Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 4, 2012

10

LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

 Mountain Views News Saturday, February 4, 2012 

HOWARD Hays As I See It 

GREG Welborn


The Truth About Taxes


“They understand it’s a 
little bit of ‘uppity-ism’”

- Rush Limbaugh 

The radio entertainer 
offered that excuse for 
the scattered booing 
upon the introduction of 
Michelle Obama at a recent 
NASCAR event. The First 
Lady was there along with 
Dr. Jill Biden and wounded 
Iraq/Afghanistan vet Sgt. 
Andrew Berry, with wife 
and kids, in recognition of NASCAR’s gift of 5,000 
tickets to military veterans and their families. 

The term “uppity” was reportedly introduced 
in a Joel Chandler Harris “Uncle Remus” story, 
and in the late-nineteenth century was primarily 
used by African-Americans among themselves. 

Racially-coded language has seen resurgence 
over the past three years. Soon after the 
inauguration, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) predicted 
that defeat of President Obama’s healthcare 
initiative “will break him”. Historically, the 
expression “break” was applied to farm animals 
and uncooperative slaves. 

On a recent HBO Bill Maher show, some on the 
panel argued that such treatment of a president 
is engaged in by “both sides”. Maher responded 
with a direct “No, it’s not”, and pointed out the 
unprecedented doubt over whether the incumbent 
is constitutionally qualified to hold office. 

A CBS News poll from last spring found 45% 
of Republicans believing President Obama was 
not born in the United States, with another 22% 
saying they didn’t know – leaving only a third of 
Republicans who’ll concede he has a legitimate 
claim to the office. (A poll conducted by Farleigh 
University in New Jersey last November found 
viewers of Fox News to be less informed on 
current events than those who watched no news 
at all.)

As the election approaches, misinformation 
is encouraged. An iconic image from the 2008 
campaign is the woman at a town hall event for 
Republican John McCain stating that Obama “is 
an Arab”, and then McCain gently correcting, 
“No ma’am, he’s not”. At a recent town hall for 
Rick Santorum, when a participant claimed the 
Obama presidency was illegitimate because of his 
not being born here, Santorum just smiled and 
moved on. 

In this atmosphere, it’s easier to rationalize 
allegiance to a campaign, rather than a country. 
On the HBO show, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-
CA) was asked by Bill Maher what, if anything, he 
saw congress working with the president on in the 
next few months. The congressman replied there 
was nothing; that the House of Representatives 
should simply bide time for the next ten months 
until the election. 

While racial issues might be muted, those of 
class are not. The founding principles of our 
country are turned on their head when President 
Obama’s background as a community organizer, 
helping empower citizens to become participants 
in our democracy, is derided, while candidates 
urge those of us in the 99% to be content relying 
on the benevolence of “our betters”. 

According to tax disclosures, Republican front-
runner Mitt Romney makes more in a day than 
the average American makes in a year; in a single 
week he “earns” enough to qualify for the upper 
1%. 

Bill Maher showed his audience pictures of 
Henry Ford standing beside a Model T, Walt 
Disney holding a drawing of Mickey Mouse, and 
a young Steve Jobs with a primitive Macintosh. 
In his column last week, Greg Welborn stated, 
“Wealth doesn’t just exist. It has to be created.” 
Maher was referencing those who create wealth. 
Romney symbolizes those who siphon wealth 
from those who create it into the hands of those 
presuming entitlement to control it. 

An aspect of “uppity-ism” is confusion over 
who is rightfully owed deference. In the case 
of Rep. Rohrabacher and fellow Republicans, 
deference is not paid to constituents or the 
President of the United States, but to lobbyists like 
Grover Norquist. Rather than simply pledging 
to support the Constitution, Republicans pledge 
fealty to Norquist, who warned that with a 
Republican Senate majority, President Obama 
faces impeachment should he dare allow the Bush 
tax cuts for millionaires to expire.

Republicans have been frustrated by the 
“uppity” insistence of the president to make 
decisions based on the best interests of all 
Americans. Last December, they allowed 
extension of the payroll tax cut for 160 million 
Americans only on condition the president agree 
to make a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline 
within 60 days. Two weeks ago, President Obama 
rejected the pipeline because of “the arbitrary 
nature of a deadline that prevented the State 
Department from gathering the information 
necessary to approve the project and protect the 
American people.” 

