Obama’s new budget is a bad joke

**Posted by Phineas

Just as we expected it would be.

Phillip A Klein takes a look at it and compares it to Obama’s promises on entering office. Here’s his takeway:

Obama spent most of last year lecturing the country on how he supported a so-called β€œbalanced approach” on deficit reduction. Time and again, he said he was ready to make real changes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security if only Republicans were willing to budge on the revenue side. He repeated this in a lot of speeches and insisted that behind the scenes he was really, really, ready to cut a deal with the GOP during the debt limit talks. But he never presented a tangible plan that could be scored by the CBO and evaluated next to Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to reform entitlements and put the nation on a sustainable fiscal course. He had his chance with this budget. Instead, Obama decided to forgo tough choices so he could attack Republicans during an election year.

Bear that in mind: we have a president far more interested in his own electoral fate than the fate of the nation.

Meanwhile, James Pethokoukis accuses Obama of doubling-down on class warfare in this budget:

Here’s pretty much all you need to know about Obamanomics: In 2011, the Obama White House suggested raising the top dividend tax rate to 20 percent from 15 percent. Keeping the dividend rate at a relatively low level, the White House said, β€œreduces the tax bias against equity investment and promotes a more efficient allocation of capital.” Makes sense, right? Basic economics.

Yet in his brand-new, 2013 budget, Obama calls for taxing dividends as ordinary income, essentially raising the top rate all the way to 39.6 percent. And then when you tack on the 3.8 percentage point Obamacare surtax β€” and an additional 1.2 percentage point itemized deduction phase-out for high-end taxpayers β€” the rate rises to 44.6 percent.

So apparently Obama is now in favor of a greater bias against equity investment (and in favor of debt) and promoting less efficient allocation of capital. And this helps create an economy β€œbuilt to last” in some way?

Of course, it doesn’t. Not at all. More like β€œbuilt to fail.” Then again, Obama’s new budget isn’t about economic growth or cutting debt or creating a β€œbuilt to last” economy. The Obama campaign is built around the idea of reducing inequality. So in his budget, Obama takes the populist whip to the wealthy and to business…

And to people who depend on dividends for their retirement, whether directly or through pension funds. Including the middle class.

Why does Barack Obama hate retired people?

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

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