Morning Joe was covering the progress of Democratic tax hikes, through their committees, and multimillionaire Joe Scarborough was infuriated over the news that "moderate" Democrats were successfully demanding compromise.
"I don't understand what's going on when you have the people writing the tax bill for the Democrats. They are concerned about moderates' concerns. What?" he said.
"Do they want Jeff Bezos and Amazon to keep paying zero dollars? Is that a moderate concern or is that actually a lobbyist's concern? Because over the past few years, there are corporations that have paid zero taxes in a year and just over the past couple of years, that includes Amazon, Chevron, Avis, Delta, Eli Lilly, GM, Goodyear, Halliburton, Honeywell, IBM, Netflix, Occidental Petroleum, Fedex, Nike, on and on and on."
(Hey Joe, they're not just paying zero. Most of them are getting massive tax refunds, too!)
"Are moderates really concerned that those corporations may actually have to pay millions of dollars in taxes? Right now, they're paying zero. And billionaires are continuing to figure out how to pay little or nothing. Hedge fund titans are paying taxes at lower rates than their clerical employees, the people who chauffeur their Bentleys. You think that's demagoguery? You think that's -- no, it's not. that's the fact. Billionaires' capital, it doesn't get taxed. Workers' wages do. And so now Democrats in congress are saying, we need to raise the taxes on people who are working but leave billionaires alone as they continue to amass capital and continue to -- listen to me here.
"Listen to me here. Because everybody hates income redistribution. That makes you a socialist, doesn't it? If you are for a scheme that redistributes wealth. Well, let me tell you something. In the world we've lived in over the past 40 years there's been the largest income redistribution scam in American history. And it's been the middle class that's been looted while trillions keep flowing into the bank accounts of billionaires. Did you hear what I just said? Did you hear what I just said? This whole income redistribution thing we keep -- oh, you can't raise taxes on people. Because that will be income redistribution. You're a socialist.
"Well, guess what. The very people who are saying that, the very people who are funding think tanks that will say that, the very people that are paying lobbyists to get the message out to say that, the very people who are spending millions and millions of dollars on lawyers and lobbyists on K street who are saying that, they are the people who have scammed you. They are the people whose monopolies continue to be untouched. They continue to be untouched, all because they can buy the best lobbyists, they can buy the best lawyers, they can buy the best influencers on Capitol Hill across Washington, D.C., and across Wall Street.
"Please, please, Democrats, do better. Do better."
Wow. It's almost as if he just noticed what the Republican party has stood for during the last four decades. Joe: THIS IS WHAT YOUR BELOVED SMALL GOVERNMENT IS. Take from the poor, cut social programs, and give to the rich via tax cuts. Did you not pay attention?
Did you not notice when your hero Ronald Reagan started taxing unemployment benefits? When he kicked over a million people off disability, or started taxing Social Security benefits? Maybe, like most Republicans, you didn't really care -- as long as you won.
Welcome to the human race, Joe.
