Letters to the Editor
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Better late than never
Is this the same Robert Reich who sat idly by while this dramatic income and wealth inequality really got rolling during the Clinton years? Nothing like a little "free trade" to wipe out our manufacturing base and most of the middle class.
Skepticism aside, all of the proposals are great. Maybe a personal CO2-emissions quota would make the taxes a little more palatable for the uber-rich; when your money won't buy airline tickets or heat the 20,000 square-foot house, who needs it?
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All my life I've tried to put it from me.....
Malusinka: didn't Laffer himself ultimately repudiate the curve? There was a link to his reconsideration given in the past couple of days by, I believe, one of the columnists filling in for Greenwald.
With regard to the article itself, I'm glad to hear that someone who has at some point had something to do with our government is thinking soberly about getting the country out of the fiscal mess we're getting ourselves into and perhaps even saving us from slipping into some newfangled form of feudalism, but given our Congressional champions' backpedaling (or should that be "back-peddling, since they do seem to be selling their a**es) I'm beginning to come round to the opinion that there is indeed "nothing to be done".
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Thank you for stating this so bluntly.
The hedge-fund manager-types Reich talks about are indeed fleecing their country and its economy.
Their criminal enterprise is only possible because they are also able to buy both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Such plutocrats would do well to realize that it costs the country a lot more to defend them than it does to defend you or me.
And that the biggest player in any game may have the most leverage in good times, but they also have the most to lose.
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Because an increase would hit the punditocracy
The Democrats are simply being pragmatic. They simply don't want to risk upsetting the most visible and influential of those who will be covering the elections.
How many presidential debates will be moderated by someone who is not in the top 1% of income earners? (Even if they don't reach the stratospheric level of hedge fund managers, network anchors and talk-show pundits surely make much more than the (approximately) $400K annual income that it takes to reach the top one percent).
Thus, folks like Tim Russert, Brian Williams, Wolf Blitzer, etc. doubtless saw their tax bills reduced my more than the total amount necessary to reach the 99th percentile (i.e. more than $400K) by Bush's tax cuts. Is it any wonder that the administration felt that they could count on "Meet the Press" to uncritically present their spin?
Moreover, any personally wealthy Democrat who advocates a tax increase on the rich can expect to be described as phony or not "authentic" by the punditocracy (e.g. Gore and Edwards) with all the political baggage that entails.
On a recent show, Chris Matthews speculated that suburban men would support the Republicans because it would financially benefit their families -- I see no reason to expect the same from celebrity journalists (of either sex).
Or as Maureen Dowd might put it, "Who amongst us doesn't love a seven-figure tax cut?"
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Keep it Simple
To me this issue boils down to one simple idea. The rich are too rich. There's simply no rational argument that I've heard that justifies one individual 'earning' one billion dollars a year. I welcome anyone to proffer one.
How much is too much? Well that should be a subject to open debate.
Regardless, as Mr. Reich points out, a breaking point will eventually be reached and no amount of media obfuscation will hide the simple fact that the 'haves' have too much and the 'have-nots' will storm the gates and get their fair share.
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Bush's rich friends
are freeloaders who don't pay there way.
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ours is the only democracy that ever voted itself
INTO a dickensian age. i suppose that demonstrates exceptionalism.
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Seems more or less right to me
If I was making the really big bucks and continued to have the security and freedom that America enjoys - I would pay the taxes. Having the bottom 50% of income earners who get up every day and work as hard as anyone take on the burden they are paying today is not equitable. I have friends who make the big $ - and they would bitch with increases - but at the end of the day - they will pay them if they are reasonable (90% is not, 40% +/- is) - and they will continue to invest in America. The middle road works. The Bush road is so much hay thru the horse.
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@ Ghengis Can
The top 1% pays 21 % of our Federal income taxes.
That is a misquote. The article actually said this:
The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans earn more than 21 percent of all income.
Not that it matters. You were obviously taking the piss.
Have you ever noticed that it's not the people who need the subsidies who bitch about not getting them (except seniors, who get more than poor people, anyway)? It's the smart people in the middle who care, and who see the long view. Indeed it's not about class envy. It's precisely the opposite. It's class envy which leads people to support tax cuts for the super rich. It's the idea that, "if I were that rich, I wouldn't want to pay that much in taxes, and it could happen to me, too, in this fair, pull-youself-up-by-your-bootstraps country."
It's the people who are comfortably middle class, and who want to make sure that people who are not so comfortable (for more unfortunate, unfair reasons than can be listed) are not suffering, or turning to crime to get by. The fact that the super rich should also pay their fair share (for infrastructure, for security, and, YES, for social security in all its forms) should go without saying. And that's just because they're American citizens. They should pay more, because they have a hand in, and profit from the creation of social insecurity.
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Poppy was a prophet .....
... and Voodoo has landed us in Deep Doo Doo. We all bought into it, and economic meltdown is now upon us (in coming months, not years, as you write). Fortunately, we have the fruit of Poppy's loins to see us through it.
The rich have been our Golden Calf for a very long time, as we have waited patiently for their manna to trickle down to us. Well, it's trickled down, and it feels and smells a lot like ...
Doo Doo!
Just try to tax them and see what happens - they'll unleash their Blackwater Boyz on you.