The U.S. is doing pretty darned well these days… except on Fox News, it would seem.
Fox host Dagen McDowell started off a discussion about tax hikes on big business and on the rich by, “asking” guest Ashley Pratte, “Tax hikes in this economy? Come on!”
Pratte took the bait.
PRATTE: They are the last thing we need, Dagen, and you want to know why? Because the American family out there, right now, the average American family, is strapped. They are cash strapped. And that is because of this horrible economy that we’ve had under President Obama. And tax hikes are only going to make things worse right now.
[…] If we want to become France and tax our wealthy fine, but guess what? They’re going to leave just like they did in France, and guess what? There was major hoopla then because businesses can’t be created and right now, we are burdening our small businesses causing businesses to close.
Regular Gary B. Smith agreed.
SMITH: Most of the people on the left say, “Look, you know we hiked taxes and GDP actually grew.” That’s because if I take - I’m the government, Dagen, and I take a dollar from you and I spend it as the government, the GDP basically stays the same, so the government says “Look, we’ll go out and spend the money.” Here’s the problem. We all know that government spending is wasteful. It’s full of fraud, it’s full of abuse. Just look at almost any agency. Medicare: $60 billion in fraud, Department of Defense: $23 billion in wasteful spending. We’ve seen it in bridges to nowhere, etc., etc.
Guest Jonas Max Ferris didn’t oppose raising taxes, but thought everyone’s taxes should go up. “No one wants to raise taxes,” he said. “Yes, it’s a drag on the economy anytime, but where’s the economy where you can raise taxes? At some point, we’ve got to realize this debt is not going away unless somebody pays more taxes, and it’s probably across the board at this point.”
For a totally fair and balanced panel, there was one Democrat who sort of thought the rich and big business should pay more.
JULIE ROGINSKY: We may not need another income tax hike in general. What we do need is to close some corporate loopholes. There’s no reason why people who are earning income are paying a higher rate than people who are taking profit at 25%, and other people in the same income bracket are paying 39% almost 40%. […]We do need the money to fund our government.
She was soon shot down by guest John Layfield. “That’s factually wrong,” he said.
Roginsky asked three times, “What do you want to cut?”
“If we froze spending in 2009, we’d be fine right now,” Layfield said. “Entitlements, yes, deal with entitlements. Deal with Social Security, deal with it in the future.”
“So do you want to cut Social Security and Medicare?” Roginsky asked.
Layfield didn’t answer.
In fact, since the Reagan days, the wealthy have gained significantly, while others have not. But this segment suggested that they were suffering economically, along with everyone else.
Watch it below, from the May 14 Bulls & Bears.