On the same day that we had Jon Stewart going after Republicans for their hypocrisy on the "Buffett Rule" and what amount of money they pretend they consider is significant, like the government funds they'd like to cut from Planned Parenthood and how much revenue passing that bill would have generated, Joe Scarborough was doing his best to give them some cover, calling the push for the bill nothing but symbolism.
Because, he asserted, we all know Republicans would never vote for something like that. I would have to disagree with Scarborough on that, and on his assertion that raising taxes on the rich would not help job creation or that it would harm our economy right now. The rich are sitting on hoards of cash and not employing anyone with it. The federal government could us the additional tax revenues generated by leveling the percentage of taxes paid by the wealthy with that of the middle class, to create jobs building roads and other badly-needed infrastructure repair and improvements. We could even be saving the jobs of teachers, police officers and firefighters with support to struggling states.
Scarborough tried making the argument that it would be terrible to raise taxes on anyone right now because "tax cuts are Keynesian." I don't understand how that theory proves true if you're talking about raising them for people who can easily afford them and who are not stimulating our economy with more demand because they've already got more money than they can ever possibly spend. And if they're investing it, there's no guarantee they're making those investments in America.
All we need is poster-boy-for-the-rich Mitt Romney, who has put a good deal of his money offshore, as proof of why just putting blind faith into the idea that the wealthy are going to do what is right for the American economy and American workers just because we lower their tax rate and pretend they're "job creators" instead of wealth extractors who are draining the American economy for their own personal gain and enrichment, might be a bad idea.
