Stop Bashing Success

This country was built on the American dream of achieving success. But for the past four years we have had a chief executive who seems intent on punishing success. And you don't have to be a psychologist to realize that when you punish success, you get less of it. And when you get less success, the government ends up with less money.

So this government has been spending a lot more and getting a lot less. That’s why we’ve had four years of trillion dollar deficits. There’s a lot less money coming in from a very weak economy, and a lot more money and IOUs going out to pay for a very expensive and growing government.

This is the Obama economy.

Even the president's own people realize that this can't continue -- that you need to get more money coming in to pay for the spending plans that he wants. Of course, he's spending far more than we can afford on projects that have failed to do what he said they would. And instead of doing all he can to encourage more success, which would mean more money for his spending, he continues to criticize success and those who seek to achieve it.

He just came out with a budget that seeks to pile on even more government spending by taxing the rich more. He keeps saying this is justified because the rich "aren't paying their fair share." He mentions the scofflaws, but fails to mention that many of the corporations paying no taxes get away with that because of special deals they've worked out with his administration.

Then he focuses on individuals, because his buddy Warren Buffett says rich people like him don't pay enough in taxes. But most folks making over $250,000 a year pay a much greater percent of their income than Buffett does, because they don't qualify for all the special tax breaks that Buffett gets.

In fact, the top 1% -- those folks making over $353,000 a year -- pay out 28% of all federal taxes. They represent just 1% of tax payers, but they're paying out 28% of the income tax ... and that's, not their fair share?

If this country is going to start achieving success like it used to, it has to stop punishing success. And it has to stop blaming successful people for not paying their fair share when in fact they're paying more than their fair share.