One Of My Favorite Penzance Quotes

[filkertom]

"I don't think much of our profession, but, contrasted with respectability, it is comparatively honest":

Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) appeared on MSNBC with Chris Jansing this morning to attack President Obama’s new deficit reduction plan, which includes some tax increases on the wealthy. Taking up the typical GOP talking point, Fleming said raising taxes on wealthy “job creators” is a terrible idea that kills jobs because many of these people are small business owners who pay taxes through personal income rates.

Fleming is himself a business owner, so Jansing asked, “If you have to pay more in taxes, you would get rid of some of those employees?” Fleming responded by saying that while his businesses made $6.3 million last year, after you “pay 500 employees, you pay rent, you pay equipment, and food,” his profits “a mere fraction of that” — “by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over.”

On top of his congressional salary? Dunno. Even so, one tenth of that -- $40,000 a year -- would be more than I ever made, and enough for me, at least, to live really comfortably. I presume it would do well for a lot of you, too. With $400,000, I could get a regular house instead of a manufactured home, get platinum-standard health care, help my family, help my friends, go to every con I want to, and still save up for my dotage.

What it comes down to: They really don't get it. They simply don't understand what it's like to not be well-off. And I'm really trying to figure out how it can be a hardship to raise a family in Louisiana on $400,000 a year.

Comments

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

Yep. Their disconnect from the reality most of us live in is appalling. They preach better budgeting, austerity, and "tighten your belts" for US but never for THEMSELVES.

I hearken back to when these idiots took office last year & we almost saw a shutdown & some of the Dems proposed that no members of Congress be paid while the gov was shut down. A bunch of the freshmen Tea Partiers who were howling about how we needed to tighten belts & budget better SCREAMED that they couldn't afford that. One of them, I forget which, said he was the sole income for his family & if his check was delayed they'd "starve." So I looked it up & did the math & what he'd made monthly since taking office was more than the average YEARLY salary in his district.

In other words in 4 or 5 months he'd made more than most of his constituents, people who he said needed to tighten up & budget more, but his family couldn't live on it... but he'd been OVERWHELMINGLY voted in to office on the promise he can fix the problems in a NATIONAL budget.

Sorry, no, you fail.

But that's the reality of what they see for themselves vs what they see for us. It's class warfare, all right... and they want to be sure they win.