Obama: Closing Arguments

Grover Norquist:

He has called for raising the top marginal tax rate on individuals and small businesses from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. Added to that will be a tax of 12.4 percent on Social Security, which is now capped at $102,000. This will create a top tax rate of 54.9 percent. (Self-employment profits also will face a 2.9 percent Medicare tax.) Adding in the average state income-tax rate, Obama’s top tax rate on small businesses and individuals climbs to about 60 percent. Compare that with Russia’s top tax rate of 13 percent, Hong Kong’s of 15 percent, France’s of 49.8 percent, and Sweden’s of 56.5 percent.

[...]

The economists writing Obama’s tax plan look at one set of numbers and think they’re scaring only a few high-income voters. In truth, the Obama tax plan should frighten the half of American households that have their lifetime savings in the stock market and the 25 million small-business owners who do not earn $250,000 today, but hope to in the future. As Langston Hughes wrote, a dream can dry up like a “raisin in the sun.” A whole lot of dreams are poised to dry up if the vote goes Obama’s way on Tuesday.