Karl Rove: Obama Has a Listening Problem - WSJ.com

THE DEMOCRATS PHILOSOPHICAL QUANDARY: Karl Rove: Obama Has a Listening Problem - WSJ.com

Clearly Obama comes from the school that believes people are 'entitled' and 'deserving' and thus they should have - all of which has to be paid for; no matter what the consequences to those who produce.

This is the flip side of the basic economic quandary it would appear Obama and the Democrats are in. Coming from a socialist-type (or communist-type) social view, they don't understand how incentives to produce, save, invest work. All they know is to divide up what there is and hope the supply is there. Because - someone else is doing the providing.

The opposite group of people - the producers - weigh the advantages of taking risks, foregoing immediate gain for future gain, etc. But, these people don't want to see their future gain taken to support non-producers.

This is the quandary: As Art Laffer has pointed out, higher and higher taxes may have been the actual cause or the tipping point cause of the prolonging of the 1930's recession.

The idea that it was monetary policy is certainly an appealing alternate view, which has been picked up by Bernanke and Obama.

Logic however would support the fiscal/tax policy argument - i.e. too much of the rewards for growing the economy were taken by government for redistribution, so those who can grow the economy decided to sit this tax round out.