ZOMG! SOCIALISM!

A pair of good articles over the past few days on the whole “OBAMA! TAXES! SOCIALISM!” meme that the Right is passing around.

First, over here, we …

• … see a nice chart showing how Obama’s evil evil imposition of horrid new tax rates on the rich letting the Bush tax cuts expire raises the marginal top level tax all the way up to … well, where it was in most of the 90s, and far below where it was during the socialist reigns of Eisenhower, Nixon, and everyone else in the period post-WWII thru the “Reagan Revolution.” Indeed, lower than during Reagan’s first term (indeed for 6 of 8 years in Reagan’s presidency).
• … learn how Obama’s budget plans are so far from the Massive Government Projects of such socialists as FDR and Dwight Eisenhower as to be positively Reaganesque.
• … discover that the besoaked rich (in this case, someone making $300K) can make up the added tax burden by (gasp!) forgoing a Grande Latte at Starbucks each day.

Meanwhile, BD points to a fun graph comparing the top marginal tax rate and the percentage of income going to the top 0.1% of the citizenry. Not surprisingly, when the top marginal tax rate is lower, the richness of the rich gets richer. Which isn’t a sin, but it does point out a bit of a conflict of interest amongst the wealthiest as to what the proper tax policy should be.