Pat Buchanan Defends Tax Cuts for Private Jets and Pretends Poor People Don't Pay Any Taxes
MSNBC finally took Mark Halperin off the air for all the wrong reasons this week after he said President Obama acted like a "dick" because he dared to call out the Republicans for acting like spoiled children during these debt ceiling talks. I wonder what it would take to get this racist relic Pat Buchanan to finally leave their airwaves as well?
The mild mannered Martin Bashir, who actually did a good job of calling out Mitch McConnell the previous day with his revisionist history on who's to blame for our deficit skyrocketing, found himself outgunned by the volatile and aggressive Pat Buchanan during this segment where Buchanan was brought on to discuss the negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, and where Buchanan insisted that Republicans should stick to their guns no matter what and force Democrats and President Obama to accept massive budget cuts with absolutely no increases in taxes, even if those taxes are on a privileged few, like private jet owners.
Here's how that interview went down.
BASHIR: Well, let's focus for a moment on those tax hikes. The president said he wants to get rid of tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, corporate jets, only, okay? Republicans say they're not the only ones with so-called sacred cows that are being protected and we know that. Meanwhile it's the everyday American that's suffering while both sides are as it were pointing fingers at each other. So how does this situation resolve itself? Tell me.
BUCHANAN: First you're... Obama is engaged and the president I should say is engaged in class warfare in some little form of demagoguery. Now I know corporate jets are fine to make fun of. I don't ride around on one. I'm a successful individual.
If Pat Buchanan thinks getting rid of tax cuts for jet owners is class warfare, maybe someone should ask him to go read this post at Think Progress where it shows just who is actually winning that war -- Since 2009, 88 Percent Of Income Growth Went To Corporate Profits, Just One Percent Went To Wages.
BASHIR: We're talking about two billion dollars, or actually around between two and three billion dollars.
BUCHANAN: Let me tell you what Martin. I went down, you know when we had the famous luxury tax, I went to a boat factory in Georgia where they had working class guys who built luxury sort of big yachts, big boats for rich people. They used to build eight a year, twelve a year, they were building one. Because the luxury tax meant they moved the building to Mexico.
These taxes have an impact. But let me ask you this. Is it fair? Is it just that fifty one percent of all American wage earners don't pay a nickel, in federal income taxes. And half the nation of free loaders pays not a nickel in federal income tax. And twenty three million of them get checks, earned income tax credits they call them, from the government.
You can't carry half the nation, the one percent, you know, Morton Zuckermann can't carry the nation on his back.
If Pat Buchanan has ever spent one minute actually talking to anyone that has worked in a factory, I'd like to hear from those people he supposedly talked to. It's really disgusting to hear him defending tax cuts for the richest among us while claiming that there are poor lazy slackers out there that don't pay any taxes just because they don't pay federal income tax.
I already addressed this issue when Republican Jim DeMint told that same lie on Hannity's show here -- Jim DeMint Repeats the 'Half of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax' Big Lie About Taxes.
As I noted there, Joshua Holland wrote a great post on just how much most Americans pay in taxes and how we've basically got a flat tax in America right now when you look at all of the taxes Americans pay. Pat Buchanan would like to pretend that the least among us are lazy, no good, slackers that don't want to do their share to contribute to our tax base.
Shame on him and shame on MSNBC for keeping this racist liar on the air. He's as harmful to our democracy and to what should be a press that tells us the truth instead of lying and demagoguing as anyone on our airwaves and if MSNBC thinks Mark Halperin should be pulled off the air for giving what might be an honest opinion of President Obama and heaven forbid using the word "dick", it would be nice if they took another look at their pundits who regularly do a greater disservice to the American public, and that is lying to them on a daily basis.
Whether it's the likes of Buchanan and his ilk still being allowed to come on the air and lie daily or a great deal of the rest of them either playing the all sides are equal game with pundits who have little use for the truth, but political spin instead, or lies of omission where they ignore stories daily that are of national importance to viewers and fill it up with bullshit like some murder trial no one gives a damn about, MSNBC and CNN and Fox do the public a great disservice on a daily basis by calling the majority of their coverage "news."
