Obama's an unapologetic thief

The New York Post reports today that Barack Obama enthusiastically supports punishing the most productive members of society in order to put capital to less efficient uses. Put more simply, he wants to take money from the "rich" and give it to the "poor."

Obama's economic plan will raise taxes for those making more than $250,000, which prompted Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber, to confront Our Holy Savior at a recent campaign event in Ohio.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the blue-collar worker asked.

After Obama responded that it would, Wurzelbacher continued: "I've worked hard . . . I work 10 to 12 hours a day and I'm buying this company and I'm going to continue working that way. I'm getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American Dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success," Obama told him. "I want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success, too.

[...]

"My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Hear that? Socialism! Good for everybody!

Whether Obama "wants" to punish success or not is completely irrelevant -- because that's exactly what taxes do. And when they specifically target those who tend to create the jobs, they simultaneously limit the incentive to do just that. Which makes me think Obama's huffing on more than just those cancer sticks if he actually thinks this statement makes sense:

My plan isn't intended to force small businesses to cut jobs to pay higher taxes so we can "spread the wealth around." My plan is intended to create jobs and increase the wealth of all Americans.

There's only one thing that's ever proven effective at increasing people's wealth, and it's not socialism. It's capitalism, and laissez-faire capitalism at that. Personally, I'm a market anarchist, whereby I advocate complete abolition of the state, but Obama's policy would approach complete abolition of the market.

My buddy Andy Roth, director of government affairs at the Club for Growth, was quoted in this article and strikes at the root of Obama's tax plan.

"It's clear that his main goal is redistribution of wealth, not growth," said Andy Roth with the anti-tax group Club for Growth. "He's perfectly happy to destroy wealth as long as he can redistribute it."

Obama's tax plans are not only criminal, they run counter to the laws of economics and human action. Free of government intervention, individuals will put their capital to its most productive uses, which creates wealth and jobs. On the other hand, confiscating money from its rightful owners, to instead be used how the state sees fit, discourages people from making more of it and therefore costs jobs.

Barack Obama hardly wants to increase the wealth of all Americans. He wants to steal money from the most productive and use it to buy the votes of everyone else farther down the economic ladder.

From where I sit that's theft, plain and simple, and in a just society he would be incarcerated for such acts, not rewarded with the most powerful office in the country.

Contact Trevor at bothwelltj-at-yahoo-dot-com.