When I was scanning the news web sites yesterday, I came across something most intriguing. I was on the FoxNews.com home page, and I looked under the “Opinion” section. The top-billed story in that section read “Sally Kohn: Obama’s right, Americans can’t succeed without government.” I thought it was some kind of joke. Or… maybe it was a tongue-in-cheek commentary. Boy… was I wrong. This article was about as bizarre and leftwing as they come.
First, before I dissect the “fine” work of Ms. Kohn, I invite you to read yesterday’s lead opinion piece from FoxNews.com yourself:
Sally Kohn: Obama’s right, Americans can’t succeed without government
Now for the dissection… the fun part! The premise of this column is obvious: In Obama’s speech last Friday, he was right when he said that business owners can only succeed with the help of government. The author agrees 100%.
She starts by writing about her grandfather’s business, where he “employed two people who earned decent, middle class wages and made a good living for himself, probably upper middle class for that region. And good for him. He worked hard and earned it.” Then she added this gem:
But there were things that helped my grandfather’s business that he didn’t have to pay for. The roads trucks drove on to bring him products to sell. The court system that incorporated his business and protected the patents of what he sold. The police force that made it safe for people to shop there. The public schools that taught his employees how to read and do math, so my grandfather didn’t have to teach them. Make no mistake about it — my grandfather succeeded because of his hard work and initiative. But government played a supporting role.
Do I need to go any further than the first sentence. Let’s repeat it: But there were things that helped my grandfather’s business that he didn’t have to pay for.
Unreal. And in one sentence, it shows the liberal mindset… that government is somehow this kind, gracious, caring entity that exists on it’s own and has a stockpile of cash that it will bestow upon the good people of America. Come on!!!
NOTHING is free. Government has tax revenue to “spend,” and it comes from taxpayers! Oh and guess what. I’m willing to bet that her grandfather was a taxpayer. That means he helped pay for the roads, pay for the courts, pay for the police force, pay for the public schools, and on and on.
Then, the author moves on to Obama’s bogus “fair share” claim. She claims: “Today, hedge fund managers and big business CEOs pay lower tax rates than middle class families.”
First, her statement is simply not true. Every tax rate for a wealthy person is the same or higher than someone in the middle class. Secondly, the so-called wealthy pay almost all the taxes in America. According to the National Taxpayers Union, in 2009, the top 10% of income earners paid 70.47% of federal income tax. The top 50% paid a staggering 97.75% of federal income tax.
The tax burden falls overwhelmingly upon those making more money. Yet, because liberals only believe in more and more government, they will tax America to death in order to pay for it. Cutting spending, shrinking government, and cutting regulations are not anywhere on their radar screens.
The next part of the column really cracked me up. She states that Obama’s words were taken out of context. Then she includes a paragraph of what he said and tries to defend it.
We don’t need to spin this or splice it or take anything out of context. We can use her own paragraph to show just how out of touch Obama is. The author does us the service of reminding us that Obama said, “If you’ve got a business. you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
That’s what he said. Plain and simple.
It’s quite an amazing column. She makes an argument based on no facts. She attempts to defend Obama’s indefensible remarks. And what’s stunning is that this is a “Fox News contributor and writer.” What’s the world coming to?
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