(Last week, Greg wrote that the Obama 
administration “turned its back on the promise 
of decreasing dependence on Middle East oil . . 
. “, but it’s unclear what transporting oil from 
Canada to the Gulf Coast for shipment to Asia 
has to do with our “dependence on Middle East 
Oil”.)

Now, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) 
warns that unless the president changes his mind 
and agrees to fall in line, it could jeopardize 
the energy and Infrastructure act due for 
consideration later this month, as well as another 
extension of the payroll tax cut. Republicans and 
their Speaker do not defer to the president or the 
potential tens of thousands who could be working 
rebuilding our highways, but to the Keystone 
pipeline and its chief lobbyist – Grover Norquist.

Over the past few weeks media attention has 
focused on the Republican primaries, with not 
much heard from the Democratic side – and 
Republicans in congress have taken that as license 
to avoid actual governing. Rush Limbaugh heard 
a reaction to “uppity-ism” at the NASCAR event, 
but I heard more cheers than boos. I also heard 
a call to those who’ve been sitting back watching 
Republicans beat each other up in the primaries; 
a call that it’s time to get up and get into the fight 
ourselves; a call that came from the First Lady 
and Dr. Biden as they looked out over the track 
and shouted, “Gentlemen, start your engines!”

There’s no question that one of the biggest issues 
in the upcoming election is taxes. Sadly, it’s one of 
the least understood issues, which also attracts an 
inordinate amount of lies, so let’s spend some time 
unpacking the truth about taxes.

Let’s start with the myth that Mitt Romney 
somehow is paying less than the average secretary. 
I don’t think anyone really believes that in actual 
dollars, Mr. Romney is paying less than a secretary. 
The argument is made based on the fact that Mr. 
Romney “only” paid 15% while the secretary is 
supposed to have paid 35%. The reality, according 
to the Congressional Budget Office, is that the top 
1% pay an average affective tax rate of 19%, while 
the middle class pay a 12% average rate, and the 
bottom 20% pay an average rate of -5%. You read 
that correctly. The bottom 20% actually receive 
more in tax credits and rebates than they pay into 
the system.

Further to this issue, what the CBO report doesn’t 
mention is that the vast majority of income, which 
is taxed at “only” 15%, is comprised of dividends 
paid by corporations. Dividends are not deductible 
at the corporate level. Dividends are actually taxed 
at about 35% at the corporate level before the owner 
gets to pay himself, where they are then taxed at 
Mr. Romney’s seemingly small 15%. The actual 
affective tax rate is about 45%.

While we’re on the topic of corporations, let’s 
look at that old lie, repeated again in the President’s 
last state of the union address, that “companies get 
tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas”. 
The truth is that companies are allowed to deduct 
the legitimate costs of doing business, including 
wages, no matter where the costs are incurred. If 
GM (taken over by the government by the way) 
pays a worker $10,000 in the U.S. or $10,000 in 
South America, either one is deductible. Likewise, 
a company pays income taxes wherever they are 
incurred, based on each country’s tax rates. What 
the U.S. wisely does is to give credit for taxes paid 
in a foreign country. Were it not to do so, U.S. 
companies would be paying double taxes – once in 
the foreign country and then again in the U.S.

More important on this particular point is the 
fact that the U.S. has the second highest (only 
behind Japan) corporate tax rate in the world, 
according to the OECD. Being tax-wise is hardly a 
crime, or at least it shouldn’t be. With the average 
corporate tax rate in the 
world at 26%, and some 
European countries 
offering 12%, whose fault 
is it that U.S. corporations 
move facilities overseas? 
Me thinks the fault lies 
with Congress.

Perhaps we should also 
spend a wee bit of time 
discussing who else does 
their patriotic best to 
avoid taxes. Remember, it was one of our greatest 
supreme court justices who said that paying the 
least amount of taxes legally possible under the 
law is absolutely legal. Sounds redundant, but 
it needed to be said. Since every American does 
this, I might add that it seems pretty ethical and 
normal to me. But let’s look at the people who 
scream the most about the “rich” avoiding taxes. 
By and large, the screamers are liberal politicians, 
but they themselves are among the most prolific 
tax avoiders.

