Today on Meet the Press, lost in the Powell endorsement, was this little jem. Joe Scarborough railed against the Obama tax plan to offer more tax relief to people earning less than $200,000/year, and a modest (Reagan-era) tax increase to those making over $250,000.
To Joe, this is class warfare. And we all know that re-distributing wealth to the neediest is "class warfare" but re-distributing wealth to the rich (via tax loopholes, tax breaks for buying a Hummer, and a capital gains tax below that of an income tax) is just fine and dandy.
Joe said that Obama wants to punish the rich:
"...but they start talking about economics, income redistribution, get--you know, taking from the most productive members of society and giving tax breaks to people who don't pay taxes. This is what we're going to see."
The rich are the MOST productive workers? Really? Who does more work: the guy who builds 10 cars a day or the guy who says "Let’s build 10 cars a day"?
That sort of elitism has no place in the discourse of this race. Here is the current threshold for the EITC:
Earned income and adjusted gross income (AGI) must each be less than:
$37,783 ($39,783 married filing jointly) with two or more qualifying children;
$33,241 ($35,241 married filing jointly) with one qualifying child;
$12,590 ($14,590 married filing jointly) with no qualifying children.
How are these slackers and drains on the economy making that $37, 783? Sitting on the couch eating bon-bons? Or working at a factory or shop 40 hours a week? Maybe working more than one job (uniquely American, you know!). Has Joe ever bought a car that was built in this country? Who made the car? One of those slackers. Who fixes his clogged sink? Our latest friend, Joe the Plumber, who’s recent latest income is only slightly higher than $37k. He probably qualified for the EITC not too long ago (if he has kids). Joe is calling the majority of us unworthy. To him, the only people who count are the rich. He makes it sound like the people who qualify for the EITC are deadbeats who don’t pay their fair share. They do—and yet as hard as they try, can’t earn a decent wage without a little help from the federal government.
Oh, yeah—who is it that keeps wages down? The rich "most productive" elite who have seen fit to take the profits earned by everyone at the factory and re-distribute it up to themselves. And pay the unworthy just barely enough to live. That’s why we need the EITC: because of the stinginess of the "most productive."
Hey, Joe—here’s what I wish. That you lose everything in the stock market, your popularity tanks, and you wind up behind the counter of a fast-food store asking me if I want fries with that.