It's only fair (to Obama)

Big coverage of Obama’s plan to raise taxes on “the rich”  ($1.5 trillion in higher taxes is the number being quoted.) The stories portray this as his move to fight the budget deficit, which is on everyone’s mind right now. 

A few points:

Obama added at least $3 trillion to the deficit in two years (with his “stimulus” package and Obamacare,) 

He advocated higher taxes in his book The Audacity of Hope in 2006 (when the economy was still relatively good and no one was taking about the deficit.)

The math doesn’t work.  The government will spend about $3.8 trillion in 2011.  If you taxed the top 1% of taxpayers at 100% -- every single bit of their income – you’d collect about $1.7 trillion, or only enough to pay one year’s bills through about June 12th. Guess who will pay for the rest of the year? (And every year after that, as all those people leave the country.)

Is it not reasonable to assume that his push for higher taxes -- 

Has nothing to do with the budget deficit, and

Has nothing to do with the amount of revenues that would be collected, and

Has everything to do with exploiting class envy for political purposes?