The plunge in Jewish support for U.S. President Barack Obama can be traced to plenty of reasons besides the president’s pro-Arab policies, according to American Thinker news editor Ed Lasky. He wrote that the president’s economic policies have a disproportionate and negative effect on American Jews.
The alarm bells went off in Democratic circles last week when the Pew Research Center reported that the number of Jews supporting Republican candidates or independents has jumped 50 percent since President Obama was elected nearly three years ago.
A poll conducted last April by McLaughlin & Associates revealed that while 78 percent of American Jews voted for Barack Obama, only 42 percent would consider voting for him again.
Claims that Jews are pro-Israel, with the insinuation that they profess dual loyalty, were championed last Saturday in an op-ed by New York Times columnist Charles Blow.
He wrote that the sinking popularity of President Obama among American Jews “is no doubt a reaction, at least in part, to the Obama administration having taken a hard rhetorical stance with Israel, while taking ‘special time and care on our relationship with the Muslim world,’ as Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, put it in June. If that sounds like courtship, it is.”
Lasky pointed out that American Jews, for whom many the term “pro-Israel" does not contradict the establishment of a new Arab country headed by the Palestinian Authority, have plenty of domestic reasons to conclude "it’s time for a change” in the American administration. 
“ObamaCare,” economic policies aimed against small businessmen, and proposed higher taxes on high-income owners and capital gains will hit Jews much harder than other sectors in American society, Lasky wrote.
He noted that it was anti-Semitism in the United States a century ago that was a major force for Jews to start up small businesses, banks, newspapers and other professional fields generally barred from Jews 100 years ago.
Now, Jews will suffer for their success. Lasky remarked, “They are in for a load of trouble in the days ahead. More onerous regulations, such as having to file many more 1099s so the IRS can make sure they get every nickel possible from Americans, and a pro-union agenda that rewards unionized firms, are just the tip of the iceberg… Small business owners are the unsung heroes in America; they generate most of the private-sector jobs. They also lead generally very stressful lives -- trying to deal with the challenges of competition, labor relations, customer service [and] risks of bankruptcy. Barack Obama and the Democrats have just loaded onto their shoulders many more problems."
Lasky also said that anti-Semitism forced Jews “to develop talents that shield them from bosses who don't like Jews. There is also a cultural reason: Jews revere education. Many become doctors and lawyers. But this dynamic has had a toxic side-effect: it has generated anti-Semitism and slurs in the past. In any case, Jews are being surpassed by Asian-Americans, including Indian-Americans, so maybe that will recede as a problem.
“But what won't recede is the wave of higher tax rates targeting higher-income Americans,” as a high percentage of Jews fall into that category. Quoting the New York Post’s David Drucker, the American Thinker editor continued, “High-income people will lose many of their tax cuts under the Democrats' plan… Their tax rate on qualified dividends and long-term capital gains will go from 15 percent to 20 percent, and the top two wage tax rates will return to 36 percent and 39.6 percent from their current levels of 33 percent and 35 percent.”
Lasky also pointed out that ObamaCare will negatively affect Jews more than others for two reasons: They are the oldest ethnic group in America and also include a disproportionately high percentage of American doctors.
“Older people have often relied on the health of the stock market to cushion their retirement years,” he wrote. “That cushion has deflated this year under the multiple blows administered by Barack Obama and the Democrats…. The market started to tank because investors saw a bleak future for free enterprise in the Age of Obama… ObamaCare will suppress the freedom of doctors, load them up with additional paperwork and patients, and will eventually hit their bottom line.”
Taking on the issue of dual loyalty, Lasky pointed out that the same charge is not made against Latino Congressmen, such as Luis Gutierrez, who make immigration reform a top priority,” Lasky added.
“Jews are as American as everyone else,” concluded. “When they see their lives being harmed, their interests being ignored, and their dreams being dashed to death by Democrats, they respond just as other Americans do. They express their concerns and seek to protect their future in that most American of places: the voting booth.”