Lindsey Graham Thinks Making Millionaires Pay More Taxes Is Class Warfare, But Let’s Do It Anyway
I seriously think that at some point we will see some conservative’s head explode from all the cognitive dissonance they hold. I’m putting my money on Sen. Lindsey Graham. Graham is such an interesting paradox, since he was the one Republican to break from his party and refuse to vote to convict Bill Clinton during the impeachment, is often part of these bipartisan gangs in Congress that actually get legislation passed and has occasionally been fairly reasonable on the issues of immigration, climate change and economic issues. But he will often also backtrack on all of these issues, especially in defense of his BFF, John McCain. On State of the Union , Graham exhibited this cognitive dissonance perfectly. Host Candy Crowley asked him his opinion on President Obama’s upcoming tax plan–quaintly referred to as “The Buffett Plan”– and Graham just spouted off the same tried and true talking points about targeting the uber-wealthy for tax increases as class warfare that we heard every single conservative use on every other show. But then… Graham went off the talking points and get this…advocated for raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires and shirking corporations: The tax code should be reformed for one purpose: to generate more revenue, to run the government and create jobs. And when you pick one area of the economy and say we’re going to tax those people, because people are not those people, that’s class warfare. Look at what Bowles/Simpson did. They didn’t pick on Warren Buffett or any other group. They’re going to make all millionaires and billionaires pay a higher rate, by eliminating the deductions. They’re going to make corporate pay a higher rate – 25% will be the top rate – but they’re going to have to pay it because they won’t have the deductions and loopholes of getting out of paying. That’s the model. What Bowles/Simpson did with the Gang of Six, let’s take the tax code that’s so complicated – that GE pays no taxes – and flatten the rates to be economically competitive but get people to actually pay taxes. Uh…Lindsey, how exactly is this different from what Obama and the Democratic Party has been saying about making the tax burden fair? Seriously, this logic pretzel of simultaneously advocating for and blocking what the White House is trying to do to improve the economy is gonna kill you.
Lindsey Graham Thinks Making Millionaires Pay More Taxes Is Class Warfare, But Let’s Do It Anyway
Posted by
on September 18, 2011. Filed under