Obama's Tax Increase Speech

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/09/obama-tax-increase-speech

Reason.com has posted my latest weekly column, about President Obama's tax-increase speech delivered earlier today:

At moments in his September 19 speech, Mr. Obama almost sounded like Steve Forbes, or some other free-market tax reformer. Mr. Obama mentioned that the tax code was more than 10,000 pages long, that the volumes stacked atop each other would be five feet tall, and that America's corporate tax rate is among the highest in the world. I half-expected, half-hoped that the next words out of Mr. Obama's mouth would be a Forbes-like plea to "kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it, and make sure it never rises again to terrorize the American people."

But if fundamental tax reform and simplification is the goal—and it's a worthy one—linking it to a $1.5 trillion tax increase is, alas, a sure way to kill it.

Read the whole thing here.

by Editor  |  Sep 19, 2011 at 4:35 pm Related Topics:  President Obama, Taxes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list