You Asked For It!

On October 24th President Obama was in my adopted hometown, Las Vegas. During his speech he said the following about his proposed jobs bill: "It's a bill that's fully paid for -- by asking those of us who make more than $1 million to pay a little more in taxes." and later said his plan would be, "...paid for by asking people who make more than $1 million to pay one-half of 1 percent in additional taxes.  For somebody making $1.1 million a year, that's an extra $500.  Five hundred bucks.  And with that, we could have saved 400,000 jobs."

I don't claim any special math abilities, but I believe one half of 1% of $1.1 million is $5,500 not $500. I'm not going to try and figure out the math in Mr. Obama's proposal, there are many people far more qualified than I to discuss that. (Here is one example).

What I have a problem with is the repeated assertion that Mr. Obama is going to "ask" for these millionaires to pay their *fair share by imposing a tax. By definition a tax is "a sum of money demanded by a government". That's right, it is demanded, and those that don't pay face penalties like fines or imprisonment. That doesn't sound like a request to me.

I hope, although I don't really expect it, that in the future Mr. Obama will stop using the rhetoric that he is going to "ask" for someone to pay more, he is going to do his best to FORCE them to pay more. That is a pretty big difference. And in my opinion it won't be long before he DEMANDS more from all of us!

So I guess in addition to getting the president a calculator we need to get him a dictionary, too. Christmas is coming, or Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah, or Ramadan (I'm trying to all inclusive), maybe we can all pitch in and Mr. Obama a gift.

That's just My Humble Yet Correct Opinion.

(*Maybe we can discuss the definition of "fair" in the future.)