Google Guy: Asking Obama To Raise His Taxes

Obama's Bay Area fundraisers always generate some headlines as Obama must speak a lot more left-wing than the rest of the country wants to hear. Former Google marketing executive Doug Edwards's request that Obama "raise his taxes" is the latest:

Tax increases on the wealthy, one of the most controversial issues currently facing the country, just got an outspoken defender: Google's 59th employee, Doug Edwards. On Monday, in a town hall meeting in Mountain View, Calif., President Obama called on a seemingly-anonymous member of the audience to ask a question. What happened next was surprising. 

"Thank you, Mr. President," the man began. "I don't have a job, but that's because I've been lucky enough to live in Silicon Valley for a while and work for a small startup down the street here, that did quite well. So, I'm unemployed by choice. My question is: Would you please raise my taxes?"

Big Laffs from the assembled Silicon Valley-ites. The obvious riposte is, what's holding you back from sending a check to the government?

More important, Edwards makes the Elizabeth Warren pitch - I was able to use certain resources (he mentions Pell Grants, "infrastructure," and "job training")  so we should raise revenue to keep those resources available for future generations. I'm sure Edwards received some Pell Grants in college, but the rest of his list is just silly. I know talking about "infrastructure" makes liberals feel butch and concerned about the future, but it's a crock. For one thing, we were supposed to be doing a whole heap of "infrastructure" spending in the stimulus, and it didn't happen. Does Edwards honestly think this time will be different? And does he not realize that the government takes in trillions of dollars in taxes every year? There's plenty of money for infrastructure, but it's crowded out by unsustainable Great Society programs that pay $$ to a dependency class, rather than pay for the sort of common goods that liberals profess to be so concerned about.

Edwards says he's "unemployed by choice," meaning he is a multi-millionaire living off of dividends and capital gains. Of course, he's paying the 15% capital gains rate, not the 36% income tax rate, but he doesn't acknowledge the difference in his question. He is simply asking that Obama "raise my taxes," by which he means raise taxes on everyone else, in order to keep paying for "infrastructure" and "job training" but what we're really paying for is the unsustainable entitlements that are bankrupting us.