Proposed new taxes vs the Bush tax cuts

Although I agree that Obama can’t help the poor by making fewer opportunities for the rich, I’m not in complete agreement with this guy either.

"Confiscating wealth from those who have earned it, inherited it, or got lucky is never going to help 'the poor.' Poverty isn't caused by some people having more money than others, just as obesity isn't caused by McDonald's serving super-sized orders of French fries. Poverty, like obesity, is caused by the life choices that dictate results." - John Tucci, responding to "Main Street: For Obama, Taxes Are About Fairness" an op ed in the WSJ.

Obama is by training and association, a Marxist, so taking from the rich is part of his ethical thinking (and is not in conflict with his Christian faith). He believes it’s unfair that some have more. That in itself doesn't put him out of mainstream America. But where do you draw the line? Party officials will always have more. Have you seen his house? Or Al Gore’s? Or Hillary Clinton’s? They definitely have more than I do. I could’ve had more, but didn’t want to make the effort--library directors can make over $100,000 a year; department heads hover at half that. And personally, I’ve had a very nice life style as a librarian married to an architect floating through 4 of the 5 quintiles and back down. I don’t want the Obama daughters to have less so my daughter and son can have more (and obviously, he’d have enough lawyers and accountants to see that wouldn’t happen, but I’m giving a hypothetical example). They should be allowed to inherit or use their parents’ wealth without concern for how I’ve used mine.

That said, some poverty and some obesity are not a result of choice, but who your parents are, where they lived, and how they modeled behavior. You inherit your intelligence and personality, just as you inherit your facial features, eye color, and body shape (women’s magazines skip over this part). You inherit all types of genes that make you susceptible to cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. All these health conditions can affect your income and future life choices. You also inherit curiosity, emotional make-up, a good musical ear and the drive to succeed. So some will not be slowed down one bit by those other nasty genes. You even inherit what might be obstacles for others (ADHD) but which allow some to excel (Michael Phelps, Olympian).

Some poverty is the result of well-intended government programs. Marriage, for instance, is the greatest poverty fighting program for children we have, and yet government programs over the past 60 years have virtually destroyed the black family,** a demographic group that had much higher rates of marriage in the 1930s than it does now. See the City Journal article: entrenched, multigenerational poverty is largely black; and it is intricately intertwined with the collapse of the nuclear family in the inner city. What the government hasn't ruined for children, Hollywood celebs and the media have. Anti-poverty programs are well-intentioned, but only benefit a few in the long run--often the very state and federal bureaucracies that administer them (which is why you can never dismantle them). Anti-rich taxes, like those proposed by Obama, are NOT well-intentioned, hurting the poor even more than the rich and middle-class by driving jobs out of the country or decreasing the staff of the businesses that remain.

**The likelihood of ever being a single mother is highest among Black women, followed by Hispanic women and White women (77, 52 and 32 percent respectively). Conversely, the opposite is true for the likelihood of ever being married (65, 86 and 94 percent respectively). Series here.