Randi Rhodes: Class War Whiners

It’s war! And only one side evidently knows it. John Boehner is leading the GOP in the chorus of their “class warfare” refrain. Boehner grew up in a lower-middle class family, and now he serves corporate masters. If this is class warfare, John Boehner is a turncoat.

There is some very good news in all this “class warfare” nonsense. Bill O’Reilly says that if President Obama raises his taxes, he might “pack it in” and quit. Now we just have to get that in writing. O’Reilly said “If you tax achievement, some of the achievers are going to pack it in.” Essentially, Bill O’Reilly is saying he can’t deal with paying the same taxes that all his employees pay, and if you try to tax him at that rate, he’ll quit and throw all his employees out of work. Then Bill says “If Barack Obama begins taxing me more than 50 percent, which is very possible, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to do this.” Do what, Bill? Lie? Because nobody has mentioned the figure 50 percent anywhere at any time. When Republicans don’t have any response to something that’s been proposed, they just make something else up, and respond to that.

Oh, and Rush Limbaugh doesn’t like Obama’s tax plan either. Well duh. Not only does it fly in the face of every evil principle that Rush holds dear—it would cost Rush money. If for nothing else, we should pass it for that reason.

It’s interesting to see how this tax plan is being perceived by those Republican Congress members who are rich, which would be—and this is a rough estimate—all of them. One of the first to stick their foot in their mouth is Louisiana GOP Congressman John Fleming (video below). Fleming’s businesses made about $6.3 million last year. And he claims he can’t afford the tax increase. Congressman, when you’re making that kind of money, you can’t plead poverty. You can try pleading wealth, but I don’t think it’s going to sound very convincing. Fleming said “by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over.” What are you feeding your family? Beluga caviar and Cristal champagne? My God. That has to be the stupidest thing anyone has said yet about this tax proposal. But then we haven’t heard from Louie Gohmert yet.

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