Oh the Buffet Plan…the latest populist appeal from an increasingly unpopular president. While there are many—even on the left—who are skeptical of the wonderful new plan, (or old plan in that taxing the rich has been a regular plan of The President) the believers in the wisdom of the plan can be easily categorized into three groups:
Group 1
The first of these groups are those who supported the President but haven’t been satisfied in his rhetoric and actions—in that they haven’t been Left-wing enough. This group is often obsessed with class distinction and they are prone to using terms like “destruction of the Middle-Class” or “corporate welfare” in regular conversation. This group is convinced that Michael Moore was right when he said, “America is not broke” and then explained that the wealth was simply in the wrong hands. Interestingly enough this is often the same group who believes that conservatives are evil and would, if they had the ability, take rights away of everyone who isn’t conservative.
While many in Group 1 has rightly criticized some on the Right as having a tendency to believe conspiracy theory, an increasing number in this group believe in some nefarious group of Christians who wish to take over America and place us all under puritanical law. So, we can suppose that the way to deal with these “Dominionists” is to expose and tax them—if they are Super-Rich. This group would preserve the “declining Middle-Class” from death and puritanical Christianity, in a self-righteous show of populism that would make Mussolini tell them to cool it.
Group 2
This group consists of those who benefit from big government spending programs. To name every one of the programs this group utilizes would be arduous, but simply put, this group is the latter party in the old adage “there are those who work for a living and those who vote for a living.”
Group 3
This last group is similar to Group 2 in a way because they believe increased taxes will benefit their financial well being. This group is made up of those who are paid by tax dollars to perform their jobs. This is not to say that all of these jobs are unnecessary, but it is remarkable how many in the public sector believe that higher taxes will help them somehow.
These group designations are by no means exclusive: in fact, many people—specifically those who buy the Buffet Plan rhetoric—are in at least two of the groups.
However, the truth of the matter is that The Buffet Plan really helps none of the people in these groups. Free Market principles alone would warn against raising taxes during a slow—if not non-existent—recovery. But even if the reader doesn’t buy Laissez Faire economics, the numbers that would be generated by President Obama’s new tax plan would be a fragment of the annual deficit, especially considering the fact that his plan was unveiled just after he proposed another 400+ billion stimulus package.
The bottom line of the whole Buffet Plan is that the President very likely knows this goofy plan is dead in the water. What his bold unveiling was probably meant to do is pander to the above mentioned groups. Because whether or not these groups benefit from the Buffet Plan, they will feel better about a President who was brave enough to boldly tax the rich.
The collective lot of groups 1, 2 and 3 will not improve from passage of the new tax plan, the deficit won’t shrink much and mysterious evil Christians will still exist—if only in the minds of a select few. But, at least the President gave these groups “Hope and Change” again in the form of an un-passable proposal…with a snazzy name.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
