2015-01-20

Captain Capital Gains

In honor of Obama's SOTU address tonight (no I don't plan to watch it. Busy catching up on Archer) which promises to be epic in its derpity.

Obama will definitely tout and milk falling gas prices (which helps people out) and that the economy is on the uptick thus making it a swell time to pull his 'pay your fair share' nonsense by giving more free shit out.

Obama in all his might, lefty, economic brilliance (an oldie but a goodie):

GIBSON: All right. You have, however, said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, "I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton," which was 28 percent. It's now 15 percent. That's almost a doubling, if you went to 28 percent.
But actually, Bill Clinton, in 1997, signed legislation that dropped the capital gains tax to 20 percent.

OBAMA: Right.

GIBSON: And George Bush has taken it down to 15 percent.

OBAMA: Right.

GIBSON: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down.

So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.
We saw an article today which showed that the top 50 hedge fund managers made $29 billion last year -- $29 billion for 50 individuals. And part of what has happened is that those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries. That's not fair.

And what I want is not oppressive taxation. I want businesses to thrive, and I want people to be rewarded for their success. But what I also want to make sure is that our tax system is fair and that we are able to finance health care for Americans who currently don't have it and that we're able to invest in our infrastructure and invest in our schools.

And you can't do that for free."

Wow. That's some incredible, erm, outlook.

So his idea of 'fairness' is to immediately hammer millions of Americans who own investments. Not really surprising how he basically screwed millions out of their health plans. Raising capital gains taxes will hurt people's chances at achieving wealth. The rest of his argument is a nonsensical non-sequitur. It's irrelevant what a fund manager earns and equating it to a middle-class person who owns a mutual fund. 

The same mutual funds they buy with their savings after they've already been taxed at the income level. But this is not enough for the takers. All they see is the uber-super-duper rich and see their money. They forget the poor shlep who has a book value of $5000 but a market value of $7000. The more you tax the difference (ie Capital gains) the less for the middle-class.

Obama's ideas - if you can call them that - will not help Americans. It will damage them.


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