The Wall Street Journal’s lead editorial today takes dead aim on the illusion that 95% of taxpayers would get a tax cut if Barack Obama had his way with changing the tax code.
Most of the people who would benefit from this “tax cut” don’t pay any income tax; for them, it’s a check from the federal government, a new bit of welfare.
Whether that idea ever becomes law or not, it does give us an important insight into Obama’s mind. He doesn’t get the idea of opportunity cost, at least where taxes are concerned. The wealthy people (including many owners of small businesses) who lose out in this redistributionist scheme often make productive use of capital. Siphoning that money away so it can be ladled out to people who earn less money can only slow capital formation and economic progress.
Obama is the sort of “leader” who would try to gain office by saying to people, “Vote for me and I’ll make sure some of the seed corn those rich people have saved for next season is given to the majority of the people who truly need more to eat!” That would be “change” that most people would support.
