Good old Barack “The Bolshevik” Obama! He sure loves confiscating money that does not belong to him and spending it frivolously, doesn’t he? These tax rates are right up their with the tax rates of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. You might want to reconsider applying for Canadian citizenship. If Barack Obama is reelected, you’ll wish you were a Canadian citizen. He’ll have nothing to lose. That, is a scary scenario.

As Milton Friedman taught decades ago, the true burden on taxpayers today is government spending; government borrowing requires future interest payments out of future taxes. To cover the Congressional Budget Office projection of Mr. Obama’s $841 billion deficit in 2016 requires a 31.7% increase in all income tax rates (and that’s assuming the Social Security income cap is removed). This raises the top rate to 52.2% and brings the total combined marginal tax rate to 68.8%. Government, in short, would take over two-thirds of any incremental earnings.

Oh no, this tax rate isn’t for “the rich,” unless you think a 60,000 dollar a year salary is rich.

It would be a huge mistake to imagine that the cumulative, cascading burden of many tax rates on the same income will leave the middle class untouched. Take a teacher in California earning $60,000. A current federal rate of 25%, a 9.5% California rate, and 15.3% payroll tax yield a combined income tax rate of 45%. The income tax increases to cover the CBO’s projected federal deficit in 2016 raises that to 52%. Covering future Social Security and Medicare deficits brings the combined marginal tax rate on that middle-income taxpayer to an astounding 71%. That teacher working a summer job would keep just 29% of her wages. At the margin, virtually everyone would be working primarily for the government, reduced to a minority partner in their own labor.

According to that example, you have to find a way to live on less than 18,000 dollars a year. Good luck. We do have inflation, remember? Been to the grocery store lately? How are you going to pay for gas? It’s rising again, 8 states already have an average of over 4 bucks a gallon. And don’t forget, you will be taxed again on that less than 18 grand every time you make a purchase. It’s called the sales tax. How does that grab you?

Let’s be honest here. You don’t actually believe Obama would pay down the debt with all that confiscated income do you? Look, you know it and I know it. He’ll just spend it. If this is what you want, by all means, reelect Obama and you’ll get it. And look at all the Democrats in congress. They are all holding out for a higher tax rate during this debt ceiling calamity. Think about that next year when you go to vote.