Maybe if we somehow manage to break these companies up that are monopolizing our airwaves with garbage about 80 or 90% of the time plus, we'll break that cycle, but I've pretty much lost hope of that happening any time soon. In the mean time, we get treated to the likes of Pat Buchanan being considered anyone the public should take seriously or listen to when this relic of a racist should have been booted off the air a long time ago and their "polite" pundit Bashir giving him a chance to repeat a whole lot of conservative talking points that go unchallenged. Shameful, just shameful.
When Pat Buchanan is allowed to pretend like Mort Zuckermann of all people is carrying the weight of our tax burden on his back and he's not immediately called out for that nonsense, you're not watching news. You're watching right wing propaganda. Heaven forbid the rich S.O.B. should be asked to be paying a few more dollars in taxes instead of taking it out of the hides of seniors, or in Pat's mind, those lazy, listless tax avoiding poor who haven't quite given enough yet so Mort Zuckermann can get his tax break to make it to The McLaughlin Group to pretend like he's a liberal on one of their panels where Eleanore Clift gets gets beaten up on four to one by Buchanan and his friends.
For people always putting down Hollywood stars, Republicans are not so much different: the more money they make, the less they expect to pay for anything...as if their mere presence in a store, a restaurant or a country should be such an honor that they should be exempted from having to pay anything.
Get off your night horses...
Bashir let this guy get away with too many things. One glaring item was Reagans tax cuts. Pat mentions something about "one" of the tax cuts and what a mistake Reagan made. Then Reagan makes it 10 more times (according to Bashir). Pat's argument on the corporate jets is the weakest yet. He makes it sound like if the corporations can't (and actually he is saying "won't") buy any jets then we will put the industry out of work. Of course corporations will continue to buy jets...give me a break.
pat is just a loud mouth right wing idiot.which is very common in that party.see joe blow scarborough,but with pats philosophy,its always his tax breaks,and to quote a deceased friend of pats.novak,he always said "i got mine screw you" and this sure reflects pats thinking.he could care less about the folks stuggling at the bottom of the ladder.repugs just don't give a rats ass.wisconsin i understand is shutting down today because the repugs have theirs so they just don't care.they are shameless.i wonder who their god is.
Three Gods , $ , greed and power , the trilogy .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
Buchanan just needs to keep sucking at pat robertson's
butth@le. he is just an elitist self-indulgent teabagger.
pat has his so everyone else can get fucked.
You either choose vaccination for poor children or tax breaks for corporate jets. In the first choice poor children get to survive childhood without dying from some easily prevented disease. The other choice is that the public subsidizes jets for CEOs. You choose to let millions of children die or you allow CEOs to pay themselves millions more. What did you think the CEOs did with those billions of dollars that the public gives them?
those kids are already born so they don't count don't cha know...
again, if you give that bonus to the rich they MIGHT get a yacht or maybe they will put it in a checking account, or invest in enron who knows. if you give it to poor people they will spend it immediately, bam right back into the economy.
those poor people will also be paying sales tax.
Always glad to see that, despite his advanced age, Pat can stay on message.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I recognize that he's terribly old, and increasingly incapable of rational or historical thought, but does this man actually believe that 40 years of stagnant wages and skyrocketing corporate profits and hyper concentration of wealth in the top 1% of the people in the nation represent some sort of populist class war uprising? It's the age-old question I often ask myself when staring at Elmer Gantry-like hucksters on television, toadying for the last faith-based dollar from credulous morons: does he actually believe the things he says?
does he actually believe the things he says?
It's not important that he believe the things that he says. It's only important that the rubes believe it.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Some do believe it but I doubt that most of the Reich wingers defending the Republican party and their policies believe their own bullshit , they're a bunch of two bit whores making a living .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
How many clips can you find of Mark Dick Halprin and Joe Killer Scarborough saying that Obama doesn't show enough testicular fortitude ?? Now if you compare that to him calling him a dick you now have the real face of racism in our nation, and present company is included.
he'd be in the poor house himself. damn jackass.
Pat and Bay should be given Beeeeeck's open slot at cluster-fox.. What a great spot for an ultimate hour of baseless stupidity; the most bigoted rhetoric ever heard on public airways; all the facts (baseless) you'll ever need to believe that Richard M. "I am not a crook" Nixon was truly the king of America and still should be; a 50-foot tall, 300-ft thick nuclear-electrified fence/barrier should be built around all US boarders to keep out everyone; and ALL U.S.-based governments should be abolished by next Thursday.... anybody else that wants to play gets nuked....
