The essence of the Obama presidency and Obamanomics revolves around
redistributing wealth and reducing income inequality. Those are the
president’s Big Ideas. To him, fixing those problems means fixing what
he perceives has gone wrong with America during the past generation.
In Osawatomie, Kansas, last year, Obama said the election “was about making choices that benefit not just the people who’ve done fantastically well over the last few decades, but that benefit the middle class, and those fighting to get into the middle class, and the economy as a whole.” Obamacare, the Buffett rule, letting the Bush tax hikes expire, raising taxes on corporations — none of that has anything to do with economic growth or job creation. They’re all about the Great Leveling that Obama desires.
And liberals like Obama think the numbers justify their focus on inequality. They point to the much-publicized work of economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. Using IRS data, they find a sharp rise in the share of pretax income earned by the top 1%. It roughly doubled over the past thirty years. But there are a number of issues with the Piketty Saez approach. One big one: The study ignores transfer payments such as Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, and other low-income programs.
Another way to gauge standards of living over time is by measuring consumption, since it better tracks the overall economic resources at a person’s command. And unlike income, consumption remains more or less steady throughout life since individuals borrow during years with low income and save in high-income years.
Read more: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/10/obama-the-great-equalizer-forgets-about-economic-growth/
In Osawatomie, Kansas, last year, Obama said the election “was about making choices that benefit not just the people who’ve done fantastically well over the last few decades, but that benefit the middle class, and those fighting to get into the middle class, and the economy as a whole.” Obamacare, the Buffett rule, letting the Bush tax hikes expire, raising taxes on corporations — none of that has anything to do with economic growth or job creation. They’re all about the Great Leveling that Obama desires.
And liberals like Obama think the numbers justify their focus on inequality. They point to the much-publicized work of economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. Using IRS data, they find a sharp rise in the share of pretax income earned by the top 1%. It roughly doubled over the past thirty years. But there are a number of issues with the Piketty Saez approach. One big one: The study ignores transfer payments such as Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, and other low-income programs.
Another way to gauge standards of living over time is by measuring consumption, since it better tracks the overall economic resources at a person’s command. And unlike income, consumption remains more or less steady throughout life since individuals borrow during years with low income and save in high-income years.
Read more: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/10/obama-the-great-equalizer-forgets-about-economic-growth/
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