Opinion

4 scary Dem facts

Here are four things the 2012 Democrats don’t want you to know.

No. 1: Middle-class taxes are going up. Unless the US generates a lot more wealthy Americans — unless we can “grow the rich,” so to speak — raising taxes on upper-income earners won’t solve the deficit problem. The top 10% already pay 70% of the federal income tax. Given the federal government’s predilection for spending every dime that comes in (and more), the awful truth is that the government will have to trickle down the income ladder to scoop up the revenue needed to reduce the deficit.

No. 2: “Forward” is really backward. The Obama campaign adopted “Forward” as its slogan for the 2012 election and features it prominently at events. As a rallying cry, it’s not much better than backward. When Lenin started his own underground newspaper in 1905, he called it Vperyod (Forward). Someone on Team Obama either doesn’t know history or has a warped sense of humor. If the president’s advisers were looking to counter the accusation that Obama is a socialist, invoking Lenin was a bad choice.

No. 3: Medicare, not Granny, is going over the cliff. Forget the back-and-forth accusations about which party plans to raid Medicare to the tune of $716 billion and deprive seniors of their due. Democrats still want us to believe Medicare as we know it can be preserved. It can’t. It has been running a cash-flow deficit since 2008 and will go broke in 2024. Medicare can be reformed, retooled or revamped, but it can’t continue in its present state.

No. 4: A Volt in every driveway? The 23 million unemployed and underemployed Americans must be wondering about all the fuss over a $40,000 plug-in hybrid car. With an array of government subsidies and tax credits for GM and its suppliers — and even a hefty tax credit for buyers — the Volt has literally been willed into existence. We really can live without a Volt in every driveway.