Posted on 05/11/2006 5:09:24 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
May 11, 2006
Maybe the ABC show should change its name to 'Demagogue Morning America'. Earlier this week, Charlie Gibson trotted out windfall-profit taxes and limits on executive compensation as 'solutions' to high gas prices.
This morning, Kate Snow took the demagoguery up-close-and-personal, flashing a $20 bill in the faces of modest-income Americans to elict predictable responses about the tax cut they would be receiving under a Republican-backed plan.
Snow set the tone by announcing that the proposed extension of the tax cuts "would cost the federal government $70 billion." Of course tax cuts don't cost the government anything . . . since it's not their money. But that's not the way the MSM or liberals in Congress see it. Everything really does belong to the government, so that when it extends a tax cut, it is "spending" money.
In any case, the current tax proposal would extend a number of tax reductions, including the 15% tax on capital gains and dividends, and provisions helping people avoid the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Relying on data from what, to its credit, was acknowledged to be the "left-leaning" Tax Policy Center, Snow stated that the top 1/10th of 1% got an average tax break of $82,000, while "middle-income" families would get $20.
That's when Snow went into Demagogue-Con 1. She literally trailed a twenty through a New Jersey shopping mall, shoving it in the face of a number of people, informing them that this is what they'd get in a tax cut, and obtaining the predictable responses.
Snow: "If I told you that this would be your tax cut, don't spend it all in one place . . "
Woman: "They could keep it."
Snow to another person: "Could you do anything with this?"
Person: "I can't even fill my tank up with gas!" [Nice two-fer for ABC, getting in a free shot at high gas prices.]
Snow to a third person: "I wanted to give you a check for $82,000, but only if you make $1.8 million a year."
Person [indicating his modest clothing outfit]: "You see what I got on?"
Of course what ABC didn't tell us is that tax cuts would be modest for lower-income Americans because under measures adopted early in the Bush administration, most of them already pay little or no federal income taxes. A family of four with income in the mid-30 thousand dollar range pays virtually no federal income taxes, for example.
Snow also failed to mention that another tax bill that will soon be coming forward will directly benefit the middle class by preserving tax deductions for state and local sales taxes, a tuition tax deduction and a tax break for teachers who buy their own supplies.
Instead, Snow and GMA resorted to the worst kind of demagoguery in aid of Democrat proposals to kill the tax cut extension, thereby effectively raising taxes on the most productive members of society. How that would spur the economy and create more jobs ABC didn't tell us.
GMA/NewsBusters ping to Today show list.
I have more respect for them if they called for a commensurate cut in spending, especially on bridges to nowhere, creepy "art", and useless studies.
Go to NewsBusters link for nice screen capture of Kate Snow literally flashing a twenty in a young man's face.
This is demagogeury (sp) of the worst sort.
Kinda reminds me of Serpenthead and the Paula Jones comment.
Oops! Wrong Snow. I thought Tony was making a comment.
Just $20? That's not enought to get my Lexus muffler from the last tax cut fixed. < /S>
That's billion . . . with a 't' ;-)
Shouldn't you be driving to the dentist by now?
/ nag :D
oops, I meant to put that in a freepmail. :D
I'd rather they kept the tax cuts and paid down the deficit. Since I'm not getting anything anyhow. Well $10 to $20, almost nothing.
In our local liberal socialist rag, the headline read, "Tax Cuts Advance Despite Concern." Who is concerned? I know, the liberal, socialist, share-the-wealth democrats. Bleah!
Gotta love these share-the-wealth types. They want the "rich" to share. They define the "rich," not only as Bill Gates or the CEO of Exxon-Mobil, but you and me -- anyone who works for a living. We are supposed to share our hard earned dollars with the slackers and lazy buttz who sit around watching tv all day, making babies and collecting a welfare check. But do you think for a minute that George Soros, or any of the liberal socialists in government, will be sharing THEIR wealth? Not likely.
Do you have a link?
happy to know why I never every go to the lower end of the dial.
GMA is ratings dead.
Too bad they didn't pull out a couple of dime bags...
My 20 dollar bill says "persons" were plants!
"Gotta love these share-the-wealth types."
They are not about sharing the wealth, there is no tax on wealth. Instead, they are about sharing income. Better stated they are about sharing EARNINGS. I never hear them mention anything about sharing the burden.
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