It’s Not Class Warfare - It’s Math

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It took the Rethugs only seconds to characterize President Obama’s plan to increase taxes on wealthy investors and hedge fund managers* to at least the same rates that are paid by teachers and plumbers as ZOMG CLASS WARFARE!!

In his speech this morning the President slowly and methodically laid out the need for increased revenues to tackle the deficit, the spending cuts that were also being proposed as well as the cuts that had been agreed to previously. He outlined plans to raise revenue that included closing loopholes, ending tax breaks for special interests, rollling back some deductions for wealthy taxpayers and not extending the Bush tax cuts for the highest brackets. The White House has put up a fact sheet which summarizes the American Jobs Act as well as the proposals for paying for it for those who are interested in more detail.

And, as the POTUS said, this is NOT class warfare - it’s math. Class warfare is calling people who live from paycheck to paycheck, indeed often day to day, who pay no federal income taxes and rely on earned income credits to buy new jackets and boots for the kids, “lucky duckies.” I mean, how lucky can you get?

The Prez gave a heck of a good speech which should rally everyone on the left going into the campaign. (Unsurprisingly some of them are already taking credit for it.)

Although I liked pretty much all of the speech, my personal favorite was at the end when he pointed out that dealing with debt and deficit has been an issue for elected officials since the days of George Washington and provided this money quote from the Founding Father himself:

Towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenues there must be taxes and no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant. [Dealing with the debt is] always a choice of difficulties.

Yeah baby! In YER FACE Teabagger A-holes!

He also took a nice little shot at the Grover Norquist crowd and their “no new taxes, ever, for any reason, at any time, no how” pledge by reminding them that the only pledge they really owe allegiance to is their oath of office and pledge to uphold the Constitution.

Guess I’ll have to take up smoking again. ;-) More like that please, Mr. President.

(ETA link I left off originally)

* Hedge fund managers, many of whom make gazillions of dollars in annual compensation, have an unholy deal where their compensation is treated as “investment earnings” and taxed at a maximum of 15%! This is the same rate as dividends and capital gains which are primarily received by the very wealthy in significant enough numbers to affect their tax liability. So “class warfare” is asking these people to pay the same effective tax rates as their secretaries, bookkeepers and limo drivers.

Posted by marindenver on 09/19/11 at 04:00 PM • Permalink

Categories: Politics • Election '12 • Barack Obama • BushCo • Bedwetters • Nutters • Teabaggery •

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Leave hedge fund managers aloooone!

Take, for instance, John Paulson who earned five billion during otherwise lackluster 2010. If you raise his tax rate he’ll stop job creatin’.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/01/six-c ountries-with-gdps-smaller-than-hedge-funder-john-paulsons-2 012-salary

Comment by trollhattan on 09/19/11 at 04:23 PM

The Prez gave a heck of a good speech which should rally everyone on the left going into the campaign. (Unsurprisingly some of them are already taking credit for it.)

“Should,” you say. Egad. When did Digby’s comments get completely taken over by baggers? And so much for two years-plus of yowling that “Obama should pick progressive fights, never mind if he loses.”

Comment by YAFB on 09/19/11 at 04:48 PM

I love the new Progressive angle on Obama, which I have distilled below:

Yes, he’s showing the willingness to fight and backing the sort of Liberal proposals we’ve been demanding from the beginning…but they’ll never get passed by Congress, so he’s just a cynical dick blowing smoke up our ass.

Obviously, appeasement is not an option when dealing with these people.

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 09/19/11 at 05:02 PM

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 09/19/11 at 05:02 PM

And they wonder why they don’t get taken seriously.

Comment by elisabeth on 09/19/11 at 05:12 PM

Yes, he’s showing the willingness to fight and backing the sort of Liberal proposals we’ve been demanding from the beginning…but they’ll never get passed by Congress, so he’s just a cynical dick blowing smoke up our ass.

Since they’ll never get passed by Congress, he shouldn’t even try? And if he didn’t try, what would these idiots be calling him then?

Ever heard of can’t win for losing?

Comment by domynoe on 09/19/11 at 05:15 PM

The truth is, all they’ve ever wanted is the smoke up their ass. At least now they’re admitting they’ve been beating him up for ponies they could never have had in the first place.

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 09/19/11 at 05:21 PM

For Progressives, it is never enough. They have chips on their shoulders and will always find fault.
That was a polite version of my thoughts on this.

Comment by Maude on 09/19/11 at 05:44 PM

The really tough part of Obama’s fuck-the-poor, pro-Big-Business, stealth-Conservative policies is getting all those Republicans to pretend to vote against them.

