By Wayne Allyn Root
You know that famous TV show,“Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” Well that show has inspired me to ask, “Is Obama Smarter than a Communist?” Because as you’ll learn below, many socialist and communist leaders seem to have learned a lesson that Obama has not.
Remember when Obama said, “I just want to spread the wealth around.” If income redistribution works…if tax and spend is a model for America…why are Greece and Spain bankrupt basket cases threatening to bring down the entire European Union? Greece and Spain have both been led by Socialist Party politicians. They both have big taxes, big spending, big unions, big governments- just like Obama wants. Yet both Greece and Spain have unemployment rates above 26% and youth unemployment above 56%.
With that record of devastating failure, why did Obama just raise U.S. income tax rates to the levels of Greece and Spain? Greece’s income tax rate is 40%. Spain’s top rate ranges from 40% to 50%. In America we just raised the top rate to about 40%, plus add in Obamacare taxes, plus add in state and local taxes, and of course Obama took away deductions too. Can you even imagine…we chose to emulate Greece and Spain right at the moment of disaster. At the moment of devastation. At the moment of 26% and 56% unemployment. Right as they are headed into economic oblivion. With Obama’s re-election we chose Greece and Spain.
By the way…Why are Greece and Spain with high income taxes and VAT taxes (a national sales tax) both bankrupt and insolvent? Why would Obama want higher taxes for America, when Greece and Spain prove the model doesn’t work? They are going through a national nightmare. Thousands of trees are missing…because citizens can no longer afford to pay for electricity or fuel to heat their homes, so each night they go into parks and forests to cut down trees for firewood. Families are digging through dumpsters for food. Government employees go unpaid for months. This is what socialism and high taxes get you. And we chose Obama for another 4 years? Maybe we should check if American voters are as smart as a 5th grader?
All those Greek voters elected socialist politicians because they promised fat pensions, free health care, and lavish early retirement. Sound familiar? Now they face unimaginable poverty for years to come. This proves that when politicians promise chocolate cake with no calories, they should be put in prison for fraud.
Cuba has been a Marxist state since before I was born. Their leader Raul Castro is a proud communist. Yet Cuba recently passed the most sweeping reforms in history. Castro is slashing more than a million government jobs, cutting entitlements, encouraging more private sector entrepreneurship, giving more power to private companies, and reducing state spending.
One of the trademark features of Cuba’s socialist system — the universal monthly food ration — will be phased out. Castro said the ration given all Cubans since 1963 had become an “unsupportable burden” for Cuba’s bankrupt and crumbling government.
So get this…a Cuban communist leader is cutting a million government jobs, and eliminating Cuba’s version of food stamps. Meanwhile Obama keeps adding government jobs and food stamp use is setting all-time records in America. 47.7 million Americans are on food stamps. Tell me again- who’s the communist and who’s the capitalist?
Even Russia’s Vladimir Putin (then serving as Prime Minister) seemed to learn a common 5th grade history lesson on socialism, when during a 2008 speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland he stated: “In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state role absolute…In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly.”
Putin and Castro have learned their lessons from experience. But Obama? Sounds like he needs to attend re-education camp. Or at least do the 5th grade over.
Obama just raised our income tax rates to 40%, eliminated deductions, and of course he’s already passed a raft of new Obamacare taxes. He wants to take the cap off Social Security taxes and add a VAT tax (national sales tax). Add it up. Under Obama, Americans could soon have a tax rate above 70%. Not the super rich. These rates will apply to small business owners.
Now contrast those taxes with today’s tax rates in formerly Communist countries:
- Russia 13% Flat Tax
- Bulgaria 10% Flat Tax
- Georgia 15% Flat Tax
- Romania 16% Flat Tax
- Czech Republic 15% Flat Tax
- Albania 10% Flat Tax
- Kazakhstan 10% Flat Tax
- Lithuania 15% Flat Tax
- Slovakia 19% Flat Tax
- Bosnia 10% Flat Tax
- Serbia 12% Flat Tax
- Hungry 16% Flat Tax
- Estonia 21% Flat Tax
So ask yourself again, “Is Obama smarter than a communist?” Looking at those tax rates, it would be easy to mistake the U.S. under Obama for the socialist country.
While the big tax, big spend, big government economies of Europe are floundering, examine how the low tax model is performing around the world. Hong Kong, with its 15% flat tax and no capital gains tax, has 3.3% unemployment.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/hong-kong/unemployment-rate
That’s down in the 4thquarter of last year from 3.4% in the quarter before that.
Singapore has a tax of 3% to 20%, with unemployment at a remarkable 1.9%. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/singapore/unemployment-rate
Obviously high taxes kill jobs. Case closed. As Russian President Putin implied, Obama must have missed that 5th grade lesson.
So I’ll ask the question again – “Is Obama smarter than a communist?” Perhaps someone should sit Obama down with all these communist and ex-communist leaders and get him educated. Fast. Before the U.S. economic collapse is beyond repair. Before the America we know and love is gone forever.
