A dunce cap for Obama

I don't know why yours truly tuned in to watch a portion of the Democratic debate on ABC last night.

Maybe, it's because I always enjoy watching Democrats go at each other's throats.

Anyway, I wonder how many of ye socks out there may have gotten the impression of Barrack Hussein Obama that I did.

We all know how captivating he can be on the campaign trail. The press have been selling us that for a long, long time. Certainly, his rhetoric is bold and lofty.

But, he is light on substance. And, he came off last night as being completely ignorant of rudimentary tax policies.

Oh, he CLAIMS he wants to make changes to the tax system to benefit the middle class. (A group of people he labels as those who earn less than $250,000 a year.)

In reality, though, he wants to hike the capital gains tax rate up to 28%.

Didn't he take even one course on economics in college?

Raising the cap gains rate has a proven record of reducing the amount of revenue collected by the government--revenue it would desperately need if it is expected to fund all the expanded social programs the illustrious junior senator from Illinois is proposing.

But, Obama doesn't stop there. He also wants to raise the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax from the current $97,500 to $102,000.

So, he is contradicting himself. $102,000 is far below the level he himself established for the "middle class." By his own definition, his proposals will increase the tax burden on these folks, not lighten their load.

I guess with some folks like Obama, dogma trumps pragmatism. They'd rather adhere to their orthodoxy (in his case, higher taxes and bigger government) than deal with reality . . .