Uber-liberal, John Edwards used a series of 
corporations to legally avoid paying $600K in 
Medicare payroll taxes. Ohio Democratic Senator, 
Howard Metzenbaum, actually moved to Florida 
(no state income taxes there) to legally avoid 
paying millions of his home state’s taxes. Super-
rich Liberal, Senator John Kerry, went so far as to 
“claim” he moved his yacht from Massachusetts to 
Rhode Island to legally avoid paying $500K in state 
excise taxes.

The truth about taxes is three-fold: We all try to 
pay as little as we can: The rich pay way more than 
their fair share. And politicians who object to athis 
are hypocritical at best, but more often deliberately 
deceitful. Let’s try to deal with the real issue this 
election cycle. We all pay way too much in taxes, 
and the government still spends more than we pay 
in.

Gregory J. Welborn is an independent opinion 
columnist. He writes and speaks frequently on 
political, economic and social issues. His columns 
have appeared in publications such as The Los 
Angeles Daily News, The Orange County Register, 
The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He can be 
reached at gwelborn@mvobserver.com.

TINA Dupuy 

THE GOP: PREACHING THE 

PROSPERITY GOSPEL


One of the richest 
men in the country, 
ranking in the 0.006 
percent of Americans, 
likes to accuse the 
President of creating an 
“entitlement society.” 
Mitt Romney, the heir 
apparent, next in line 
GOP nominee … is against entitlement.

When I hear “entitlement society,” I think 
“country club.” But When Mitt uses that phrase 
he doesn’t mean rich guys like him, given all the 
advantages of wealth, who are now enjoying its 
comforts – he means the rest of us. Yes, Mitt is 
against an “entitlement society” because that 
involves too many people, and not just him and his 
ilk. It’s not the “entitlement” he contests – it’s the 
entire “society” part.

At the Monday Florida debate last week, Mitt 
noted that under Gingrich’s tax plan Mitt would 
pay no taxes at all. Gingrich responded with, “Well, 
if that -- and if you created enough jobs doing that 
-- it was Alan Greenspan who first said the best rate, 
if you want to create jobs for capital gains, is zero.”

So rich people whose money makes their money 
(it’s literally capital gaining) are so fortunate they 
get to hire other people to pay taxes for them? Rich 
people with their alleged mythical power to create 
jobs even get to outsource their tax obligations to 
poor saps working for a living?

This is the prosperity gospel as a Super PAC-
funded marketing blitz. Money is next to godliness 
and poverty is the fault of the poor for not being 
better people.

It’s as if Jesus were a CEO and the Romans job-
killing communists.

“Contrary to the President’s constant 
disparagement of people in business,” former 
George W. Bush budget director Gov. Mitch Daniels 
said in his State of the Union response last week, 
“It’s one of the noblest of human pursuits.” This is 
one of those phrases you (usually) will only hear in 
business school (funnier if it was one of those rip-
off for-profit colleges). Business is one of the noblest 
of human pursuits? Noble as in aristocratic? That 
phrase, “noble pursuits,” is usually applied to an 
avocation not paying much but rewarding in other 
ways: teachers; firefighters; nurses; foster parents; 
soldiers; community leaders; social workers; 
mentors; rescue workers; care givers; farmers. Or to 
anyone who’s honest, shows up every day and works 
hard. That’s a noble pursuit.

Are the wealthy really so sensitive they need Mitch 
Daniels to make them feel better about themselves 
in a spiritual sense? What they’re doing not only 
pays off with privilege and cash – it also has to be 
venerable from a moral perspective? How much 
reward does one group need? They own 
everything and they also need to be thanked?!

The rich are not just over-paid – they’re 
over valued. And generous welfare recipients.
As Senator Tom Coburn points out in his damning 
Nov. 2011 report, “Subsidies of the Rich and 
Famous,” we are a wealthfare state. It reads, “This 
reverse Robin Hood style of wealth redistribution 
is an intentional effort to get all Americans bought 
into a system where everyone appears to benefit.” 
In other words: We subsidize the rich by telling the 
poor to pay their fair share.

