I am not surprised by this but it makes me wonder why there is this general whispering campaign that critics of Sen. Obama’s economic proposals should keep quiet. The Wall Street Journal this morning:

The campaign for the CEO vote is heating up. With increasing attention on the economy, the presidential candidates are trying to wrap themselves in business’s embrace by wooing some of the best-known chief executives.

In the Obama campaign’s latest effort to calm business, its economists are providing specific numbers for his proposed tax increases on investment income and payroll taxes — essentially smaller increases than many had feared based on his campaign rhetoric. Messrs. Furman and Goolsbee now say Sen. Obama would raise capital-gains tax rates from the current 15% to 20% for families making more than $250,000. Payroll taxes would also rise for that income group to a range between 2% and 4% (to be borne by the employee and employer), but the increase wouldn’t take effect for at least 10 years.

   The rich are getting away with hundreds of billions of dollars and there is a campaign to "calm business" about raising taxes on corporations? Give me a friggin’ break.

Business had argued that a big tax increase would discourage investment and increase costs, and Republicans — including Sen. John McCain — had criticized Sen. Obama’s tax plan as being harmful to the economy.

   Haven’t we heard this song before? Oh, no, don’t raise the minimum wage because it will cost  jobs–and that turns out not to be true. Oh, no, don’t raise taxes…even though corporate taxes are pretty darn low (not to mention the fact that most corporations aren’t apparently paying taxes). C’mon…

   But, what’s most interesting is the notion that, with the economy in trouble, it’s the CEO vote that’s being sought? Huh. Let me think about this for a moment: wasn’t it the CEOs of the banks (Robert Rubin, please take a bow) who destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars in the mortgage crisis? Wasn’t it the CEOs of the auto companies who foolishly sat around selling SUVs and ceding the market to Japanese hybrids? Hasn’t it been the CEOs of American-based companies who, while taking millions for themselves, have beaten down wages so badly that workers are leveraged to the hilt and, now that their homes have declined in value, can’t buy the very products companies are trying to sell?

   I mean, I could go on. But, the CEOs are not the ones who will save the country. They destroyed it. Rather than embrace them, give them a kick in the pants and start rewriting the rules of the economy.