Thursday, November 1, 2012

Obama Is No Friend of the Middle Class

Barack Obama has based much of his re-election campaign on the issue of "fairness" and especially the charge that "the rich" are not paying enough in taxes.  Creating a straw man to blame for one's own failures is a classic political ploy, but it raises the question of whether Obama himself has been "fair" to the middle class.  With less income, fewer jobs, and mediocre economic growth since Obama took office, the answer is that he has not. 
Since Obama claims that he is the champion of the middle class, what does his record actually show?  Quite simply that middle-class household incomes have declined by $4,500, while the wealth of his billionaire friends has increased.
None of those billionaire buddies has done more for the president than George Soros, a major contributor to Obama's 2008 campaign and funder of a host of liberal organizations, most importantly Moveon.org.  According to Forbes magazine, Soros is the 15th-wealthiest person in America.  In mid-2008, his wealth was $9 billion, but that was before the election of his protégé.  By mid-2012, it had increased to $19 billion.  So while the average Joe saw his family income decline by 10%, billionaires like Soros saw theirs more than double.
It's not just Soros, either.  Warren Buffett is also a big Obama supporter.  Buffett has done all right, despite his attempts to convince the government to tax his earnings at 30%.  That's because, year after year, his taxable earnings are practically zero.  The vast majority of his earnings accumulate tax-free in the form of unrealized gains in Berkshire Hathaway stock.  Buffett has retained holdings of $46 billion, despite having giving away $11 billion to charity (as of March 2012).
So while Obama campaigns as an enemy of the rich, he has done nothing to slow their accumulation of wealth.  It's not the super-rich that Obama has in his sights -- it's the middle class who aspire to wealth.  Under Obama's rules, they will never get there.

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