On Fox & Friends, the crying over higher taxes for people making over $400,000 a year and couples making over $450,000 was on. Brian Kilmeade opened by asking "Is it possible we could see riots in the streets?" He never said what riots or where. Beverly Hills?
Stuart Varney came on to say:
I came here 40 years ago to escape what’s going on over there. I now found that my adopted country is becoming more and more like over there. Senator Graham is right. America, this fiscal cliff deal puts America more firmly on the road to becoming like Europe. In every aspect, we are becoming Europeanized. Our economy, our morality, even our culture is becoming more and more like Europe. Just look at this fiscal cliff deal for a second. There’s no control of spending, just like Europe. Tax the rich, just like Europe. Bigger role for government, just like Europe. Cradle to grave social services preserved, maintained and enhanced, just like Europe.
Varney and Kilmeade each added, “But not paid for.”
If Varney wants to leave us, there will be people, I’m sure, who are willing to pay part of the bill to see him go. But the thing is, he’d be hard-pressed to find a country more favorable to the rich than the USA. According to Reuters, wealthy people enjoy the lowest tax rates here and in the U.K.
Video below from the 1/2/13 Fox & Friends.
If you think Varney and the others are done complaining about taxes, just wait until the next shoe drops for Social Security. The GOP will argue to reduce benefits and to raise the retirement age, both of which approaches they’ve already been discussing. And raising the age isn’t completely unreasonable, in that we are living longer than people did 50 years ago. I fully expect that by the time I hit retirement age, it will be closer to 70 before SS can be collected. The GOP will also argue for means-testing, which on its face is reasonable, until you realize that this means that people are paying into the system but then are told that they don’t qualify. That would be one thing if the retiree is a multimillionaire with three homes – in that case, the retiree is unlikely to apply. It’s another if the retiree has a modest pension and the SS payment allows them to live without making dire choices.
But the big SS shoe that’s coming is the step that would silence the SS naysayers. Which is to lift the cap on the SS payroll tax. As it is now, once you earn 114K, no more SS deductions are made from your paycheck. When the cap is lifted, a considerable amount more revenue should come into SS, which would stop the discussions of its imminent demise.
We shouldn’t kid ourselves about this – the GOP’s intention is to try to reduce and limit programs like SS and Medicare. If people like Grover Norquist had their way, programs like SS would have been privatized in 2004 (which would have left millions of seniors destitute in the wake of the recession).
Yeah — Donald Trump said the same thing after President Obama won reelection . . . and a former Michigan GOP spokesman “just asked” if it was “time for armed resistance against the government”, when the health care law was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Funny how rightwingnuts have the sudden desire to riot over things that are LEGAL . . . but, couldn’t get heated up over starting two wars over faked intel, being wiretapped without warrants, having the writ of habeas corpus revoked, or a covert CIA agent being outed . . .
America, this fiscal cliff deal puts America more firmly on the road to becoming like Europe. In every aspect, we are becoming Europeanized. Our economy, our morality, even our culture is becoming more and more like Europe.
And Stu, what’s wrong with that?
Europe has
- free nationalized health care
- free university education
- much lower rate of gun ownership
- lower murder/violent crime rate
.
-Frank Zappa
NOTE TO VARNEY
Your adoption of the U.S. has been terminated. Go home and take Rupert with you.
Are you sure you haven’t sent a resume to work for FoxNoise? LOL
The 1% are Special – Uber Special! They worked hard trading imaginary, computer generated financial instruments at no risk to themselves, had themselves bailed out and did very well thank you! From their vantage point in the Nation of Fraudulent Finance your penury is their pleasure. Their teeth are white and very sharp. Best leave them alone!