It’s been a strange three years under the Obama 
administration. First the GOP was against empathy. 
Yes, the party had to vehemently opposed seeing the 
plight of your fellow human beings because Obama 
was for it. Now their new hot button word? Fairness. 
Obama used the word fairness in his third State of 
the Union. And now the GOP has decided to be 
against fairness and celebrate inequality as being 
the thing that makes America great.

It’s as if Jesus were a CEO and the three wise men 
were shareholders.

The prosperity gospel is not America. It’s not 
democratic. It’s not even Christian. It’s greed 
warped into being a virtue by the greedy.

The rich aren’t better, they’re just richer.

 

Tina Dupuy is an award-winning writer and the 
managing editor of Crooks and Liars. Tina can be 
reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com.

 This column has been edited by the author. 
Representations of fact and opinions are solely those 
of the author.

Independent’s Eye by

JOE Gandelman


NEWT GINGRICH KEEPS HITTING THE 
RELIABLE ANTI-MEDIA HOT BUTTON

The South Carolina 
and Florida Republican 
presidential debates 
will be pointed to as 
turning points for 
former Massachusetts 
Gov. Mitt Romney’s 
and former House 
Speaker Newt 
Gingrich’s campaigns. But they’ll also be 
remembered for two moments underscoring the 
uneasy relationship between the news media and 
politicians who often seek to control, intimidate 
or politically use the news media -- and how the 
media rises again.

Both involved Gingrich. The first was during 
the January 19 debate when Gingrich blasted 
CNN’s debate moderator John King for starting 
the debate asking him about an ABC interview 
hours earlier with Gingrich’s ex-wife who had 
alleged Gingrich wanted an “open marriage.” 
Gingrich got a standing ovation by blasting King 
in particular and the media in general. Then, 
last week in Florida, in his most underwhelming 
debate performance, he tried another dismissive 
verbal dagger when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked a 
question.

Gingrich made going after the media, a 
moderator, or a debate reporter a regular feature 
of his debates since it was a hot button issue. But 
wait: CNN’s King later got Gingrich to admit part 
of his allegation about ABC was not true. And 
Blitzer challenged Gingrich on his broadside, 
noting it referred to something Gingrich himself 
had said -- and Gingrich withered.

What’s instructive here? Gingrich was 
blatantly trying to hit a political hot button to 
woo conservatives. But in both instances he had 
CNN reporters from the “old school” who stood 
up for the actual facts and their craft. These 
instances highlighted how politicians use the 
media to advance themselves, try to manipulate 
and bully it, but how in the end if they face “real” 
journalists the media usually rises again.

The best line on Gingrich, who has proposed a 
program to get a colony on the moon, came from 
Romney supporter Arizona Sen. John McCain: “I 
think we ought to send Gingrich to the moon and 
Mitt Romney to the White House.”

Meanwhile, here on planet earth there are these 
realities: the media has a symbiotic relationship 
with politicians, politicians will blast it and 
professional journalists will ask tough questions 
and defend their craft.

Presidents know how to manipulate the media. 
And politicians may fall due to the media, but 
they can also rise and can be remade if they 
know how to exploit it. 

Most people point to Richard Nixon’s Nov. 7, 
1962 press conference where he told the press 
“You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” 
But many folks forget that Nixon later went on 
NBC’s Laugh In and said the show’s big national 
catch phrase (“Sock it to ME?”), played piano on 
the Jack Parr show, and was highly visible as a less 
angry Nixon. Nixon got the coverage his advisors 
sought and was christened by the media as “the 
new Nixon” – which helped his 1968 election. 

Reporters love quote machines and all 
politicians love getting free advertising. By most 
accounts, Gingrich has a solid relationship with 
reporters. The Politico’s Ginger Gibson writes of 
“Newt’s secret press pals” who Gingrich calls by 
their first names, and they love him because he 
can be relied on to give them something quotable.

When I was a reporter at the San Diego 
Union newspaper covering Ronald Reagan’s 
immigration reform, my favorite source was 
the late Harold Ezell, commissioner for the INS’ 
western region under Presidents Ronald Reagan 
and George Bush. Ezell eagerly gave great quotes. 
returned phone calls ASAP to give me a strong 
counter quote and, although he sometimes got 
in trouble due to his choice of words, always got 
his viewpoint out there (high up in the story). He 
used the media and the media used him. (“This is 
great stuff!!” editors would proclaim.)