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 09/19/11 at 06:13 PM

By the way, it’s not just the math, it’s the stupidity…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded& v=HW2VW-Z1M94

Comment by elisabeth on 09/19/11 at 06:37 PM

Gee, seems like just a few months ago I was hearing the Limpdicked Losers of Leftie-Land screaming that they’d support Obummer if only he’d fight - even when he didn’t have the votes—for things like single payer, trials for the banksters and Bush war criminals, etc. Whocouldanode that the Born-to-Fail Whiny Leftie Blogosphere wouldn’t be happy with this?

Remind me of their grand electoral and legislative achievements, again? Yowling at the Gates or whatever the fuck they think they’re accomplishing? They’ll keep bringing the “jerk” to “online circle jerk.” I mean, it’s not like these socially and intellectually inept losers would actually be of use in a real campaign. Would you want one of them knocking on your door or whining on your phone?

Comment by Oblomova on 09/19/11 at 07:37 PM

I’m seeing all kinds of complaints that lots of *job creators* with big salaries ARE paying their share because most of their compensation is salary. Well, then, that’s great! And the Buffet Rule is not for them. The whole Buffet thing is for people who are paying capital gains rates on what is actually compensation, not a return on invested funds. Actually the people who pay 35% plus (due to phase-outs) on their salary should be rooting for this harder than anyone. Why should they be subsidizing other multi-millionaires just because they’re in a different line of work?

Comment by marindenver on 09/19/11 at 07:52 PM

Remember back when the fReichtards tried to claim the people who lost their homes to foreclosure were just a few deadbeats who shouldn’t have bought homes in the first place?

And then there was a fucking deluge of people losing their homes. And the fReichtards kept screaming about a few deadbeats until they finally realized they had to shut the fuck up because everyone knew it was the damned banks?

And then they said we HAD to rescue said banks?

The timing of this Class Warfare shit is even WORSE.

I swear these guys have some bizarre fetish that involves being beaten to a pulp by enraged citizens.

Comment by Hunger Tallest Palin on 09/19/11 at 08:24 PM

Is it just me or is Morning Joe sort of skewed towards said millionaires and billionaires? I swear to FSM that every other ad on there in the morning is about E-trade, BDO, Spydr, Chuck, you name it, I click over to my local station and it is all car dealerships and furniture stores, MSNBC is all “invest all that extra money you have” all the time. I mean other than the lucky ducky top 1% who the fuck has money to invest anymore?

HTP if I had any money to invest at all it would be in pitch forks and guillotines.

Comment by Litlebritdifrnt on 09/19/11 at 08:37 PM

Seriously, Strange hits it on the head with his summary of leftyland; I read Digby’s comment and wondered if I had suddenly been bounced into Eeyore universe.

Comment by StringOnAStick on 09/19/11 at 08:56 PM

Just in case ya’ll didn’t catch this gem ABL shared Chez BJ:

[Rep. John] Fleming is himself a businesses owner, so Jansing asked, “If you have to pay more in taxes, you would get rid of some of those employees?” Fleming responded by saying that while his businesses made $6.3 million last year, after you “pay 500 employees, you pay rent, you pay equipment, and food,” his profits “a mere fraction of that” — “by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over.”

Brings a tear to your eye, don’t it?

Comment by Hunger Tallest Palin on 09/19/11 at 09:17 PM

A mere $400,000 left over represents a greater than 6% net profit which a lot of businesses would be very happy to make. Not to mention that you can buy a lot of BMW’s, belong to some pretty nice country clubs and pay for a lot of exclusive private schools for your kids with that kind of pittance.

A lot better than the aprox. $12,500 per annum that Mr. Scrooge appears to be paying his 500 employees on average.

Comment by marindenver on 09/19/11 at 11:12 PM

Actually less than that because I forgot to factor in the $400k that he has left over for his own frugal little needs.

Comment by marindenver on 09/19/11 at 11:13 PM

Comment by YAFB on 09/19/11 at 04:48 PM

Apparently it’s been awhile since you looked in on the comments over there. ;-)

Comment by marindenver on 09/19/11 at 11:16 PM

Apparently it’s been awhile since you looked in on the comments over there. ;-)

And unless I’m looking for snark fodder or an ulcer, it’ll be quite a while before I do so again. ;O)

Comment by YAFB on 09/19/11 at 11:31 PM

Al Franken, in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, addressed the “class warfare” meme nicely:

In her book A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century, Barbara Tuchman writes about a peasant revolt in 1358 that began in the village of St. Leu and spread throughout the Oise Valley. At one estate, the serfs sacked the manor house, killed the knight, and roasted him on a spit in front of his wife and kids. Then, after ten or twelve peasants violated the lady, with the children still watching, they forced her to eat the roasted flesh of her husband and then killed her.

That is class warfare.

Arguing over the optimum marginal tax rate for the top one percent is not.

Comment by Frank Stone on 09/20/11 at 02:38 PM

OK, I almost posted something about the smell of roasted Billo in the morning but that seemed a little over the top. I can still think it though, can’t I?