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The Obama Watch
The Three (Ways of Making Us) Stooges
What about our president’s vaunted intelligence, morality, and honesty?
(Page 2 of 2)
This vision of government as a moral agent superior to the individual citizen informs all the policy thinking of Obama and the intellectual wing of the Democrat party. To see it operate to such an extent is fascinating. Think of the mind-set required to describe a person giving a spontaneous gift to charity as “getting a tax break”!
Notice also the sanctimoniousness of saying that if it is “really” a charitable contribution, the tax implications should not be a consideration. This again deflects the main moral reality here; namely, the government taxing him on the dollar he gave away to the homeless shelter is the monstrous act of moral blindness. To call him crass for noticing the injustice is a crowning iniquity. This man took a rightfully earned dollar and turned it over unselfishly to the poor, and the government wants to charge him 11 cents for the right.
WHICH BRINGS US TO DISHONESTY in presentation, a style reminiscent of the predator offering candy to the kid in the schoolyard. Look at his trick of invoking Ronald Reagan by saying the “tax break” would be the same twenty-eight cents it was under Reagan.
A good example would be those sales where a store that opened in 1959 celebrates its 50th anniversary by offering its hamburgers at the original price, say ten cents. This is a generous and fun way of bringing people in and reminding them of a half-century of reliable service.
Now what if the company said they were doing a 50 percent-off sale, but to celebrate the anniversary they would only give the discount based on the 1959 price? So if the hamburger costs five dollars now, they will give a nickel off the price, the equivalent of a 50% sale on Opening Day in 1959. The price of your burger: five dollars minus five cents, for a total of $4.95. Everyone would rightly scorn such a promotion.
But that is what Obama just said. We will tax you at the new 39 cent rate, but we will discount your contribution according to the old rate. So you will get 28 cents off the 39 cents you owe on that dollar, leaving you to pay Uncle Sam 11 more cents. And why the figure of 28, you ask. That is to honor the memory of Ronald Reagan, who gave the same reduction.
Helloooo?! Reagan gave 28 cents off your tax per charitable dollar because he was only taxing 28 cents per dollar. What a nasty, corrupt — dare I say meretricious — stunt to put over while cloaking oneself in the mantle of fairness.
We have analyzed Obama’s approach and found it illogical, immoral, and dishonest, all rolled into one pretty package. Heaven help us.
About the Author
Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he speaks at the Rally for Religious Freedom in Miami on June 8, 2012.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (42) | Leave a comment
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Country Boy| 4.1.09 @ 7:26AM
Good read - thanks!
On a good day, zeroBoy is a bad three card monte dealer. How did we ever get so many people stuck on stupid in this country.
Pingback| 4.1.09 @ 7:46AM
The American Spectator : The Three Ways of Making Us Stooges « Aeronaut links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Don L| 4.1.09 @ 8:20AM
I suspect that you missed another variable. Dollars taken by the government, in order to reach that charity, must first be filtered through the multiple levels of government that, like cancer, have grown to actually cutting off efficency. When three dollars of tax only return one, or when the benovolent government sends the state back some of its citizens confiscated money to do what they say is a civic good, it first consumes much of that same money that the private sector gives directly.
Robert Rosencrans| 4.1.09 @ 9:37AM
Over 80 cents of every dollar filtered through government stays with the bureaucracies in terms of employee benefits, pay and infrastructure. Private charities and not-for-profit entities are much more efficient.
Obama is beyond Scrooge on this one. While the Treasury Department squanders trillions on Dead Companies Walking like AIG, Obama wants to take a brick bat to organizations that desire to aid others in distress.
Obama appears to be an expert at organizing community failure.
Becky| 4.1.09 @ 9:56AM
Robert and Don hit on as aspect I have found missing in the President's logic, that is the voluntary aspect of giving time, talents, and money that many people already do. Donating time has not been deductible, yet an important part of many charities work.
What he is proposing is United Way on steroids. I hardly gave when they used to come to the office, because I already consistently gave and supported organizations I liked. I thought they were just middle men I didn't need. The United Way/Boy Scout flap didn't help my opinion either.
Howard| 4.1.09 @ 10:17AM
In the Socialist states in western Europe, the government provides those services, albeit, from people paying very high rates of taxation. Obama as a Socialist/Communist wants to achieve the same. One additional benefit would be starving religion. Since this is also part of that worldview, sauce for the goose for Obama and company.
Lee Schafer| 4.1.09 @ 11:16AM
Country boy ask "how did we ever get so many people stuck on stupid in this country"
That's easy to answer: 1) A main stream media that has sold out to the leftist in this country. The free press no longer protects the people from government but actually drives the people into the arms of government. No difference between what NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, Wash Post have been doing for the last 8 years than what Pravda did for the USSR for 70 years and Goebbels did for Hitler. American MSM is the propaganda machine for the democrat party. When 57% of Obama voters don't even know what party controls the congress, but 87% of them knew that Sarah Palin had a pregnant teen age daughter and spent $150,000 on her wardrobe, this alone should disqualify the MSM from ever being considered reliable on any matter.
2) A public education system that no longer teaches students to be independent thinkers, but fills them full of political correctness and environmental garbage. Our school system no longer teaches free market concepts but glorifies the socialistic systems that enslaves people while making sure they have free health care.
Michele San Pietro| 4.1.09 @ 11:38AM
"Our president"? Obama is not my president and never will be!
Nolanimrod | 4.1.09 @ 11:42AM
The motivation here is rather plain: the same as was Al Capone's. Snuff out the competition. Additionally, during the welfare heyday 10¢ of every dollar actually got to a welfare recipient. Guess where the rest went.
Big Leo| 4.1.09 @ 11:46AM
I serve on the board of a halfway house I helped found about twenty years ago. Now, we expect to be in financial trouble, since almost half of the donations that support us come from people who are over the income limit and already are experiencing a lowered financial worth because of the stock market.
