The Biggest Lie of the 2012 Presidential Campaign

Excerpts:

“The Whopper to End All Whoppers is President Obama’s claim that his tax plan will pay down the country’s staggering $16 trillion national debt.

Not merely balance the budget. The Democrat who has piled up $5 trillion in new debt in less than four years and can’t get a single lawmaker of his own party to vote for his budget blueprint says he’ll pay down the debt, something that requires a budget surplus.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the budget deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 will be $1.1 trillion.

“I will use the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work,” Obama said during his nomination acceptance speech at this month’s Democratic National Convention.

“I believe the only way to create an economy built to last is to strengthen the middle class, asking the wealthy to pay a little more so we can pay down our debt in a balanced way,” the president says in one of his most widely aired campaign TV ads, titled “The Choice.” The spot includes text for added emphasis. “The President’s Plan: Pay Down Our Debt.”

Where in the world are the “Pants on Fire” and “Four Pinocchios” ratings?

Obama says we can get there by making the wealthy “pay a little more.” “Millionaires and billionaires” will cover the bill, he says. But his plan, as represented, doesn’t even come close.

The president wants to sunset the Bush tax cuts for individuals earning at least $200,000 and households earning at least $250,000, but keep the lower rates for everyone else. He also wants to reduce the deductions available to those households, raising their income taxes even higher. He proposes increases in the capital gains and dividends tax rates on top of the 3.8 percent Medicare tax on investment income that’s part of ObamaCare. All those tax increases combined will yield an estimated $140 billion per year in new federal revenue, getting the president almost 13 percent toward a balanced budget.

Ah, but we’re forgetting all those vile millionaires and billionaires, the biggest targets of Obama’s class-warfare rhetoric. For them, Obama has proposed the “Buffett Rule,” named for guilt-ridden billionaire Warren Buffett and his desire to flush more of his fortune down the federal latrine. The Buffett Rule would require everyone with an adjusted gross income of at least $1 million to pay at least a 30 percent tax rate. Surely, that will get us a budget surplus.

Wrong. It’s a political gimmick. The Buffett Rule would generate less than $5 billion per year in federal tax revenue, assuming the Bush tax cuts expire. If the Bush tax cuts were extended, the Buffett Rule would add about $16 billion in new revenue.

The Obama lie is that we can tax our way out of the current budget deficit, tax our way out of debt, maintain spending levels and meet future obligations.

It’s economically impossible.

In theory, we could declare a national household income limit of $200,000, keeping current tax rates in place but ordering the IRS to seize every dollar anyone makes beyond that amount. On paper, that would produce an additional $1.2 trillion in federal tax revenue. Budget surplus, here we come!”

Link to full article in Las Vegas Review Journal

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/the-biggest-lie-of-campaign-2012-169941296.html