Gingrich’s latest hot button: he vows that if 
he is the nominee he will not accept reporters 
as debate moderators because they all favor 
President Barack Obama. Fat chance the debate 
commission would agree to that. But Gingrich 
knows some will fall for it every time - fanned 
on by allied, polarizing politicos and demonizing 
talk show hosts.

Gingrich keeps hitting that old, reliable media 
hot button because he knows he has a colony of 
Pavlovian responding partisans already mentally 
living on the moon.


Joe Gandelman is a veteran journalist who wrote 
for newspapers overseas and in the United States. 
He has appeared on cable news show political 
panels and is Editor-in-Chief of The Moderate 
Voice, an Internet hub for independents, centrists 
and moderates. CNN’s John Avlon named 
him as one of the top 25 Centrists Columnists 
and Commentators. He can be reached at 
jgandelman@themoderatevoice.com and can 
be booked to speak at your event at www.
mavenproductions.com.

This column has been edited by the author. 
Representations of fact and opinions are solely 
those of the author.

Making Sense by MICHAEL Regan

SAVAGING NEWT


I am somewhat 
mystified -- and 
dismayed -- by the 
spectacle of a lot of so-
called conservatives 
who weren’t around 
in the 1980s dropping 
Ronald Reagan’s name 
to promote themselves 
while they go about slandering Newt Gingrich 
who, like my dad, was there in the ‘80s and ‘90s 
and also helped him elect more Republicans than 
anyone else in recent memory. 

 It’s long been an unfortunate characteristic of 
too many Republicans to engage in internecine 
warfare -- standing in a circle as they fire volleys 
at each other. The current fashion of the day is to 
take aim and fire at one of the GOP’s most storied 
and valuable members, doing Obama’s work 
towards destroying Newt Gingrich in advance of 
the 2012 presidential election.

 They seem to forget -- or simply ignore -- my 
dad’s 11th Commandment, that Republicans 
must refrain from publicly speaking ill of one 
another. After all, the other party sufficiently 
fulfills that function without any help from 
Republicans.

 As leader of GOP forces in the House of 
Representatives, Newt Gingrich was the party’s 
leading warrior -- a politician who never feared to 
speak his mind. Naturally he made enemies, some 
within his own party. And it is those enemies and 
their successors who are out to get Newt’s scalp 
today. Moreover, it is important to remember that 
Newt was Ronald Reagan’s champion on Capitol 
Hill. My father knew and appreciated that fact.

 Look, I know that Newt has rubbed a lot of 
his fellow Republicans the wrong way, but that is 
the inevitable result when a leader does his job. 
He simply can’t satisfy everybody, and those who 
attempt to do so comprise the GOP’s wobbly 
liberal wing. 

 Leading the charge against Newt are 
supporters of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt 
Romney. They do the governor no favors by 
linking him to the GOP’s small but vociferous 
liberal wing, which doesn’t like warriors. Newt 
is a warrior who cherishes any opportunity to go 
into battle, flags flying.

 This being an election year, we can expect 
various factions of the GOP to seek to modify 
the tenets of traditional Republicanism. They 
prefer to shrink away from any hard fighting. 
Newt is the exact opposite; he relishes the joys of 
hard combat on behalf of conservative American 
principles. That upsets some of his fellow 
Republicans, who are more like the mother who 
asks what her children are doing upstairs, and 
when told they are engaging in some horrible 
behavior says, “That’s nice, don’t fight.” 

 Newt fights. Real Republicans need fighters, 
not mealy-mouthed compromisers who shrink 
away from any form of combat. He may stray 
away from what many of his GOP colleagues 
consider proper Republican behavior. But Newt 
is ready and able to take the fight to Obama, and 
he will win that fight unless the compromisers 
have their way.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald 
Reagan, a political consultant, and the author 
of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s 
Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of 
The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan 
Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.
reagan.com, or e-mail comments to Reagan@
caglecartoons.com.

©2012 Mike Reagan.