Rusted Sky

Obama was a blank screen that people projected their fantasies on. And... the fantasy wasn't anywhere near the reality.

Barack Obama's rich supporters fear his tax plans show he's a class warrior - Telegraph

Wealthy Wall Street financiers and other business figures provided crucial support for Mr Obama during the election, backing him over the Republican candidate John McCain as the right leader to rescue the collapsing US economy.

But it is now dawning on many among them that Mr Obama was serious about his campaign trail promises to bring root and branch reform to corporate America - and that they were more than just election rhetoric.

Apparnely they didn't really bother looking at his background. They saw... what? Someone different than Bush or McCain, someone they figured would keep things as they were, someone who wouldn't rock the boat too much while paying lip service to 'change' and all that rot.

They voted for 'change' expecting things would stay pretty much the same.

A top Obama fundraiser and hedge fund manager said: "I'm appalled at the anti-Wall Street rhetoric. It was OK on the campaign but now it's the real world. I'm surprised that Obama is turning out to be so left-wing. He's a real class warrior."

Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, a free enterprise think tank, said Democrats in Congress were unnerved by the president's latest plan to raise $210 billion over 10 years from multinational corporations.

Yeah, after spending trillions that aren't there, they'll get unnerved by raising taxes? Only problem is - they DEPEND on those corporations for money, and they've been giving them loopholes and breaks for decades - and now Obama's tossing them under the bus.

That's a great way to ensure their continuing support, isn't it?

Boston, Seattle and Silicon Valley, where Democrats dominate," Mr Edwards said. "Obama's tax plan is already cleaving him from his big corporate supporters," he said.

Mr Obama made no secret of his plans to raise taxes on the "working rich" (individuals earning more than $200,000) by imposing a top income tax rate of almost 40 per cent, and there is little surprise that those plans remain on track, even during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

But Democratic opposition is building in Congress to many of the President's proposals. A plan to reduce tax deductions for charitable gifts by richer people may have to be scrapped, because the charitable sector - which includes hospitals, museums and voluntary service groups - depends heavily on tax-deducted donations.

Well, at least SOME Democrats can recognize a failing strategy when they see it.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in the 2010 elections. I'm thinking the Democrats are really going to see the result of the old saying "Be careful what you wish for - because you might get it."

J.