RightChange: Obama’s State of the Union

There is something quite magical about President Obama’s speeches.  As he talks about “fairness,” “equality,” and America’s “greatness,” our minds drift to a place where times were pleasing.  We reflect upon the times where we looked forward to picking our destination for our family vacations instead of dreading how we are going to pay for it.  We remember what it’s like to be conflicted on which job offer to accept instead of clinging on to any job because of the rough economy.

We have learned how to be leaner.  Because of our American tenacity, we have learned how to do without.  We press on towards the future because we have to.  Unfortunately because of the Progressive principles that have weaved their way into our society, hard work does not pay off.  Perhaps we have been dissatisfied with state of our union for so long, we have learned to be satisfied with merely getting by.

Not only have we become content with the status quo, we have become detached and in many ways disgusted with the inability of our leaders to make the responsible decisions to get our country back in order.  Perhaps we are the problem.  Why?  We continue to elect people that refuse to listen our wants and do not have the backbone to tell us when our wants are poor policy.

President Obama’s speeches may be enriched with exciting buzzwords, but they are a smoke screen for his poor policy.  Consider the main theme of his State of the Union: taxes.  We can provide you with countless data that proves that the “rich” are double taxed.  The 15% rate you hear Obama mention is the tax rate on money that has already been taxed.  First, the money is taxed at the income tax rate (35%) and then it is taxed again at 15%.  That means the overall tax rate is about 50%.  In many cases, the middle class (anyone making over $250,000 a year) is taxed at a rate of over 50% when it is all said and done.  To add to that, half of our country doesn’t pay any taxes at all.  In a nutshell, 50% of our country has 50% of their income taxed, and pays for 100% of the taxes.

Obama’s policy takes that rate even higher.  He is sending a message that it is wrong to be rich and it is the rich’s responsibility to give away their money so that the economy will get better. Less than 10% of today’s multi-millionaires inherited their wealth.  Most of the wealthy are hard-working individuals who came from poverty, worked hard, and built successful companies.  Our current tax code and the one Obama wants to implement tells job creators that their hard work that grows the economy needs to be capped.

Hard work is praised in his speeches, but reprimanded in his behind the scenes policy.

Imagine what would happen to our economy if Obama stood up in front of the nation and said, “Tonight I come here to tell everyone that if you do business in the United States, we will flatten the tax code, lower rates, and cut government spending instead.”

Instead of presenting ways to grow the economy, he is presenting ways to cap those that grow it to pay for current government spending.  Not only that, but through these speeches, he is convincing people that we should be thinking the same way he does: penalize the economic growers so we can keep the government we already have.

There is no question the man can deliver a good speech.  He captivated us in 2008 with the same deliveries. If we fall for those captivating speeches again, the exceptional opportunities that are still in our distant memory may never return.

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