FOCUS: Obama Eats the Rich for Fun and Profit

Chait writes: "President Obama today is demanding that Congress extend the Bush tax cuts on income under $250,000 for another year. This is being reported as a gambit to 'change the subject to the issue of tax fairness.'"

US President Barack Obama speaks during the sixth annual Wounded Warrior Project's Soldier Ride, 04/20/12. (photo: Getty Images)

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+42 # giraffee2012 2012-07-10 10:02

Blaming the Dems for everything is typical of the cowardly pigs who work for the Koch and OIL and other bigs instead of representing THE PEOPLE and working FOR the People.

Anyone who votes GOP / TP will go down with the rest of us - and will be responsible for allowing the RATS to govern FOR the Rich.

VOTE STRAIGHT DEM/INDEPENDENT / but never ever vote GOP/TP

+45 # genierae 2012-07-10 10:43

President Obama is getting quite a lot of enjoyment out of tweaking the noses of the right-wing GOP. Their hatred of him makes them vulnerable to his scorn, and his elegant mockery of their ingrained hypocrisy only increases their virulence. Where will it end? We live in interesting times.

+34 # Doggone 2012-07-10 11:01

It won't stop until we all agree to care about EVERYONE and stop this hate propaganda that republicans prefer, calling it everything but what it really is - HATE and FEAR of anything that doesn't put money in their pockets. GO Obama, eat 'em up, stick it to 'em.

+14 # genierae 2012-07-10 15:12

I agree Doggone, and he is so good at sticking it to 'em. They hate that he is superior to them in every way. And black at that.

-5 # phantomww 2012-07-11 13:48

So does Obama "eat the rich" before or after he eats the dog? Not sure what the correct order is, maybe you can help me but with a name like yours, I would be careful around a dog eater or you really will be dog gone. :)

-11 # RLF 2012-07-10 11:00

What we need are guillotines in front of the supreme court building...it will have to do since we have no Bastille!

+39 # soularddave 2012-07-10 11:05

If tax cuts on the 2% would spur the economy, they missed their chance to prove it. If, on the other hand, their wish was to hold economic expansion hostage to "make Obama a one term President", they've certainly restrained the economy.

Now its time to let the President do it his way. My only question is where to make the break. I think it might be set a bit lower than $250,000, and capital gains (pay without work) counted as fully taxable income.

Oh, and a small fee for every single share of stock that changes hands.

+11 # MidwestTom 2012-07-10 11:18

Divisive politics is what is causing the stalemates in Congress. When over 50% of Americans still believe that they can become wealthy, it may not be real smart to be constantly trying to punish the so called rich. I agree with the concept, but not the numbers. In Chicago $250,000 per year is just upper middle class. The wealthy make millions per year.. Tax them at a higher rate and nobody would complain.

+15 # tuandon 2012-07-10 11:49

Just shoot the rich, or, better yet, make THEM work for $7.25/hr with no bennies and no hope of progress or improvement. As for the Teabags, the less said the better. I don't want to get vitriolic, though they richly deserve it every bit of vitriol one could muster.

+17 # adolbe 2012-07-10 13:46

John Kenneth Galbraith said of supply side economics: It is based on the premise that the rich don't work because they are paid too little and the poor don't work because they are paid too much. Anyone who believes that will believe anything

+7 # Regina 2012-07-10 15:04

The supply-side hoax is based on a phony analysis shown in the Laffer Curve -- it would be a laugher, all right, is there weren't so many people reduced to crying.

-21 # phantomww 2012-07-10 13:57

Obama has been saying how bad the Bush tax cuts are for the last 10 years or so. Also, dems had been saying that the Bush tax cuts were a tax cut for the rich yet now he is saying (as in 2010 when he extended the "evil" tax cuts) that they would be a tax increase on the poor and middle class. How can they be a tax cut for them if the tax cuts were a tax cut for the rich? Seems like he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
when the Bush tax cuts increased the child tax credit to $1000 per child was that a tax cut for the rich or not rich (poor and middle class)?

+2 # akh752 2012-07-13 09:40

The Bush tax cuts were for all income brackets; however the bulk of the benefit went to the very wealthy. Extending the Bush tax cuts for the first $250K of income is what President Obama proposes. The GOP will not agree to that because they insist that tax cuts for the wealthy (to whom they give the phony "job-creator" label) have to be extended also. Otherwise, no go for them -- they clearly don't give a whit about the middle class. The GOP refusal to agree with the President's proposal, therefore, would result in a tax increase on everyone.

