Monday, November 7, 2011

Orange Julius, Defender Of Our Most Precious Resource

America's really, really rich people?  Rest assured that you have exactly the tireless defender of your wealth that you deserve in Speaker John Boehner.



“You look at Occupy Wall Street, I think you said you understand their frustrations,” ABC’s Christian Amanpour told Boehner. “People such as, let’s say Eric Cantor, called them a mob not so long ago. Do you agree with that? Are they a mob?”

“Listen, I understand people’s frustrations,” Boehner replied. “I understand their concerns. And I, frankly, understand that we have differences in America. We are not going to engage in class warfare. The president is out there doing it every day.”

“It’s not so much that redistribution of income the president is talking about,” Amanpour noted. “It’s a shared and much fairer sense of sacrifice. And there doesn’t seem to be the sense among people here that the sacrifice is being shared. Because they point to taxes and tax cuts and who it benefits and who it doesn’t.”

“Come on,” Boehner protested. “The top 1 percent pay 38 percent of the income taxes in America. You know, how much more do you want them to pay? Let’s take all the money the rich have, it won’t even put a dent in our current budget deficit, much less our debt.”

Yeah, back when the rich were paying 39.6% instead of 35% top marginal tax rates, all we did was balance the budget and run a surplus for a few years. Won't make a dent!   Well, that is before Republicans decided to spend trillions on wars and then the housing bubble and then banks.  But they're the party of fiscal responsibility and all.

Under Boehner's logic, why tax the rich at all?

Oh wait.

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