A key Wall Street and personal finance advisor charges that President Obama’s attack on the so-called “trust fund loophole” is the start of a bid to raid the savings of average Americans in a “socialistic” attempt to reward those unwilling to save with free stuff.
Targeting the president’s assault in his budget and State of the Union on the trust fund loophole, David John Marotta said, “Obama seems to believe that inequality of accumulated wealth is morally wrong while the forceful redistribution of unequal wealth is morally right. That is one of the primary tenets of socialism.”
The Charlottesville, Va.-based advisor said that Obama realizes his effort to raise taxes on inherited wealth, the “loophole,” won’t pass Congress, making his more likely target “income inequality” and the liberal Democrat’s effort to spread money from savers to those who don’t save.
Marotta laid out his argument in a blog post that focused on the White House presentation of the president’s State of the Union that included graphs and charts, namely the one on the trust fund loophole.
In the speech, the president said, “Let’s close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top 1 percent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth. We can use that money to help more families pay for child care and send their kids to college. We need a tax code that truly helps working Americans trying to get a leg up in the new economy and we can achieve that together. We can achieve it together.”
White House offered this slide: “The $210 Billion Trust Fund Loophole: Unlike middle-class families, the wealthiest use this tax loophole to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes on investment gains – like stock profits – that they pass down to their heirs.”
Marotta wrote, “Obama has his crosshairs set on inherited investments. But no one believes such legislation will pass. In fact, influencing Congress to pass new legislation is not Obama’s intent here. Instead, he is trying to divide the country, both with his quote and with his slides.”
He called it class warfare that “preys on the stereotype of ostentatious consumption while actually targeting people who live well below their means. It subverts the reward of success and prudence.”
Marotta, in the post co-written by Megan Russell, worries that all savings, not just inherited wealth, could get socked by Obama’s plans, and that would likely result in much less national savings.
He said that the “president’s war on production and thrift is evil. The forced redistribution of wealth has no moral value. Being generous with other people’s money is larceny, no matter how good the intentions. The White House slideshow version of the State of the Union only amplifies this socialistic attitude.”
The full post can be read here.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
