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

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Being in the situation that I'm in I find it hard to have sympathy for his position. $400k a year is something a lot of people would kill for and, like Tom, if I made a tenth of that I could live quite comfortablly and have some left over to help my family more than I do at the moment.

The fact that he seems to own 23 subways means that he is not a small businessman.

Keep in mind that this man makes over $100k a yeare as his congressional salary on top of what he gets from his businesses.