Obama Decries 'Winner-Take-All' Economy to Rich Folks 'Who Are Doing Very Well'

    President Obama attended a Democratic fund raising event in Weston, Massachusetts Wednesday night at the home of Alan and Susan Solomont.  Among the 60 attendees were a number of high-profile Democrats, according to the Boston Globe:

Among those expected to attend are House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi; Governor Deval Patrick; Ken Burns, the director of acclaimed documentaries; Representative Steve Israel, who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; Swanee Hunt, former US ambassador to Austria; and retired US Navy admiral James Stavridis. 

Also expected are several members of congress, including John Tierney, of Salem; Niki Tsongas, of Lowell; and David Cicilline, of Rhode Island. Former congressman Barney Frank is also planning to attend, according to a DCCC aide.

    In his speech, the president blasted Republicans for further lowering Washington's image among voters by continuing obstructionism despite the Newtown shootings and Boston Marathon bombing that should have produced a "new spirit in Congress of people pulling together."  He also made some interesting remarks about the economy the United States finds itself a part of in the world today [emphasis added]:

We know that we are entering into an extraordinarily promising but also challenging time in this country.  International competition is fierce.  We have an economy that's never been more productive or more innovative.  But what we've also seen is an economy that produces a winner-take-all situation and folks like those in this room who are doing very well, there are a whole bunch of folks out there who are struggling.  You’ve got a middle class that is anxious about whether their children will be able to replicate their success.  There are questions as to whether, if you work hard in this country, you can still make it. 

     The Globe also noted that the fund raiser "ticket prices ranged from $16,200 per person to $64,800 per couple. The DCCC would not say how much Obama expected to raise in total."


Note: A version of this article first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

"Fair Share": Are We There Yet?

    On Thursday, Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner reported that Charlie Rangel made some Twitternews:

New York Rep. Charles Rangel, censured by the House for ethics violations over squirrely financial dealings like failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets and failing to pay income taxes, today called President Obama's goal of killing some Bush tax cuts "paying your fair share!"

Here's the tweet:

    While I am not a good judge of ear perkiness, I do recognize a liberal cliche when I see one.  "Paying your fair share" has probably been around as long as the income tax itself, which incidentally turned 99 this year. (I wonder if the Democrats are planning a 100 year anniversary celebration for the 16th Amendment in 2013?)  Since virtually every discussion of taxes involves some iteration of the rich-paying-their-fair-share canard, I've produced a handy graph summarizing the results of a quick research project looking into how often according to Democrats the rich have actually had to pay their fair share since the advent of the income tax.  Here are my findings:

Note: There were two years, 1944 and 1945, when the top marginal tax rate was 94% and the rich almost paid their fair share, but when 1946 arrived and it was discovered the rich still had some money left, those two years were moved back into the first column again.