Pat and his shadow would in hawg heaven....
It sure would be nice to get that clip of Martin Bashir putting Mitch McConnell in his place on the front page. It would also be nice to see more Tee Vee people talking like Martin Bashir.
Not sure who he is ( his back ground etc. ) but I've seen his show a few times , I like him from what I've seen .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
When a loaf of bread costs $40,000 to someone making over $1 million a year in capital gains, then the poorest among us should pay for the services enjoyed by the richest.
Squeaky is just another fountain of bull shit , making a living at spewing bull shit .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
You heard Cigar Bill is accusing Obama of class warfare ? Not a surprise .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
Most of us are "engaged" in class warfare in precisely the same way Poland was "engaged" in the Blitzkrieg.
Lesson for rich motherf*rs: don't start a war(fare) unless you're man enough to admit it.
I wonder how the deluded and misled right are going to react when the curtain falls. It's like none of them noticed when Americans for Prosperity and the other Koch-backed astroturfers conveniently excised the "We're Pissed Off at Wall St." section of the Teabilly Manifesto™
These are the same mouth-breathers that left live handgun cartridges at Obama's town hall meetings, and openly carried (presumably loaded) sidearms at their rallies. Oh, if they ever find out how much the corporate right has been putting the c*** to them, then we'll get to see what class war REALLY looks like.
...I think I can say stick around kid. I like your style.
Welcome home.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Long time Listener, first time caller.
here is one:
http://www.democraticleader.gov/news/reports?...
read on, everyone.
I don't mind Pat Buchanan nearly as much as Mark Halperin. Pat's positions are rarely defensible, but he is a man of deep, idiotic conviction. At the very least, Pat serves as a foil for MSNBC panel screamfests.
On the other hand, Mark Halperin is a conventional wisdom toady. There's not a thought in his head worth sharing, or a conviction that shouldn't be compromised in the interest of bi-partisanship with liars. Halperin's thin political insights are predicated on a foundation of false equivalencies.
It figures Halperin would call the President a Dick for displaying some spine, but as long as MSNBC employs this worthless buffoon, he should be free to speak his mind (such as it is).
I'm with you Steve , the twerp belongs on Fox and nowhere else , zero objectivity , definitely just a partisan hack .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
...Same old conventional stupidity...why don't you go back to covering Michael Jackson full-time?
Normal, working class guys -- or deadbeats and parasites? Which is it Pat?
Pat asks what theory would have us raise taxes in a recession. Here is one.
A LOT of money is sitting on the sidelines. Between the Rich and big Corporations, more that 3 Trillion dollars are not being productive. We need to tax some of that back into circulation to get things going. If we tax some of this and trickle it to the states, it will produce jobs.
Money only helps an economy if it is circulating.
I checked my pay stub, yup, still paying taxes. Maybe Pat is confusing poor people who live in shelters as living in tax shelters, failing to realize that people don't actually reside in a PO Box normally rented out by rich people.
Want to Pay Zero Income Tax, like a FREELOADER?
All it takes is living in poverty. Yup, give up those riches and cars and houses and quit your cushy job blowing smoke at talking heads who lob you softballs all day.
Just once, I want someone to put that to any one of these ranting ninnies on TV.
"50% of America doesn't pay income taxes!!! They're FREELOADERS!"
"Those people make less than $12,000 a year. You spent that much on the suit you're wearing. Seems like if they have it so good, maybe you should give it all up."
And then maybe just stop talking, on a permanent basis, you elitist prats.
The same mistake appears four times on the page (including a comment).
Take this humble servant to your breast.
You see, he's driving us nuts down here with his ranting BS.
Thanks.
what this racist light weight has to say or thinks?
why can't I have a tax deduction for the interest on my credit cards back?
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
Tax cuts for private jet owners. It sounds like American companies that invest in private jets get out of paying a lot federal taxes.
This is what the facts are. When the stimulus bill was passed by Congress (both the Senate and the House were controlled by Democrats) and President Obama signed the bill – it provided accelerated depreciation for companies purchasing private jets. The idea was to help sales in the aviation industry and keep jobs for the working middle class.
So the companies purchasing private jets do get a reduction in their tax liability for the first few years, but in later years their tax bill will actually increase over what it would have been with the standard depreciation. Doesn’t it all even out – whether you take the depreciation early or more delayed? And if it helps provide jobs for the aviation industry – is that a bad thing??
