The Republican Party’s unpopular tax breaks have only gotten more unpopular as the sheer robbery of their act becomes more and more apparent to Americans. Meanwhile, one of the most popular positions in politics right now is some form of taxing the wealthy in our country.
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It’s so popular that even egomaniac billionaires have had to quiet down after attempting to deflate its popularity. Both Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have proposed some form of new taxes on the very wealthy to create a better American environment. Both of their plans are very popular, with polls coming out every day promoting one over the other.
Fox News is obsessed with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, and so they’ve been attempting to attack her 70 percent marginal tax rate on households making more than $10 million by equating it to Venezuelan socialism. For the so-called news channel, the words “Venezuelan” and “socialism” are like the peanut butter and chocolate of their bigotry and fear sandwich. But on Tuesday, their anchors had some tough news to swallow. In the clip, two blond mouthpieces twiddle their pens in their hands in bewilderment as they read the results of a Fox News poll showing that there is an overwhelming amount of support for raising taxes on the rich. It turns out nobody likes being taken to the cleaners by the billionaire class.
Fox Anchor: “There is, what seems to be a movement against capitalism in this country. This is a piece in Politico, just published, ‘Soak the Rich, Americans say go for it.’ In this piece it talks about how recent polling is showing that the American public is increasingly on board with raising taxes on the rich. As evidence we pulled up this latest Fox News poll on the issue. Whether Americans support raising taxes on the wealthy on incomes over 10 million bucks. Those that are in favor of that? 70 percent, Charles. Over a million dollars in income, 65 percent are in favor of raising taxes.”
Charles Payne is a Fox News business anchor. I wonder what his credentials are for that position?
Oh, right. Got it. Payne was asked why so many believe that the people making more money than everyone else combined should pay more in taxes.
Payne: The idea of fairness has been promoted in our schools for a long time, and we're starting to see kids who grew up in this notion—that fairness above all—and now they're becoming voting age and they're bringing this ideology with them.
You read that right. The issue here is that all these voting-age people believe in fairness. What Payne is saying here is probably the most revealing thing about right-wing social and economic ideology: They understand what “fairness” is, but they not only do not believe in it as a concept, they believe it is a detrimental ideal to aspire to.
Another fun thing to point out here is that there is a very good chance that the people being polled do not understand that the real policy question is about only creating a marginal tax rate.
You can enjoy the full video below, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s small poke as a cherry on top.
Charles Payne knows all about “fair,” as he was suspended but allowed to return to work after being accused of raping colleague Scottie Nell Hughes in the summer of 2013, according to Vox’s tally of sexual assault and harassment suspects.
Feb. 7, 2019: The diary has been updated to reflect that the Fox News poll is a national poll and not just a Fox News viewership poll.