Consequences of a Defective Education

More consequences of sending the Oval Office Churchill bust back to the Brits (not to mention the style of elite education Obama absorbed at Columbia and Harvard): Obama is vindicating one of Churchill’s great lines about the futility of trade protectionism.  Since I’m on the road I can’t lay my hands on the exact quote, but it goes something like: Thinking you can achieve prosperity through protection is like thinking you can stand in a bucket and lift yourself up by the handle.  Lo and behold, the following photo that captures Obama’s analogous economic philosophy in just those terms:

(Hat tip: the Looking Spoon, which has lots of wonderful visual smackdowns like this on the site.)

Meanwhile, I used the chart below of historic income tax rates stretching back to 1914 with my Ashland University class the other day, in part to conclude with one obvious point–the utter ridiculousness of Obama’s position that ending the Bush tax cuts and returning to Clinton-era rates is the key to solving the budget deficit.  To be sure, many conservatives overstate the general economic harm a return to Clinton rates might bring (the new capital gains, dividend, and Obamacare tax rates are another matter), but I think the peaks of this chart also show where the Left’s real ambitions are as far as tax rates are concerned.  In fact, Paul Krugman has practically wet himself looking back with nostalgia at the 1950s-era 90 percent top marginal rates.

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