How is it possible that one of the top op-ed columnists in the country doesn’t know about all of the Patriotic Millionaires who are fighting like hell to get Congress to raise their taxes? How are we supposed to have a constructive public dialogue about our national priorities if one of the country’s best journalists can’t get his facts straight? Especially, in light of the fact that the country’s credit worthiness was just downgraded for the first time in history because – as the S&P report put it: ‘compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues.’
In his Times op-ed on Tuesday, columnist Joe Nocera said: “I keep waiting for one wealthy, well-known figure to stand up and say publicly that he or she is willing to pay more in taxes as part of the shared sacrifice necessary to gain control of the country’s deficit”.
Seriously??? Does Joe really not know about the hundreds of Patriotic Millionaires from both parties (and some from no party at all) fighting to raise taxes . . . on themselves??? The Patriotic Millionaires who have written letters, shut down the White House phone lines calling the President and leaders in the House and Senate, who have created video messages and testimonials to explain why raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires is a critical part of restoring our fiscal strength and our moral compass, who challenged the entire intellectual framework of supply-side economics in a major position paper to Congress, and who gave a slap down to Orrin Hatch when he belittled their efforts*. Seriously??
Good grief. No wonder this country is so screwed up. If top journalists from top publications don’t pay attention to the facts where does that put us?
For the good of the country, JOE SHOULD KNOW that millionaires from across the country want to pay higher taxes.
*Earlier we said Mitch McConnell. That was an accident but he deserves a slap down too.
NYT Columnist Joe Nocera did not drop the ball, he is carrying water for the neocons. When are liberals, progressives going to stop looking for logic, reason, rationale when people do what on the face of it looks insane, irresponsible, unprofessional etc. and realize that these “professionals” are carrying water for wall street.