Obama Plays Class Warfare; Jet Tax Would Bring In Measly $300 Million

President Obama held a press conference yesterday bordered on the absurd. Apparently the President is very upset that Congress is taking a 4th of July break. Obama believes Congress should stay in Washington to work on the debt ceiling issue. Sounds good, unfortunately it’s absurd in light of the fact that Obama has been nowhere to be found at the debt ceiling negotiations. If Obama is unwilling to get involved, why should Congress work on his schedule?

Obama’s presser had nothing to do with the debt ceiling. It was his announcement that he’s running for re-election. His strategy is clear, he’s going to play class warfare for the next year and a half. More so than he’s already been playing it. Obama whines that without tax increases children won’t go to college, old people will die without medical research and no one will know if a thunder storm is on the way because the National Weather Service won’t exist. (Obama believes we’re to stupid to stick our head out the window and know for sure whether it’s raining unless government tells us)

What was most absurd about Obama’s argument is that the rich are jet owners. Mind you the rich as far as Obama is concerned earn $250,000. The Wall Street Journal points out that those who earn that little cannot afford private jets. One has to earn in the millions to really be able to afford such luxury. Even if Congress gets rid of the corporate jet tax break, it will bring in a measly $3 billion over 10 years. The Federal government spends nearly $11 billion a day, the $300 million in taxes raised in one year if the jet tax is increased wouldn’t even pay for an hour of government spending in one day.

President Obama knows very well that the eliminating the corporate jet tax loophole wouldn’t raise any significant revenue. Just like he knows that eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the “rich” would only bring in $21 billion next year. These revenue increases wouldn’t amount to much of anything in light of a deficit of $1.6 trillion. Obama knows this, he’s not dumb. He’s playing politics though. He’s creating a class conflict by giving the impression that the “rich” are being handed all sorts of tax breaks by Republicans at the expense of services and goodies handed out to the poor and middle class.

Unfortunately the truth isn’t on Obama’s side. The rich aren’t riding around in private jets and even if government were to confiscate all income over $250,000 and all assets of billionaires the government could barely make it into July in one year before running a deficit. What the government does the next year is anyone’s guess but it can’t be good for the middle class. The fact is that if government spending isn’t brought under control, all of the middle class goodies and services that Obama wants to protect will be lost in a sea of debt default or inflation.

Tax increases to pay off China aren’t going to create jobs here in America. But in class warfare, it doesn’t matter so long as the rich are demonized and the poor and middle class are turned into victims. This sort of leftist nonsense may have worked in days gone by but it’s tired and old these days. The internet has largely exposed class warfare as little more than the folly of communists and assorted radicals. The numbers are readily available and the internet allows everyone to see that Obama’s statements on jet setters and the poor just don’t add up.