As promised, President Barack Obama proposed his $1.5 trillion dollar tax hike today; an attempt to send the bill for his own failures to those who have managed to succeed despite the dismal economy. He also promised to veto any debt-reduction legislation that cuts benefits while failing to include higher taxes on the wealthy.

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One of the more ridiculous moments of today's announcement was Mr. Obama's implication that he would personally suffer if this tax hike went into effect saying, "Those who have done well - including me - should pay our fair share in taxes to the country that made our success possible." But in reality the purpose of this latest bad idea is to keep alive the desperate hope that he will continue 'doing well'. Mr. Obama will likely return to the private sector in less than two years with no marketable skills and a presidential legacy no one will pay to hear about (at least not anyone who actually has enough discretionary income to help him 'do well').

So when he argues in favor of raising taxes during what is shaping up to be a double-dip recession, he is really arguing in favor of his own best interests not those of the people he was elected to serve.

While Mr. Obama bragged that his plan includes two dollars in spending cuts for every one dollar of tax increases, most of his proposed "cuts" are not really cuts at all. According to a senior administration official:

• Eliminating $248 billion in overpayments by Medicare is a cut. Eliminating fraud is not a spending cut.
  
  
• Eliminating $1.1 trillion that would have been spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but won't be since those operations are winding down is a cut. Why stop there? Let's figure out how much, in today's dollars, it would cost to fight World War II for another year and claim that amount which we won't be spending either is a cut?
  
  
• Eliminating approximately $430 billion of interest because the government plans on borrowing less is a cut. Not increasing the already unsustainable debt is not a spending cut.

Of course the president's new plan does not contain any significant changes to Medicare and not even insignificant ones to Social Security; the two unsustainable entitlement programs in serious need of reform. Real spending cuts that could actually lead the country to fiscal responsibility are not part of Mr. Obama's latest scheme. He brings to the table only the usual financial gimmicks and rhetoric designed to pit groups of Americans against other groups of Americans.

Ironically, most of the millionaires and billionaires President Obama so often demonizes really do believe it is their responsibility to aid in the nation's economic recovery and they are ready and willing to take on that challenge. But they want to pay more taxes because they make more money, not because government raises taxes during the worst economic climate in our lifetime. They want to increase revenue to the federal government by creating and then paying more taxpayers; hiring many of the 16.2 unemployed and underemployed Americans, or investing in companies that will. That is the capitalist model on which our country was founded.

But Mr. Obama persists in putting legislative and regulatory roadblocks in front of those Americans who can actually get the economy back on track. Obamacare and over 200 burdensome regulations proposed by his administration have created uncertainty with regard to hiring costs that most businesses cannot overcome.

Rather than work with lawmakers and the business community to create an economic environment that fosters growth and higher revenue through prosperity for all, he continues to hinder that growth at every opportunity and now adds the threat of huge tax increases that punish success.