Economics 101
It seems that Senator Obama needs a remedial course in economics.
We’re hearing lots of political ads here in Ohio, running up to our primary on March 4th. There’s an Obama ad they keep playing over and over, which says something like this: “Barack Obama will close corporate tax loopholes so he can give tax breaks to the middle class and help companies create jobs.”
Huh? Either he doesn’t understand how things work, or (more likely) he assumes that the citizens of Ohio are ignorant of such things. If you raise taxes on corporations and give tax breaks to the middle class, it will not help companies create more jobs. It will have the opposite effect. Companies will do more outsourcing and lay off more workers in an effort to pay the higher taxes.
The ad also points out that corporate C.E.O.s make more in 10 minutes than the average worker makes in a year. OK. So what? What are you going to do Mr. Obama? Limit how much corporate C.E.O.s can be paid? Sorry, that’s not the President’s job.
It seems he’s running on the tired old theme of class warfare. Let’s all hope and pray that he’s as successful with it as Michael Dukakis and John Kerry.
(I voted against Dukakis and held my nose when I voted for Kerry. I could not bring myself to vote for either Reagan or Carter. I have since gained more respect for both of the latter two.)
When too much money is in the hands of too few people, it is not good for the economy. When everyone does better, everyone does better.
“Kenny Boy” Lay, GW Bush’s earliest and staunchest supporter, was in the process of building a palace for himself to rival the Hearst Castle with his ill-gotten gains when ENRON went belly up ruining the lives of thousands as their pensions went up in smoke. So much for making our CEOs even richer so some money can trickle down.
Eliminating tax cuts for the rich is a step in the right direction. Getting us out of the very, very expensive war that Obama opposed from the start will be helpful also.