Obama's blather about a $100 donation is totally dishonest. The big donor doesn't give $100, he gives $100,000. Now this will cost him $128,000 instead. The big givers often give MOST of their income to charity. This is a 28% tax on our charitable budget, nothing less. I've been involved in charitable institutions professionally for over forty years, and this coming year is shaping up to be the worst. If we have to close our doors, I will know exactly who to blame.
Bill| 4.1.09 @ 11:52AM
Well stated Lee
Marc Jeric| 4.1.09 @ 12:39PM
Abu Hussein from Kenya, our Community Organizer-in-Chief, with his ACORN brownshirts is hastily communizing our country - you know "a good crisis should not be wasted". With the coming 11% unemployment and 13% inflation, spurred on by the marxist hordes in our universities and Main Stream Media, we have yet to see the worst.
Dennis| 4.1.09 @ 1:24PM
I suspect obama's motive is twofold. First is to reduce charitable donations from private citizens, in favor of making government the sole source of "charity" in the US, in the same way he seeks to make the government the sole source of health care. Second is to reduce, even eliminate the church, any church or "faith-based initiative" from the role of financial caregiver to the needy. Simply put, he seeks to make the state the official church of his US, government the official religion, a la the USSR, Cuba, Cambodia, etc. For this goal to be met, we all must become equally needy, as the tax "reforms" will guarantee over time.
D Markland| 4.1.09 @ 3:36PM
If it is ufair for someone to get 39% back from a donation how is it "fair" for him to have 39% of his wages confiscated while others pay almost nothing?
JP| 4.1.09 @ 3:37PM
I think a thousand bloggers and OpEd writers picked up on the President's twisted logic. In Obama's mind, the only authentic charity is the kind that is forced upon an individual via the US Tax Code. In that case, of course, it isn't charity.
For a man with such a celebrated CV (Columbia, Haravard Law), President Obama's forray into moral philosophy is about as shallow as his forray into economics. He should stick to his teleprompter.
Big Leo| 4.1.09 @ 3:43PM
"If it is ufair for someone to get 39% back from a donation how is it "fair" for him to have 39% of his wages confiscated while others pay almost nothing?"
Be careful, D. You're falling into their trap. The person who gives a hundred thousand dollars doesn't get anything back under the current plan. He just doesn't have to pay in 39% more to IRS as a tax on his generosity.
Michael Tomlinson| 4.1.09 @ 5:31PM
Maybe the best way to respond to Barack Obama's miserly policy is for conservatives to follow his example and do the Al Gore and stop donating to charities all together. I'm sure the liberals who control charitable institutions and voted for Obama will understand and appreciate the willingness to be more like Barack.
Revelations 3 vs 9| 4.1.09 @ 6:29PM
Evil can only survive when good men do nothing.
America run by institution, for institutions.
The Government can only make fools out of you while you allow them to.
Look! I will give those from the SYNAGOGUE of Satan who say they are JEW and yet they are not but are lying-look! I will make them come and do obeisance before your feet, and make them know I have always loved you.
That is what the Bible says, but the false prophets says the people in Israel are the chosen ones chosen by who? Satan the DEVIL.
Mike| 4.1.09 @ 7:31PM
It is hard to know whether Obama was advancing an intentionally duplicitous argument or just naively kicking around his latest mind-blowing idea like a pompous over-stimulated college freshman.
Either way, the man is truly scary.
Tim| 4.1.09 @ 7:39PM
He gave the queen an I Pod?
Why not a basketball to the queen's husband?
My teen age son laughed for five minutes when I told him that. He didn't believe me until he heard it on the news.
My teen age son who is no conservative right wing zeolot......was stunned at such a display of such a classless and tasteless gift to give the queen on their first official visit.
That pretty much says it all.......
Angel| 4.1.09 @ 8:02PM
The Queen already has an IPod. Oh, I see--the second IPod from the Obamas is for the Queen when she trains for Marathons. How embarrassing.
Big Leo| 4.1.09 @ 8:02PM
When I heard that he gave the queen an ipod I laughed out loud. What a great story for April Fool's Day! Then I found out it was true. A gift so tasteless that it deeply offended a teenager. . . there's a concept. And of course, it nicely complements the gift of unplayable DVD's to the PM. The only reason I can think of for these incredibly stupid choices is that he was given a gift card at Walmart for Christmas.
Cow Rie| 4.1.09 @ 9:09PM
So everyone here is critical of Obama.
What are YOU going to do about it?
It is time to act.
Roman Melnyk| 4.1.09 @ 9:36PM
Where is the press on this? Or do they not speak math?
Angel| 4.1.09 @ 9:56PM
I'm sorry, Big Leo. I hope you can keep your doors open this year.
Seymour Kleerly| 4.1.09 @ 10:03PM
I could not get past your first paragraph where you described Obama as decietful and manipulative. Did you ever use terms like this for Bush during his eight years of deciept and manipulation of this country? Or are you a propagandist who thinks we're all dumb?
Frosty| 4.1.09 @ 10:19PM
No, he's not a propagandist; but yes, he does think you're dumb. So do I. Hey, you wanna a IPod, Queenie? Dang, the Obamas are lowlife rubes.
Pingback| 4.1.09 @ 10:55PM
Obama - Morally Bankrupt | Patriotic Dissent links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Ken Roberts | 4.5.09 @ 2:10PM
Big Leo , I feel for you and your organization as I know you have helped more people then can be counted. Bless you and the givers , it is to bad that we have to have a jester and a crook in the white house today. The real shame of all of this is that Obama and his cabinet believe this stuff they are spewing out . And they have used double speak for so long they can't tell an honest statement from a dishonest one.
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