+7 # jwb110 2012-07-10 18:58

The ultra-rich in this country are like actors who begin to believe their own press. It's just press not truth. The 2% have not done anything to create new jobs, nor will they. A quick look at what is happening to the China Economy points to lack of spending by the largest members of the economy not the smallest. Not giving tax breaks to the middle class and poor is not only ruining the economy in the US but ruining other economies around the world. Many US large corporations with a presents in China are suffering because demand in the US has fallen so far. This in turn has caused downturns in South American. The GOP/TP has got to stop playing polotics with the world economy just because they are not worried about their going hungry. This is the stuff that historically has made for bloody revolutions.

0 # cordleycoit 2012-07-10 20:20

"Mindlessly loot the rich." No way let us be accurate and methodical to get it all. All the hidden gems, the condo in Aspen,the place in the Village, the house on the Vineyard as well as the Swiss Cayman and San Remo accounts. Leave them thinking.Join us for a snack.

+8 # tigerlille 2012-07-11 00:16

"When 50% of Americans still believe they can become wealthy..."

I would be interested in learning Midwest Tom's source for his statistics, because I think he makes an important point. Many U.S. citizens not only still believe in the myth of the American Dream, they cherish it. They identify with the rich, and do not want to see the financial freedom of the rich curtailed, because they want to be rich too, and believe that this goal is attainable for them or their children with hard work and a little luck. This is why average and low income people so consistently vote against their own best financial interests. They assume that a man like Mitt Romney has wisdom and good judgement by virtue of being a millionaire. We live in a young soul society that is heavily invested in materialism.

The rich need to be redefined as the opportunistic, dishonest, and amoral parasites so many of them are. But don't expect the adherents of the American Dream to appreciate your efforts to enlighten them, because reality is not all that pleasant, is it.

+2 # genierae 2012-07-11 14:45

Actually reality is a beautiful thing if you have the courage to take a good look at it tigerlille. "Face what you don't want to face, long enough and bravely enough, and it will change the kind of person you are."

-1 # akh752 2012-07-13 09:46

50% sounds pretty high. I've read that about 10% of the population are gay; also, that about 10-12% are atheists. I know gay people and I know atheists. One would think that, if 50% still believe they can become wealthy (and therefore balk at higher taxes on the rich), I'd know some of these people. But I don't.

+2 # ABen 2012-07-11 19:42

Trickle Down/Supply side, whatever name the Greed Obsessed Party gives it this year is exactly what Daddy Bush called it back in 1980--Voodoo Economics. As Ron Raygun said, people should pay [tax] according to their means. W lowered taxes on the wealthy and created a couple dozen jobs in eight years; Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy and the economy boomed.

+6 # SOF 2012-07-11 20:06

Wealthy 'Job Producers have had years of tax advantage while jobs disappeared. They have NOT produced jobs for Americans (only for cheaper foreign labor).
I think the right actually believes "FOX on your side" faux 'news' which constantly LIES, omits, or distorts issues. Their rant is obviously not logical, They have to be emotionally seduced.

0 # WestWinds 2012-07-14 00:25

Part One:
My experience with the Right says that they want to stick close to the "job creators" because Right-wingers are followers and not chiefs at heart. No matter what they may say to the contrary.

Like Tolstoy said in "The Cybele," "If there wasn't a god, then man would have to invent a god." These people need a god; a shepherd, if you will, in order to feel safe. Thus the god/church prop/crutch which the political arm, the Far Right and Tea-baggers have co-opted in the name of corporate sponsorship and leadership.

Realize, they have been programmed all the way from the Jesus Camps through the churches and homeschooling, to colleges like Liberty, Regents, Patrick Henry and the American Center for Law and Justice, which all tow the Right-wing party line.
All the way along, they are told they are the "chosen ones" are "soldiers of God" and anyone who is not a "Born Again" is, and I quote, "Nothing! And not to be listened to under any circumstances."

That is, they are better than anyone else and incapable of fallibility, and these low-information people eat this up with a shovel because they are so starved for approbation and personal recognition.

Whenever reality proves them wrong and they start to slip off their self-style pedestal and out of their comfort zone, they remedy any short falls with dishonesty, denial and

0 # WestWinds 2012-07-14 00:26

Part Two:

rationalization in order to regain and maintain a sense of internal homeostasis. This is why facts and truth are lost on these people.

They have been so conditioned; intellectually battered and emotionally betrayed, by their milieu they are terrified of just about everything, especially themselves, mostly because they haven’t been taught critical thinking and don't know how to think their way through problems and arrive at a satisfactory, truthful conclusion. Truth has no value set for them; one truth is as good as any other self-styled truth. And for those of us on the Left, the result is like watching people who like to cut themselves. This is the ultimate control issue, power grab from people who basically feel helpless and hopeless and perceive the cruelty of the Right-wing as strength they can believe in. Smacks of the Stockholm syndrome and this is no way to live. ***

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