I did it again, I opened the email from Townhall.com. It's not my fault, I'm just having a very slow week at work, comments in another thread were starting to frustrate me, and so I decided to check my mail and the next thing I knew I was reading wingnut blather.
There is entertainment value there, if you're able to avoid the brain damage that can occur.
Today's foray took me to a column by Dan Kennedy, billed as "a serial entrepreneur and contributor to the Business & Media Institute." I'm proud to say I'd never heard of him prior to today's click. His column, titled But What If the Rich Refuse to Be Eaten? got my attention because of its title. I admire a good title; good titles are not my strong suit.
The title was the best part. It went downhill shortly afterward:
As I understand it, Obama’s tax attack begins at $200,000 of income for an individual but only $250,000 for a married couple. So, if I earn $399,000.00 and my wife is a stay-at-home Mom, we should divorce and "live in sin," and I should shift $199,500 of the income to her. If two people are married, each earning $150,000 ($300,000 as a couple), they should divorce and escape the new tax punishments targeted at The Rich. If they stay married, they get slaughtered. If they get single, they are spared the shearing
This is a very interesting piece of social engineering, diametrically opposite the favor historically shown to married couples by the tax code. Perhaps it is in philosophical synergy with federal funding for abortion on demand, or maybe just an odd accident.
I added the highlights above because I believe the language was meant to be inflammatory. Even setting that aside, he's kidding, right? I've heard complaints about "the marriage penalty" my entire adult life. I'm pretty sure my ex-husband and I were convinced we had to pay more than our fair share of taxes because we were married when we were married!
I had to see who this Dan Kennedy is. Was he some young thing who'd never heard of the marriage penalty?
Which lead me here. To this:
"The Millionaire Maker," Dan Kennedy. Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.
He's not a recent college graduate who has never heard of the IRS. In fact, he's pretty money savy, entrepreneurial. Emotion, then, was the sole purpose of his inflammatory opening.
What is the purpose of taxation? Is it to finance necessary government services, or to empower certain individuals-on-high to reward or punish us according to their moral and philosophical views? This question should have been asked, publicly debated and settled quite some time ago. But it seems critical to ask it now that the new president has proclaimed the tax code (and the federal budget) as his weapon with which to smite sinners.
I must have missed the part of the federal budget wherein President Obama is planning to smite sinners, but I confess I haven't read it completely. Did any of you catch it? I'd like to see it if you did. I'm curious as to which sins, in particular, have been targeted.
I read Mr. Kennedy's column to its conclusion, wherein I realized that he believes that he and people like him, by virtue of being in the top 5% of earners, are the "sinners" President Obama has targeted:
In truth, the top 5 percent needs only to mildly rebel by slightly reducing spending and investment to flood the 95 percent with unimaginable pain. And don't think they won't.
Just the other day, I was on the verge of calling up one of those closet designer companies to come out to my home and re-do a cramped, poorly designed closet. I’d guess the job would pump about $6,000 or so through that small business into employees’ paychecks, suppliers’ bank accounts, taxes, etc. In short, I was going to put $6,000 the economy.
Just as I was ready to make the call, I saw on CNBC a re-cap of the Obama Tax Attack aimed at me, followed by an ad for little plastic doodads that hang five times as much clothes in the same space, cost $19.95, and come with a free stick-up light. Bingo! I really don’t need to get that closet re-done. I even decided to skip the entire Home Show coming to town to avoid finding anything I might want to buy. I call this "the Obama backlash." I’m starting to hear it a lot: We'll show Him – we'll just keep our money in our pockets.
A friend of mine and fellow member of The Targeted has placed this bumper sticker on his car: "Buy Nothing Until He's Gone."
Buy Nothing Until He's Gone
Sounds a bit like he wants the economy to fail. Lucky for the economy "The Targeted" (don't you just love it when victims have a catchy name?) are only a small percentage of the economy's consumers. And they, too, have to eat.