First, why I’m asking why…

Posted 2/26/2009 7:58 PM PST on The Sacramento Bee
Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Press Briefing by OMB Director Peter Orszag and CEA Chair Christina Romer
THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________

For Immediate Release February 26, 2009

11:07 A.M. EST

Q. I just want you to address -- or both of you -- just the fundamental criticism that you're talking about raising taxes on businesses and investors in a recession.

DIRECTOR ORSZAG: Well, let me be very clear on that second question. That's just factually wrong. We're not doing that. Any of the revenue changes that we're talking about, whether it's for those making a quarter-million dollars or more, or the itemized deductions that we were talking about before, are in 2011 and thereafter. So the assertion that we're raising taxes in the midst of a recession is just factually wrong. And in fact, we just cut taxes as part of the recovery act, which is exactly what is appropriate from a macroeconomic perspective to boost aggregate demand during a downturn.

My question, is why not?

I mean to say, after listening to the new President’s ardent supporters, all sorts of commenting readers right here at the Bee and the President himself, I have to ask why are we not raising the taxes on these brigands, these leaches on our good American society?

Are these not the selfsame robber barons that have been sucking the very life-blood from the vulnerable throats of the proletariat?

Are these not the evil manipulating villains that have trod upon the hopes and dreams of the common worker?

Are these not the gangsters and marauders that have reaped all of the benefits of America while providing nothing in return?

WHY IS THIS ADMINISTRATION NOT RAISING THE TAXES OF THESE PILLAGING OUTLAWS RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE?

Surely it isn’t the economy. Good grief, they created the mess and are laughing at the rest of us while they read their Wall Street Journals and eat caviar on those fancy water biscuits, laughing at the rest of us while they wash down their breakfasts with expensive French Champagne.

They don’t work, right? They just had everything handed to them, right? So tax them until their eyes begin to bleed! Go into their homes, throw them out and turn them into vast, cavernous homeless shelters!

Seize their assets, sell their children into slavery and take them out and shoot them in the streets like the dogs that they are!

Oh, sorry. I got carried away. It is just that whenever governments decide to transfer wealth, things like that tend to happen.

I do have a different theory. Could it be that these rich people have connections in Congress, or even the White House itself? Is it possible that influence is being peddled in the recently cleaned streets of Washington DC? Might it be necessary to rise up, gather our arms and our wits about us as we march on the Capitol, drag the politicians out into the streets and shoot them like the…

Sorry, keep getting carried away.

Instead, I’ll present another theory. Could it be that most people who make over $250,000 annually make closer to $250,000 than they do to $2,000,000? Is it possible that most of these affluent people live in homes not significantly fancier than your tract home? Should we consider the slight possibility that these rich folks drag their tired backsides out of bed each morning and go to work after a bowl of Cheerios?

Following this ridiculous thread, imagine that they are the people who run small businesses and are themselves up to their armpits in debt, trying desperately to keep their employees employed and going home feeling sick every night, wondering if they can remain open for business.

And is it possible that the new President, who I like very much and disagree with about almost everything, knows this? And that he also knows that if he nails these people to one of the crosses the IRS is hammering together, that all those little people who work for them might start losing their jobs even faster?

If true, that is not very transparent if you ask me. In fact it sounds pretty disingenuous. Maybe we should consider rising up, marching on DC and dragging them out into...oh, never mind.

Isn’t this the transparent administration? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe a lot of people were wrong.