It's funny that I'm not reading this more places, but there's a VERY compelling reason to raise taxes on the wealthy and businesses during a recession. If unemployment is rising, and deficits must (for some mysterious reason) be addressed at the same time, cutting the services that leave money in the pockets of the Average Joe is F***ING ECONOMIC SUICIDE. There is really one thing, and one thing only, that creates jobs: Demand. Demand for consumer goods and services is why small businesses open their doors. It's why Behr paint builds more factories. It's why Siemens' electric builds a new plant for circuit board and breakers, and why UPS hires more drivers and buys more trucks to move this fancy new kit around the country. Demand doesn't come from the top. Ooo, one tiny factory in whogivesaf*** Georgia made 2 luxury yachts instead of 7 this year! My, that's really going to force up unemployment in Georgia this quarter! Demand comes from the bottom. From first-time homeowners doing their own renovations. From underemployed moms actually spending some money at McDonalds on her kids instead of seven successive weeks of cup-o-noodle and kraft mac n cheese (which is actually illegal here in WI, see Walker's new bill j/k).
Joe Average creates demand, and he only does it when he has walkin' around money. He only has walkin' around money when he doesn't have to send money to Aunt Clara because Badgercare (WI senior, kids and mother's healthcare) just took the piss for her. He has money to spend when he knows he's getting the earned income credit. He has money to spend when he knows THE GOVERNMENT SERVICES HE AND HIS FAMILY RELIES ARE AREN'T IN EMMINENT DANGER OF BEING SLASHED INTO OBLIVIOUS BY RIDICULOUS, VENGEFUL OLIGARCHS LOOKING TO DELIVER ON HAND-JOB PROMISES TO THE VULGAR ELITE.
And Beck has the stones to tell his audience that "these young liberals don't know they're buying into the corporate machine!" There's going to be a lot of armed, ignorant, angry "conservatives" when the man behind the curtain is finally revealed for the corporate whore he is.
(Sorry for the rant, I'll keep it down next time.)
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't recall any budget proposals that would cut essential support services for the elderly or those in need. During the first two years, the Obama administration and the Democrats who controlled congress increased spending nearly 25% for domestic government agencies-- 84% if you include the stimulus. What if we just went back to the levels of spending before Obama took office? Just roll back the huge increases he put in place. That doesn't take anyone’s social security, Medicare, earned income credit or support for the needy.
...Though entertaining.
Government spending under Obama increased by 35%. And that's ONLY because he decided to put Iraq and Afghanistan on the books. Spending in every other sector was actually declining before the deficit hawks started shrieking. (Whom, by the way, voted without a peep to raise the debt ceiling SEVEN TIMES under Bush, even while he hemorrhaged revenue.)
States all over are passing medicare over to private companies (and giving up federal dollars, exacerbating budget woes) and those companies are kicking little old ladies off medicare for technicalities. Lots of evidence, anecdotal and otherwise, if you're willing to look for proof that might go counter to what you already believe. And that means that money which would be entering the economy instead goes to the coffers of the industries that are doing their darnedest to squeeze another drop of blood from the middle class stone, long wrung dry by the oligarch fatcats.
rant on brother; and this hippie has kept his powder dry for when the REAL class war starts
can raise his voice more than those who question him. Listen to what he says and don't just react to his loud, blustery ranting. A racist, by any other word is nothing more than that! What he says doesn't make an iota of sense except to the super-rich and he follows his marching orders well! I am not playing the race card. He is the race card!
Who really can question Reagan now? Easy to make his claims. Did Reagan really say that to him? If you believe so, I have a beach front property to sell you in Colorado.
Recovered believer of myth that no government is better than no government.
There are many more Limos than Corp. jets. I'm sure the wealthy would not mind paying a little bit more to take a limo ride. Only about as much as they would tip the driver. What does a fat cat care about an extra $10 or $20 bucks?
“when you try to improve society…adverse consequences occur…” -George Soros
Every time I see Buchanan on TV I imagine his head exploding, like the zombies in Night of the Creeps.
that bastard's name on anything, I will not watch or read it because I know its the same old shit that he's been spewing for far too many years! When is that crazy old bastard going to be locked in a rubber room or die?!
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