March 18, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

MONEY AND POWER

This is an interesting article about the tightwads who comprise the class of the super rich. We're talking billionaires here, often multi-billionaires. With the exception of Warren Buffett, they are very tight-fisted in giving away any of their massive fortunes, even though they would never be able to spend all the money they've accumulated. This is in real contrast to past members of the super-rich such as Andrew Carnegie, who gave away a hefty percentage of his fortune. But these are the people we're supposed to admire. They're the people who need those big tax cuts. This article by Gregg Easterbrook is at www.latimes.com:

Why do the super-rich hoard? Certainly not because they need money to spend. As economist Christopher Carroll of Johns Hopkins University points out in an upcoming paper, the super-rich save far more than they could ever spend, even with Dionysian indulgence. Gates' fortune must throw off, even by conservative estimations, about $6 million a day after taxes. You couldn't spend $6 million every day of your life even if you did nothing all day long but buy original art and waterfront real estate. The fortunes of Allen, Knight and others mentioned here throw off at least $1 million a day after taxes. Nobody can spend $1 million every day.

Carroll speculates that the super-rich won't give away money they know they will never use for two reasons: because they love money, and because extreme wealth confers power. We know already that people who give their lives over to loving money surrender their humanity in the process. As for clout, Carroll quotes Howard Hughes: "Money is the measuring rod of power." That $53 billion ensures Gates will be treated with awe wherever he goes. If he gave away 78% of his wealth like Carnegie did, he might be universally admired, but he would no longer be treated with the same degree of fawning reverence. He might even, someday, find himself in the same room with someone who has more money!

Runaway wealth accumulation by zillionaires, combined with the rising share of national income claimed by the top 1%, often inspires calls to soak the rich. But I disagree. Ideally, the top federal income tax rate and capital-gains tax rate should be increased a few percentage points while the payroll tax (which funds Social Security and Medicare) is reduced. Reasonable increases of taxes on the well-off — if done to reduce taxes on the average — would make the U.S. a fairer place.

THE ROT AT THE TOP

This editorial from The Los Angeles Times talks about the abject incompetence in the Bush administration. I think the editorial goes a little too lightly on the endemic corruption of Bush and his cronies, but it's worth looking at the combination of arrogance and incompetence leading to the bad place we are today. The editorial is at www.latimes.com:

IT'S TOO EARLY TO SAY whether any laws were broken in the Bush administration's dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, a purge that was justified as an exercise of presidential power though both President Bush and his attorney general profess to be ignorant of the details of the firings. But even assuming that laws weren't broken, the affair is a disaster for the administration, one that recalls Talleyrand's observation: "This is worse than a crime, it's a blunder."

That is why this scandal (and the preceding week's Walter Reed scandal) loom so large, even among some Republican lawmakers — they fit into a larger pattern of incompetence on the part of this administration. Any confidence the American people or Congress once had in the administration's capabilities has long since been depleted.

It wasn't always so. Early on, this administration was perceived — by ideological friends and foes alike — as a paragon of competence. Names like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and even Rice (who knew?) were supposed to signal steady, experienced leadership. How far we've come.

The botched, ill-planned occupation of Iraq will go down as the administration's capital blunder. It stemmed from a cavalier arrogance, a belief that when you are on the right side of history, the details will take care of themselves. The sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina and the constitutional shortcuts in the war on terror also qualify.