Bush's Billionaires


I know many of you don't care for Matt Taibbi's abrasive writing style, but sometimes his articles just have to be read:

On the same day that Britney was shaving her head, a guy I know who works in the office of Senator Bernie Sanders sent me an email. He was trying very hard to get news organizations interested in some research his office had done about George Bush's proposed 2008 budget, which was unveiled two weeks ago and received relatively little press, mainly because of the controversy over the Iraq war resolution. All the same, the Bush budget is an amazing document. It would be hard to imagine a document that more clearly articulates the priorities of our current political elite.

Read it all, but be careful you're not drinking in front of a computer screen while you do so.

Our priorities are so out of whack it's pathetic.


Sean Paul Kelley February 23, 2007 - 3:36pm

telling us Bush is incompetent yet I say otherwise. Not incompetent just Satanic. If one advances the globalist themes far enough the effective influence of the US becomes trivial. Daddy owns Carslyle so the Bush dynasty as American royalty continues and the press, a for profit entity, makes it happen.

Lasthorseman February 23, 2007 - 7:41pm

the Democratic Majority in both Houses is dyslexic, blind, or willing accomplices in this wholesale theft. However, if Bernie Sanders is on it, attention will be paid.

barrisj redux February 23, 2007 - 8:32pm

Doesn't bother me. He uses swears very effectively, in the right spot, at the right time. I'm pretty fucking coarse myself. Oops. Matt is a very good reporter and writer.

Douglas Watts February 24, 2007 - 2:38am

And one of the reasons such an issue is hard to sell.

Take Jim Wundt. I mention this in my book Ruminations from the Garden. He has spent his life working a farm. Best farmer rancher in Guadalupe County, Texas. His son Kyle has helped make the farm what it is. Jim gets bladder cancer while late fifties. Has a million bucks worth of assets to pass along. If he dies, the 55% inheritance tax will more than likely force Kyle to sell the farm or go deeply into debt.

Then you have these big time corporations that have stolen, (legally, but it's still theft), and made their owners obscenely rich. And they want a break from inheritance taxes. Believe me when I tell you, these people have ways to avoid inheritance taxes as the law stands.

Rain on one man's crop destroys that of another.

And it's usually the little guy that gets screwed.

I did inhale.

Don February 24, 2007 - 10:37am

fact. Any estate less than $3 million is exempt from the Inheritance Tax, plus, farms have a $5 million exemption. My father is a CPA and I know what I am talking about.

It's the $50 million estates that want and say they need the tax break. Don't mean to rain on your parade here but 'tis true. Just ask my Dad.

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is, contempt prior to examination."

Sean Paul Kelley February 24, 2007 - 5:54pm

he doesn't know that and votes accordingly.

I have no problem whatsoever seeing those in the fifty million dollar bracket paying inheritance taxes. How do you earn fifty million dollars?

I did inhale.

Don February 24, 2007 - 8:51pm

That's just bonus money for the Goldman-Sachs crowd. And we all know how hard they work, right? ;)

And here's the fruit of a little of their labor.

In interviews with several bankers -- all of whom refused to comment on the record about their bonus allocation -- most said the survey findings are broadly in line with their own spending. "I work 18-hour days, six days a week. I'm sitting on planes for 20 hours straight and I'm dealing with high-pressure decisions," said a top banker from Morgan Stanley. "I deserve rewards."

Doug Richardson February 25, 2007 - 2:05am

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