Tax the Rich! Americans' Anger Over Obama's Plan Is Real, But Misplaced

Whether the protests represent a genuine grass-roots uprising or are being organized by right-leaning versions of MoveOn.org, like Newt Gingrich's American Solutions and Dick Armey's FreedomWorks is immaterial, says Scott Bleier, president of CreateCapital.com.

"This is not a real grass-roots movement [but] when you reach into people's pockets they're going to get angry and the new administration wants to reach into people's pockets," Bleier says. "People are anxious. They're losing jobs, unemployment has not stabilized and taxes are going up. Plus, house values have stabilized down 30% [and] the stock market crashed. People are going to get angry. And there's got to be somebody to blame."

However, the real problem is not that Obama wants to raise the top marginal tax rate back to Clinton-era levels of 39.6% vs. 35% currently, he says. Top wage earners can handle that increase, largely because they itemize deductions and often pay total tax rates far below that level (Warren Buffett being a notable example).

A slightly higher marginal top tax rate isn't the problem, Bleier says. "It's all the ancillary taxes that are going to hurt", be it higher taxes on capital gains, dividends, and (most definitely) higher state and local taxes because municipalities must balance their budgets and are already suffering from lower tax revenue as the economy has cooled and consumer switch into savings mode.

If it turns out Americans are saving now only so they can afford to pay higher taxes next April 15? Well then people are going to get really angry.