Obama: Tax the Heck Out of People and Just Redistribute It

From the recent NY Times Obama piece, cited by Jim Geraghty at NRO, and noted by Mark Hemingway in the Corner

“If you talk to Warren (Buffet), he’ll tell you his preference is not to meddle in the economy at all — let the market work, however way it’s going to work, and then just tax the heck out of people at the end and just redistribute it,” Obama said. “That way you’re not impeding efficiency, and you’re achieving equity on the back end.” He continued by saying that he thought there was some merit in Buffett’s argument.

Good lord. I'm not sure what's more disturbing about this, the thought that we are within a couple months of quite possibly electing a President who will do his best to implement an economic policy that involves taxing the heck out of people and then redistributing wealth, or that Obama's grasp of economics is equivalent, or less than that of someone who took a single Intro to Econ class during his five years of college (aka me).

Does Obama really believe that the tax-the-heck-out-of-people-at-the-end policy doesn't meddle in the economy at all? Is he serious? "You're not impeding efficiency"?! So he believes that industry and the economy will continue to function at peak efficiency because it's only being taxed "at the end"? What does that even mean, "at the end"? When else are people ever taxed? Before they get paid? There are so many problems with this that it's scary.

Right now, where I am in my life, and where this country and the world is right now, social issues are on the far back burner for me. Gay marraige, abortion, the Ten Commandments in courthouses, these things don't concern me at this point in my life. Perhaps, at some point down the road, I'll care enough to fight for or against them (although for my money, the government shouldn't even be touching them anyway...), but as things are, the issues I'm going to vote on are, in no particular order: Taxes (lower the better), spending (lower the better) and smaller government (and related, I think, fixing or getting rid of Social Security, and preventing socialized healthcare), the War on Terror, illegal immigration, and energy policy (drill, more nuke plants, etc).

If McCain wants to bring someone along for his Veep who is pro-abortion, I really don't care, as long as he wins as a result, and keeps Obama and his economic socialism out of the White House.