneurs, small family-owned businesses, and investors. You can’t have capitalism without capital. But Obama would penalize capital, be it capital from corporations or investors. This will only harm, and not advance, opportunities for middle-class workers.

Obama believes he can use government, and not free markets, to drive the economy. But on taxes, trade, and regulation, Obama’s program is anti-growth. A President Obama would steer us in the social-market direction of Western Europe, which has produced only stagnant economies down through the years. It would be quite an irony. While newly emerging nations in Eastern Europe and Asia are lowering the tax penalties on capital — and reaping the economic rewards — Obama would raise them. Low-rate flat-tax plans are proliferating around the world. Yet Obama completely ignores this. American competitiveness would suffer enormously under Obama, as would job opportunities, productivity, and real wages.

Imitate the failures of Germany, Norway, and Sweden? That’s no way to run economic policy.

I have so far been soft on Obama this election season. In many respects he is a breath of fresh air. He’s an attractive candidate with an appealing approach to politics. Obama is likeable, and sometimes he gets it — such as when he opposed Hillary Clinton’s five-year rate-freeze on mortgages.

But his message is pessimism, not hope. And behind the charm and charisma is a big-government bureaucrat who would take us down the wrong economic road.

— Larry Kudlow, NRO’s Economics Editor, is host of CNBC’s Kudlow & Company and author of the daily web blog, Kudlow’s Money Politic$.

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

nation and the stock market do not want to hear.

I think he is a little bit too dramatic here. The investors don't want to hear it, and the elite don't want to hear it but us peons are just fine with it, tax em till they bleed! It's only his nation that he's talking about, not mine, although I'll lose a few bucks in the market, if it generally helps people that need help, then it is a great plan.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

What do we do then, vote for McCain? Have a hundred year war, which he probably would have to have a draft to support. Get drafted and risk my life to make rich men richer? We;re fucked

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"The world is yours and everything in it. It's out there. Get on your grind and get it."- Young Jeezy

its the classic choise between a turd sandwhich and a giant douchebag.

i think america will vote to the left this election. you righters have scared the shit out of them too much lately.

Well, we'll see. Personally, I believe that if Obama gets the nod from the Dems, McCain will beat him in November. Remember, Obama is going to have to explain his "changes" to the American people. When his platform is seen for what it is (Marxism), the vast majority of voters won't go for it.

I DO like his plan of eliminating seniors from having to pay income tax though. See Med ... I can be just as big a whore as you can. ~lol~

Vi
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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

I disagree. This will be more about voting against McCain than voting for Obama.

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"The world is yours and everything in it. It's out there. Get on your grind and get it."- Young Jeezy

I don't see how you figure this, blaze. Other than the coasts, America is pretty much conservative from an economic standpoint. Are you thinking that the majority of Americans will vote for a tax, collected through the U.N., for "World Poverty?" I mean, are Americans ready for world socialism ... at their expense?

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

I said two months ago the "against" vote will decide this election.

Just from a small study of American politics, I will also predict a single digit against McCain and a double digit against Obahma. I think McCain will win the election. I also think there is a chance that John Edwards will give his support to McCain.

At this point, the best chance the dems have is if Al Gore enters the race. He would take the nomination.

Vi, GWB was just in afica today talking about a 20 or so billion for the next 5 years for AIDS in Africa

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..I'm thinking NO, FUCK NO!!
do we even have 20 billion to shell out with no hope off ever getting it back?
lets take that money and um find a cure, thats the best gift of all.
that money will find its way into funding someones war and will kill more then help-bet my house on that!
Its getting OLD to hear about the worlds problems,while they have their hand out! WE need some shit here fixed and if we have the extra $, then lets fix are shit!!

where gona end up needing some aide soon if things keep the way they are headed.

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"Years ago, my mother used to say to me, In this world, Elwood, you must be oh, so smart or oh, so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. And you can quote me." Elwood P Dowd.