The President's Excess Income and Ours

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/07/the-president-excess-income-and-ours

Mona Charen has a column up at Yahoo! News:

Speaking for himself on July 11, the president offered that he had "hundreds of thousands of dollars that I don't need."

The president is of course welcome to donate as much of his extra money as he likes to the federal treasury. He knows Timothy Geithner personally and can probably get a guarantee that his check will be cashed without delay. And since the president is so ready to impute unpleasant motives (like greed) to those who oppose tax increases, perhaps we should impute some sort of moral failing to him for not having thus far contributed his spare change to the government.

More: "The president may be perfectly confident that the best use of his excess cash is to pay more taxes. Those who live in the real world may consider the government hopelessly wasteful and inefficient."

At Commentary's Contention's blog, John Steele Gordon focuses on a similar point: "unlike Scrooge McDuck, the rich do not put the excess in a vast money bin and frolic about in it. They invest it. What a concept! Where does Obama think new capital comes from, the tooth fairy? It's nothing more than the excess of income over outgo. Take away the income the rich "don't need" and spend it on social programs, and capital formation in this country drops to zero."

by Editor  |  Jul 12, 2011 at 10:18 am Related Topics:  President Obama, Taxes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list