Dick Morris: Obama Is ‘Enemy of Prosperity’

Morris, a political commentator, author, and Newsmax contributor, notes that every time Obama speaks, he sends the markets down and the stocks crashing. On Monday, the Dow plunged below 7,000 for the first time since 1997.

“Obama’s theme, unfortunately, is the “The War on Prosperity,” Morris tells Newsmax, drawing on the contrast between Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” theme of the 1960s.

[Editor's Note: Watch Dick Morris discuss Obama’s “War on Prosperity” - Go Here Now]

“He is the enemy of prosperity. He, literally, favors redistribution of income as being more important – and more a function of the president – than the creation of wealth," Morris says.

“It amounts to, literally, a war on the business community.”

Morris rips Obama for his massive spending bill, his $3.6 trillion budget, and the $1 trillion tax hike, and says Obama “is eviscerating the impact of his stimulus spending by his tax package. He, in effect, is going to people and saying: ‘Spend a lot of money now; invest a lot now, and don’t worry about it. In two years, I’m going to cut your head off.’”

Morris says the tax increases Obama proposes now are only a precursor to increases he plans later.

“The other shoe is going to drop,” Morris warns. “He [Obama] is going to suggest all income above $250,000 to the full payroll tax. So, if you’re self-employed, that’s a 13 percent tax on top of the 5 percent increase on top of the repeal of full deductions. It’s essentially throwing the prospect of prosperity under the bus in order to achieve his ideological agenda.”

Morris points out that Obama has rendered the top 2-3 percent income bracket in the U.S. “politically impotent because they are only 2-3 percent of the vote.” But, he notes, “economically they make up one-third of the national income and one-third of the national spending. By, basically, declaring war on them – and doing so in increasingly acerbic terms – I think that Obama is dooming his administration to worse and worse economic data.”

Morris says tax increases have never stimulated the economy and, in fact, do the opposite.

“[Obama] wants to stimulate home construction because that’s the core of this economic problem that we are facing,” Morris offers as an example. “So, he passes a bill for credits to first-time homebuyers to get a tax credit. Then he says: ‘If you make more than $200,000, you won’t be able to take the deduction.’ And then he says: I’m going to raise the capital gains tax five points.’ So, one set of policies completely obviates the other set.”

Morris believes there will be a massive backlash to Obama’s policies that will allow the Republican Party to retake control of Congress in 2010, as it did in 1994.

“I think he’s headed right over that cliff right now,” Morris says. “I think it is going to become increasingly obvious that Obama’s economic policies are failing. It’ll be increasingly apparent with the daily toll of the stock market crash, layoffs, and companies closing. That will be the drip, drip, drip that will erode Obama’s popularity."

Morris points to a recent Rasmussen Poll showing Obama’s job approval now at 56 percent from a one-time high of 75 percent.

“I think this trend is going to continue,” Morris says. “This will more and more become his depression. He is literally changing a recession into a depression.”

[Editor's Note: Watch Dick Morris discuss Obama’s “War on Prosperity” - Go Here Now]

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