Does Obama Want to Engage in an American Version of Class Warfare?

Published in Nanfang Daily
(China) on 21 September 2011
by Sun Haigang (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Michelle Deeter. Edited by Janie Boschma.
In 2012 President Barack Obama will fight a war to defend the White House. If he loses, he will have to move out of the White House. According to reports by American media, Obama has more than enough money to cover the costs of the election. In other words, the only thing keeping Obama from winning the 2012 election is not money, but enough popular support.

As Obama nears the end of his four-year term, his support is slipping. Clearly, the number of people dissatisfied with his leadership ability has significantly increased. Obama needs big plans in order to stop the rapid decline in his ratings.

It’s about time for him to roll out his big plans.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett recently wrote an article in the New York Times calling for the American government to stop coddling rich people like him. Obama seized this opportunity to reform the tax system by focusing specifically on rich Americans. He calls the proposal the “Buffett Rule,” and it should generate $1.5 trillion in taxes within the next 10 years.

This $1.5 billion is part of Obama’s 10-year plan to reduce the deficit. Obama is also planning $580 billion in spending cuts, $1.1 trillion reduction in the form of troop withdrawals, and a savings calculated at $430 billion from lower interest payments on debt.

Obama’s plan to increase income and reduce spending mainly focuses on 450,000 rich Americans and major companies. As soon as the plan was unveiled, it was vilified as “class warfare” by American media. The Republican Party strongly opposes using the rich to reduce the deficit and Congress had another war of words on the issue.

Does Obama actually want to engage in an American version of class warfare? Obviously not. After all, 450,000 of the super rich constitute a stratum at best, not a class. Furthermore, the true meaning of class warfare is a life-and-death struggle, and could never be defined as simply increasing some taxes.

Considering the strong response from the Republican Party, Buffett’s call to action was not recognized by most of America’s rich people. Many people felt misrepresented and will probably put pressure on members of Congress. Obama’s grand plans to reduce the deficit will probably be diminished due to strong opposition in Congress. The “Buffett Rule” designed for rich people is facing so much opposition from Republicans and some Democrats that it may fail before it has a chance to get started.

But Obama clearly is not worried about future opposition and boycotts.

According to Obama, this deficit plan should have been proposed at the beginning of his term. But he has waited until the fall of 2011 to propose the idea and allowed 10 years for its completion. Thus, even if Obama is re-elected, he will only be working on the project for about five years. Would the following president continue to implement the deficit plan? It seems that Obama is still keeping something up his sleeve.

Even though the Republican Party totally opposes this plan, Obama’s actions are very helpful for lobbying the support of the American people. Obama has over 10 million Twitter followers today. The common man will definitely support this plan. If Congress blocks the bill, Obama will become a martyr and that will encourage more people to vote for Obama. For this reason, Obama’s big plan is probably just a scheme to save his ratings and is nowhere near class warfare.


奥巴马要搞美国版“阶级斗争”?

2012年,奥巴马就要打一场白宫保卫战。如果输了,他就将搬出白宫。据美国媒体的报道,奥巴马的竞选经费十分充足。换言之,奥巴马的2012年选战,缺的不是钱,而是足够的民意支持。
近4年的任期即将结束之际,奥巴马总统的支持率大幅度下滑,明显不满其领导能力的人显著增多。为了挽救其快速下滑的民意,奥巴马需要大计划。
奥巴马的大计划近期出炉。
巴菲特发表在《纽约时报》的文章,呼吁美国政府不要继续溺爱他这样的富人群体。奥巴马借势向美国富人开刀,准备进行税收改革,并将税改计划命名为“巴菲特规则”,预计将在十年内,向美国富人多征税1.5万亿美元。
这1.5万亿美元,是奥巴马十年减赤计划的一部分,除此之外,奥巴马为了削减美国财政赤字,还准备削减福利开支5800亿美元,通过撤军减少军费开支1.1亿美元,增加利息收入4300亿美元。
奥巴马的开源节流计划针对的主要对象,是45万左右的美国富人和大公司。这一计划出炉,马上被美国媒体丑化为“阶级斗争”,美国共和党强力反对奥巴马拿美国富人开刀,美国国会又将唇枪舌剑一番。
难道奥巴马真的要搞美国版的阶级斗争?显然不是。毕竟,45万美国富豪,顶多组成阶层,很难组成阶级。另外,真正意义上的阶级斗争,是你死我活的,绝非仅仅增加税收这么简单。
从共和党的强烈反应来看,巴菲特的呼吁,并没有得到美国大多数富人的认可,很多富人感到自己“被代表了”,他们肯定会向国会议员们施加压力。奥巴马的大规模减赤计划,将可能在国会的强烈反对下,大幅度缩水,针对富人的“巴菲特规则”,也可能在共和党议员和部分民主党议员的反对下,胎死腹中。
但奥巴马显然并不担心共和党未来的杯葛和反对。
对奥巴马来说,本应在上任初期,就推出这种减赤计划,但他直到2011年秋,才推出这一计划,而且把这一计划的完成时间,拉长到10年,须知,就算奥巴马连任,他也只能再干5年左右,剩下的5年,继任总统会继续执行他的减赤计划吗?看来,奥巴马给自己的计划留了一手。
尽管共和党极力反对这一计划,但奥巴马此举,对其拉拢美国民心十分有利。如今,奥巴马的推特粉丝,已经超过1000万。美国平民,绝对会支持奥巴马这一计划。如果遭到美国国会阻挠,奥巴马将成为悲情英雄,会激发更多的人,投奥巴马的票。因此,奥巴马此时推出的大计划,很可能是奥巴马挽救民意的手段而已,谈不上什么阶级斗争。

This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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