Which Way’s Up?

I have here in my hand a speech delivered before Congress, and on the campaign trail, and in Europe, on prime-time TV several times before the election. . .

President Obama’s speech to Congress last night has elicited praise from unlikely sources.  Dick Morris heaped plaudits on the speech by the dump truck full - by which I mean he refrained from calling Obama a socialist.  

WITH a speech to match the most eloquent os [sic] State of the Union Addresses, with strains of FDR and JFK and a touch of Winston Churchill thrown in, President Obama has clearly staked his presidency on the outcome of the economic crisis.

Really?  I was pretty sure his presidency was about socialism - you know the big brother, no freedom, socialism we were scared up to believe was his hidden agenda?  The “European Socialist” conspiracy that implicated Gordon Brown?  (starts around the 0:50 mark) 

Oh wait here it is:

Halfway through the speech, the president got to the minefields of Social Security and health-care reform. He avoided any specifics, but it’s clear that he plans to salvage the former with increases in the payroll tax and implement the latter by government rationing of health care. If you like your HMO, you’ll love Obama’s health plan.

That’s the same clues I picked up on.  Like when Obama said “Thank You Madame Speaker,”  it was clear that he plans to raise capital gains taxes, while trampling a bible.  

But really Dick, in that stimulus bill you hate so much - the major tax cut was a PAYROLL TAX CUT - so the little birdie that told you they are going up was just trying to make you look stupid.

More importantly, Dick’s pissed that his taxes may be on the way up:

And then Obama affirmed that he’ll support big tax increases on the richest 2 percent of American families. Disregarding the fact that these households already pay upward of half of all income taxes, while earning only a quarter of the national income, he has singled out the entrepreneurs, professionals, innovators and businesspeople of America for taxation.

Although I don’t see how he fits into those categories that Obama is singling out (I think professional wind bag needs to be added), Morris is seriously pissed that the top 2 percent ONLY earn 25 percent of the income.  Maybe this will cheer him up (Share of Net Worth, 2004, halfway down on the right).

Oh, but he won’t raise taxes until he’s had a few years to stimulate the economy. How many in that 2 percent feel like one of those huge hogs in the Chicago stockyards, being fattened up to slaughter the next year?

It’s the French Revolution all over again!  They did eat the aristocracy in the French Revolution, right?  

So all this is so scary to Dick because people voted for it, they expect Obama to follow through on his promises and he reaffirmed his commitment to those promises.  Right?

This speech will be viewed as his high-water mark - the time before we came to realize how flawed is his understanding of economics and how supreme is his commitment to expanded spending. It will be seen as a sort of age of innocence before we realized what he had in mind.

No, it is a secret socialist conspiracy after all!  Whew, I thought for a moment that this “center-right” country voted for an out-and-proud communist.  Good to hear that we were simply duped.

whichwayisup Politics Dick Morris, Economic Meltdown, Obama, Politics, Republicans, Stimulus