A New Definition Of Chutzpah Emerges As Obama Uses Reagan As Political Cover

In President Obama’s latest class-war, tax-the-rich gambit, he has stooped to a new low with misleading and out-of-context quotes from Ronald Reagan. Apparently, the president is now trying to use the Gipper for cover while he attacks Mitt Romney with the so-called Buffett Rule.

In an address this past week, Mr. Obama cited a couple of Reagan speeches from June 1985, in which the former president quoted a letter from a wealthy executive who grumbled that he paid less in taxes than secretaries or bus drivers. Obviously, Mr. Obama was trying to draw a parallel with Warren Buffett’s complaint that his tax rate is lower than his secretary’s, and to the resulting Buffett Rule, a proposed 30% minimum tax on millionaires. With a tongue-in-cheek flourish, Mr. Obama referred to Reagan as “that wild-eyed, socialist, tax-hiking class warrior.”

Mr. Obama doesn’t tell you that Reagan had a completely different tax-reform vision.  And reality. Rather than raising the capital-gains tax on successful investors or punishing wealthy people — which are Obama’s priorities — Reagan wanted full-bore pro-growth tax reform that would slash rates for everyone, simplify the tax system with only two brackets, and eliminate tax shelters that allowed people to avoid paying any taxes at all.

Read more at The New York Sun. By Lawrence Kudlow.