Obamatopia

Senator Obama yesterday:

It is time to turn the page on eight years of economic policies that put Wall Street before Main Street but ended up hurting both. We need policies that grow our economy from the bottom-up, so that every American, everywhere has the chance to get ahead. Not just corporate CEOs, but their secretaries too. Not just the person who owns the factory, but the men and women who work on its floor. Because if we've learned anything from this economic crisis, it's that we're all connected; we're all in this together; and we will rise or fall as one nation - as one people.

The rescue plan that passed Congress last week isn't the end of what we'll do to strengthen this economy, it's only the beginning. Now we need to pass a rescue plan for the middle-class that will provide every family immediate relief to cope with rising food and gas prices, save one million jobs by rebuilding our schools and roads, and help states and cities avoid budget cuts and tax increases. And we should extend expiring unemployment benefits to those Americans who've lost their jobs and can't find new ones. I've been fighting for this plan for months. My opponent has said nothing. And that is the choice in this election.

You've heard a lot about taxes in this campaign. Well here's the truth - John McCain and I are both offering tax cuts. The difference is, he wants to give the average Fortune 500 CEO a $700,000 tax cut but nothing at all to over 100 million Americans.

I'll give a middle-class tax cut to 95% of all workers. And if you make less than $250,000 a year, you won't see your taxes increase one single dime - not your payroll taxes, not your income taxes, not your capital gains taxes - nothing. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.

I want to ask: "Do people really believe this foolish rhetoric?" But, of course, it appears there are people who must believe this stuff because the Senator appears by the polls to be on his way to victory. I think the good Senator from Illinois wants us to believe that his presidency will bring us heaven on earth. We will all have a right to all that we could want, and it will all be provided courtesy of the one who is President.

Of course, there are facts of life, and especially economic facts of life that one would be wise to consider. Yet, wisdom seems seldom to be part of politics and the political rhetoric of presidential campaigns. There seems very little wisdom among our political leadership these days. And, there seems little interest among the voters is wisdom as well.

The fundamental fact of economic life is scarcity. Our country has been prosperous, but that prosperity is not the gift of our political classes in Washington. That prosperity is the product of toil and investment; it is the product of risking taking and entrepreneurship; it is the product of many independent yet interconnected people each doing the best they can for themselves and for others, and in freedom and liberty. When I read the words above, I'm certain that Senator Obama has little understanding of our prosperity, and his words seem unwise in that they encourage us to neglect to see that scarcity is a fact of life. Not only can he not physically deliver all the goods and all the rights he promises in his speech, but just the effort to discover that it is not possible will involve significant increased tax burdens for all of us. No, he may say, the tax burden will only be on the wealthiest. But that cannot possibly be true. Even taking all that the most wealthy today have will not defeat scarcity and provide us will all that he promises. He promises nirvana, utopia, heaven on earth, and surely if we would stop and think and rest under a tree and ask for wisdom in these trying times we would come to realize the best for our future is not going to be found by relying on a new President, or on change that is coming to Washington, or on government's power to tax and take from others so that we can have more. All of that, if indeed we decide to rely on it, will come to less freedom and liberty for our lives and less productivity and prosperity for our own futures and the futures of our children. All that the Senator promises is not possible. It is not feasible. It is nonsense. I hope enough of us are wise enough to see this.