ACCORDING TO the news media, Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden were the gaffe champions of the recent presidential election campaign.

But President-elect Barack Obama uttered something that ranked among the most bizarre statements of 2008 — and he repeated it and defended it when challenged. And he shows every sign of intending to put it into practice.

We’re talking, of course, about taxes, and Obama’s avowed intention to increase them for people making more than $250,000 a year. Nothing unusual about that — raising taxes on the wealthy is something practically every Democrat who runs for national office promises to do. And since the wealthy already pay far more taxes than any other group, and nobody (not even the wealthy) is asking for a tax cut for them, it can safely be assumed that most wealthy people are OK with bearing most of the tax burden in this country. (In 2005, the top 10 percent of income earners paid 70 percent of federal income taxes.)

But last spring, during a debate with his primary rival, Hillary Clinton, Obama was asked by ABC News anchor Charles Gibson about his intention to increase the capital gains tax. The exchange demonstrates that Obama has some radical — and potentially very destructive — ideas about taxation. Or maybe he’s still learning?


Gibson: You have said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, “I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton,” which was 28 percent. It’s now 15 percent. That’s almost a doubling, if you went to 28 percent. But actually, Bill Clinton, in 1997, signed legislation that dropped the capital gains tax to 20 percent.

Obama: Right.

Gibson: And George Bush has taken it down to 15 percent.

Obama: Right.

Gibson: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

Obama: Well, Charlie, what I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.


Can it be true that President-elect Obama does not consider the primary purpose of taxes to be raising money for the government? That he is not actually interested in “spreading the wealth” (as he told Joe the Plumber he wanted to do), but is more interested in reducing the wealth of rich people, even at the expense of vital government programs?

Making the whole country poorer in this way wouldn’t be socialism, or redistribution of wealth, or any of the other goals Obama has been accused of wanting to pursue. It would just be dumb.

We trust that, once he takes office, if they haven’t already done so, the Democratic leadership will knock some sense into Obama’s head. Even the most ardent, big-government redistributionist in Washington would have to argue that tax rates should be set at the top of what is known as the Laffer Curve.

Then, as the tax receipts pour in, the “fairness” Obama seeks could be achieved by spending all that money on programs which benefit the poor, rather than leaving them with even less than they have now.