You know, I recently went up a tax bracket. Had a bit of a windfall and now I earn additional income from investments plus my usual salary. I did very little to earn it, but it was a proud moment none the less; after taking for most of my life, I’m finally a real American, paying my due and complaining about how the government spends my money in a non-ironic sense, as they no longer give all of it back to me once a year. It’s like I’ve leveled up my life and now the experience cap has been raised. If I ever make it into the 1%, my chin will be high and I will gladly write the government a check for whatever amount they need to make the new players in the game have an easier time while they get their feet under them. That’s part of the American dream, and it’s what I expect our government to work towards.
So when President Obama says that he wishes to raise the taxes paid by the wealthiest fraction of a percent of Americans in his most recent stump speech to begin his reelection campaign, I say “Hell yeah, Big O; names are taken, you know what to do next.” All of the buzzwords were present and accounted for -- schools, loans, one percent, taxes -- and more and more President Obama is returning to the platform that propelled him into the White House in 2008. We shouldn’t perpetuate the status quo, he says, instead we should move forward and fight for progress. It’s great that now that we have an election coming up, he’s back into the rhetoric that brought him here, but what of it? Can the President even make such things come about in a divided congress? I don’t think so. Can Obama unite the Democrats to take back the House and Senate? Again, I don’t think so. So what does all of this accomplish? Do the speeches and the fancy language and backhanded compliments to his opponents even result in a blip on the American conscience? In a way, that last bit is the only positive outcome to expect -- conversation in the form of pundits and watercooler chatter disseminating through the American public until everyone has the idea of financial equality planted in their heads and no longer recalls where the seed originated.
My comments will be for Mr. Bonner's blog Pompous Circumstance. In his new post Obama: Raising Taxes on the Wealthy?, Mr. Bonner gives his own take on baptism of the Obama tax. With straight forward and personal truth combined with a sense of sweet sarcasm, he discloses on the common man what it is like to go to that new tax bracket. You know the one I mean; the one where you earn a few extra dollars and have the privilege to pay instead of receive.
ReplyDeleteNot knowing Mr. Bonner, I had to read his post a few times in order to know when I was standing on the square of true feelings or jest. However, I could only place myself in the arena of empathy. Its funny how we have very little interest to comment or even get into affairs that we feel don't affect or relate to us. However, dip into our pockets and we the people will pull out our freedom of speech card...or at least the right to complain card. Only then do we find ourselves in a jury chair when it comes to the "promises" that we feel a leader has either kept or failed to. As a consolation to Mr. Bonner, I looked at website called politifacts and an article commenting on Obama's promises.
According to politifacts and the article from Andrew Sullivan's "The Daily Beast", Obama has fulfilled approximately 1/3 of the promises that he made in his 2008 campaign. Therefore, were these promises merely made to get elected? Did he actually think he was abler to do it? I don't know. However, I'm sure that Mr. Bonner did not picture himself amongst Obama's wealthiest when he went up one tax bracket. At least for now, I think he has the right to vent.
David