Moyers: THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT - It's like they own "Their Own Private Switzerland"

[kpete]

The Rich Are Different From You and Me - They Pay Fewer Taxes
Friday, 13 April 2012 13:44
By Michael Winship and Bill Moyers, Truthout | News Analysis
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So, what do these big moneyed nabobs have to complain about? Why are they whining about reform? And why are they funneling cash to super PACs aimed at bringing down Barack Obama, who many of them supported four years ago?

Because, writes Alec MacGillis in The New Republic - the president wants to raise their taxes. That's right - while ordinary Americans are taxed at a top rate of 35 percent on their income, Congress allows hedge fund and private equity tycoons to pay only 15 percent of their compensation. The president wants them to pay more; still at a rate below what you might pay, and for that he's being accused of - hold onto your combat helmets - "class warfare."

[...]

To add insult to injury, average taxpayers even help subsidize the private jet travel of the rich. On the Times' DealBook blog, mergers and acquisitions expert Steven Davidoff writes, "If an outside security consultant determines that executives need a private jet and other services for their safety, the Internal Revenue Service cuts corporate chieftains a break. In such cases, the chief executive will pay a reduced tax bill or sometimes no tax at all."

Are the CEOs really in danger? No, says Davidoff, "It's a common corporate tax trick."

Talk about your friendly skies. No wonder the people with money and influence don't feel connected to the rest of the population. It's as if they live in a foreign country at the top of the world, like their own private Switzerland, at heights so rarified they can't imagine life down below.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8502-the-rich-are-different-from-you-and-me-they-pay-fewer-taxes

[Cirque du So-What]

1. K & R - clear up to the rarefied heights in which these greedy bastids operate

Here's hoping this gets hammered home over the next few months.

[IDemo]

2. "they can't imagine"

They can't imagine that anyone would believe they don't deserve every bit of their riches, and that they (the bastids) would seriously give a rat's patootie about what non-Big Club members think, anyway.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.