Robin Hood the Socialist. How many times this week has this phrase been uttered by conservative pundits in response to President Barack Obama's proposed budget plan? If Rush Limbaugh's nightly prayers are answered, Obama's proposed budget might just be headed for failure.
I left last Tuesday's State-of-the-Union-style address feeling invigorated and proud to be an American citizen. Obama delivered a moving speech, as expected, but not because of his brilliant oratorical skills. This time it finally felt as if there was some truth coming from the pulpit.
After years of veiled statements and confused utterances, it was refreshing to hear the executive-in-chief deliver a clear, substantive appeal to the public.
A new mode of thinking was born on Capitol Hill. People have talked about this agenda since its proposal, but it actually came to fruition when Obama delivered his speech.
He put forth bold new initiatives. He planned to end tax cuts for the wealthiest five percent of Americans. He addressed climate change. Lastly, he enacted steps to finally reform health care.
Intelligence has returned to the White House, especially regarding science.
The newly proposed carbon permit program will force carbon-emitting companies to pay for every ton of carbon released into the atmosphere. These permit fees will be funneled into new research initiatives including a $15 billion subsidy for clean energy technologies.
Additional carbon tax profits will provide up to $800 in annual tax credits to low-income consumers in order to offset the projected rise in utility fees.
The ""Robin Hood"" and ""Socialist"" labels are laughable at best. If Obama is Robin Hood, wouldn't that make George W. Bush the Sheriff of Nottingham? At least Obama is ""robbing"" from the rich to give to the poor.
This accusation comes as a result of the new redistribution of wealth arguments, but if one truly studied the tax increases on the wealthy, they would find Obama is simply letting Bush's tax cuts expire on their set 2010 date. Obama may be extending the Bush tax cuts for families who make under $250,000 per year, but in actuality the wealthy will be returning to the same tax levels they saw under the Clinton administration.
If the United States was a Socialist country in the 1990s, this is news to me. These cries of ""socialist"" and ""Robin Hood"" are simply unfounded scare tactics that have become the norm for fear-mongering politicians since September 2001.
Another unfounded fear is that the United States will be weakening the military through decreased defense spending. This is a flawed method of thinking. The U.S. Defense budget currently accounts for 48 percent of the world's annual defense spending. It's time we reduced this figure considerably.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates made it clear in the journal Foreign Affairs when he wrote that the U.S. cannot ""eliminate national security risks through higher defense budgets, to do everything and buy everything."" Extravagant weapons programs will be scaled back while troop levels will increase along with military pay and benefits.
Eliminating the costs of an extravagant war in Iraq and refocusing our troops in Afghanistan will not weaken our domestic security. Obama is keeping a residual force of 50,000 troops in Iraq to help with the rebuilding process, a decision that has had Nancy Pelosi up in arms for the past several days.
The proposed budget is extremely ambitious and it will take all of Obama's political capital to push it through in its entirety. Corporations will protest their tax increases. Industrial sectors will protest the carbon permits. Oil companies will protest extra fees for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and on federal lands. Defense contractors will protest decreased military spending. But, as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) said last Tuesday in his best Ms. Lippy impression, ""Americans can do anything.""
Tom Hart is a senior majoring in history. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com
