Is Barack Obama's economic plan akin to Socialism?
This is straight from the Obama web site.
"Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan Jumpstart the Economy Enact a Windfall Profits Tax to Provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families:Barack Obama and Joe Biden will enact a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits to give American families an immediate $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families pay rising bills. This relief would be a down payment on the Obama-Biden long-term plan to provide middle-class families with at least $1,000 per year in permanent tax relief."
Looks to me that Obama wants to tell "YOU" how much you should earn!
Anonymous2008-09-30T21:59:53Z
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It is socialism. Period.
It's income redistribution and a lighter version of the welfare state. It is NOT a bolstering of the middle class -- the middle class pays taxes, but the Obama plan will give that "tax relief" mostly to those BENEATH the tax threshold, as in, those who DO NOT PAY TAXES. In other words, "those poor people in the projects are trapped in a cycle of poverty they can never escape", so rather than giving them job training, Obama wants to give them rich people's money.
Barack Obama most definitely wants to tell "YOU" how much you should earn! He has publically stated that:
He wants to "limit management compensation to 50 times the lowest-paid full-time worker."
That means that he wants to tell a publically traded company, or a privately owned company, how much they should earn. You would not be able to set your own salary as the boss or an owner of a company. To put this in prospective, in his own state of IL the minimum wage is now listed at $7.75 an hour. That means that the CEO of MacDonold's would only be allowed to make $806,000.00 a year including all bonus' etc. While that sounds like alot of money on the surface, comparing to what he makes today, 3.9 million, that would mean that he would have to give up over 3 million a year under Obama Presidency and the company/shareholders of the co would have no say about it. So what if that was you that became successful and now the government says you can't have a large salary, even if the company you are running is successful and the share holders want to pay you that much? The government says no.
Capitalism is the American dream - the hope that anyone can make it here with hard work. Why should he want to take that freedom from us? Especially if someone is doing a good job?
do you know how minute the chance is of him getting a windfall tax on oil companies? It won't happen.
Sounds good to democrats who want to hear it, but enacting it will never happen. Obama is just hoping it will get him some votes before smart people find out he can't do it.
Oil companies are allowed to cover a lot of their profit under the umbrella of research, drilling new wells, repairing vital equipment in cases of emergency, developing new areas of drilling, pipelines, refining, etc........the list goes on. The profits can be allocated in so many ways that by the time it gets down to actual profit, it's not enough to call a 'windfall'
That's what happens every time they go before congress because they are under investigation for over charging. They walk away every time not owing a dime.
Obama is full of it if he thinks he's going to change the way it happens.
He won't tell the oil companies how much they can earn, because they provide a vital commodity (as we have seen in the southeast!) and the economic suffers if there is a lapse in production and delivery.
Here's some interesting information on gas pricing: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, here's an approximation of where each DOLLAR you spend on gas goes: Taxes: 11 cents Distribution and Marketing: 6 cents Refining: 10 cents Crude oil: 73 cents
this is a government assessment. Exactly where is Obama going to find this windfall? The second largest expenditure in the list is government TAXES! It just ain't happening folks!
Any time the government actually runs sections of the economy, that should be run be private concerns (health care, banks, etc.), it cannot be viewed as anything but socialism.
Also, to force people to be give their money to the government to be used on programs, in place of volunteers, charities, and those who would give willingly is against the intentions of our founding fathers.
Don't forget that it was confiscation of taxes that started the Revolutionary War.