The War on Prosperity

Most of ye socks are too young to remember when Lyndon Johnson became president and declared a "War on Poverty."

Heck, I'm too young to remember that myself. But, I do crack a book every once in a while . . . something that has evidently fallen out of fashion lately . . .

Anyway, Johnson used his declaration (which, by the way, was unconstitutional since Congress is the branch of government that declares war) to justify the twin ideals of the modern Democratic Party: increasing taxes and growing the size and scope of government.

The ObamaNation is even more "idealistic" than old LBJ ever dreamed of being, waging the new undeclared War on Prosperity.

The tactics are simple yet effective:

* Hike the top tax rate to nearly 40%.

* Disallow top earners from deducting things like state & local taxes, charitable contributions, and mortgage interest from their federal tax bill.

* Hike the payroll tax.

* Raise the capital gains tax to 20%.

These tactics will not only dampen investment in an already-soaked marketplace, they will also continue the slide in consumer spending.

Clearly, the ObamaNation's goal is to dream up more methods of redistributing the shrinking wealth rather than reversing the shrinkage.

Increasing bureaucracies and tax burdens are far more fashionable these days than, say, fighting inflation.

In waging this war to shrink the pie before it is even cut, the ObamaNation stands on the principles that were articulated so well on the campaign trail last year.

Unfortunately, the principles are bad ones.

Hope and change!