Imagine you’re one of the record-high 43.6 million Americans suffering in poverty.

Let’s say you’re an individual under 65 years of age and making less than $12,316 in annual income, according to the poverty threshold defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, part of the Department of Commerce in the Executive Branch under Barack Obama.

In fact, let’s say you have no income. Because change under Barack Obama has also meant higher unemployment. You had a job before he took office at the beginning of 2009, when the unemployment rate was 7.8%, but now you’re among the nearly 10% of Americans who are out of work. And for any number of reasons, the government refuses to give you an unemployment check. So there you are alone. No job. No income.

Trying to stay safe and away from the streets at night, you sleep at a homeless shelter provided through the compassion of a religious organization, like Society of St. Vincent de Paul or Salvation Army, where you also take meals from their soup kitchens to keep from starving.

Then one day you get lucky.

You find some work that pays $100 a week, or $5,200 in annual income. You’re still in poverty, but believe it’s better than nothing, despite the fact that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) — a bureau of Barack Obama’s Department of the Treasury — is taking 10% of your $5,200 in hard-earned income to fund his plan for bigger government.

Undaunted, you’re motivated to succeed and make it into the middle class, defined as making roughly $25,000 a year. You set your mind to working twice as hard to earn twice as much, $10,400 in annual income. You’ll still be in poverty but on the way to middle-class dignity.

But a peculiar thing happens on your way to middle-class dignity. Although you’re still in poverty, according to the Census Bureau, the IRS begins penalizing your incentive with a tax rate of 15% for every dollar you begin making above $9,225.

Why? Where does the extra money go that Barack Obama takes? Certainly not back to you. Everything you get to keep you from starving and sleeping in the streets has been courtesy of private charities practicing compassionate conservatism.

One thing, however, is pretty clear: Barack Obama’s proverbial left hand has no idea of what his right hand is doing while running the Executive Branch of government. This is in addition to the folly of him calling for even greater change in his campaign for reelection, through a tyranny of the majority raising taxes further on an arbitrary minority of Americans that he defines as so-called “rich.”

Economic Justice

Instead of dividing us through tyranny of the majority against an arbitrary minority, our proposed Grey administration recommends that Congress unite Americans through compassion that sets the income tax at the same flat rate for all. America can only be as strong as her weakest link.

NOTE: This post was updated with the latest figures available from the Department of Commerce and IRS on January 8, 2016.

References

Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President on Fiscal Policy,” The White House, April 13, 2011.