It's Class Warfare - The Poor (and the rest of us) Have Lost

I applaud my guest tonight the multi-talented Anne Hathaway very pleased about that but first there is an ongoing argument in this very country about how best to close the enormous deficit that we have incurred the Republicans have proposed doing it entirely through spending cuts whereas the Democrats have bravely fought back insisting we do it almost entirely through spending cuts well this week bizarrely unex n tricked billionaire warren buffett entered the fray the billionaire says while most Americans struggle to make ends meet we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks my friends and I have been coddled long enough I pay a lower tax rate I'm much of my income than my cleaning lady is thought to be fair Warren Buffett's cleaning lady is also a billionaire Warren Buffett's op-ed was a thoughtful treatise on the advantages the super wealthy currently enjoy at the hands of the tax code or to put that another way up next tonight Warren Buffett class warfare more class warfare from an affable billionaire who should stop assuming the rich are all billionaires Warren Buffett wrote an op-ed is he completely a socialist is Warren Buffett a socialist you really have no clue what socialism is do you hey hey that George Clooney always bang in different broads what a queer so closing closing a few corporate tax loopholes and returning the top marginal tax rate to the 90s economic boom time levels is class warfare and if there's one thing the rich have learned it's the class warfare as hell he invoked the corporate jet class so that's that's a whole new category of people to demonize right soak the rich it's their fault Barack Obama's tax on these evil disgusting corporate jet owners demonizing the riches as evil as lazy as inheritors of their wealth he's saying that fat cats it's disappointing it's it's class warfare and it's the kind of language that you would expect from a leader of a third-world country not the President of the United States it's true because the United States of America is not a third world country by any measure except perhaps income inequality where we rank worse than the Ivory Coast worse than camera 64th in your face Uruguay Jamaica and Uganda Uganda [Applause] keep trying Rwanda and by the way not only is closing corporate loopholes you are a nerd crowd there's no doubt in my mind [Applause] by the way not only is closing corporate loopholes and raising the marginal tax rate class warfare it totally wouldn't even work you can tax rich people all you want and you're not gonna you're not going to use the idea that if we raise taxes as the president said on millionaires and billionaires raise taxes on oil companies raise taxes on owners of private jets that that somehow is gonna make a difference the president wants to raise the top two income tax rates which would raise both 700 billion dollars over ten years you know what that's only a tiny fraction of the federal government's deficit 700 billion dollars over ten years that's less money than a Warren Buffett's cleaning lady pulls out of his shower drain everywhere [Music] Miller so 700 billion dollars of raised revenue over ten years ain't even worth the effort I assume these folks have the same why bother attitude towards low level spending cuts National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Humanities all those kind of frivolous things those should all be on the chopping block federal employees don't pay for parking so if they just set up parking for that that gave him 140 million he doesn't have to waste your tax dollars and travel around in a 1.1 million dollar luxury liner why are we spending 6 million dollars why are we spending 1 million dollars on the first lady you got to start somewhere even when we talk about NPR a million dollars here that's a million dollars oh so when you cut it it's a million dollars but when you tax it it's I mean all we'd have to do to raise seven hundred billion dollars is cut seven hundred thousand NPR's but if it's revenue you want there does happen to be another place instead of the rich then you can look for it Warren Buffett are writing how the rich should pay more taxes but saying that a word about the half of American households that pay no income taxes at all is that fair when half the population pays certainly nothing 51% that's a majority of American households paid no income tax in 2009 zero zip nada many of them get so much money in tax credits that it wipes out any Social Security taxes or Medicare taxes they're paid they are absolutely on a free ride you hear that Poor's the free ride is star over so it looks like you'll be walking to work assuming you have a job chances are you probably don't have a job so why are you asking us for a ride the solution to our economic problem the solution to our economic problem isn't taxing the rich its broad in the tax base everyone needs to pay something before you start demanding one group anymore maybe get everyone to put skin and again that's the problem with poor people they still have some of their skin but you know what maybe they're right maybe Fox is right maybe the bottom 50% of Americans while they already pay excise and payroll and Medicare taxes do need to pay more I mean they can spare it after all they control 2.5 percent of our nation's wealth well you know what actually this is a pretty easy calculation we can do this the bottom 50% is just simple math in dollar figures the bottom 50% of this country have one point four five trillion dollars in everything they own on this earth so let's see they have one point four five trillion dollars so what do you say we take I don't know half of that that'd be a look at this 700 billion dollars why does that figure sound so familiar the president wants to raise the top two income tax rates which would raise both 700 billion dollars over 10 years you know what that's only a tiny fraction of the federal government's deficit to raising the income tax rate on the top 2 percent of earners would raise 700 billion dollars but taking half of everything the bottom 50% have in this country would do the same I see the problem here we need to take all it's the only way to make a significant dent now we're up to 1.4 trillion and if you're worried about the pours don't because they're defined by the census as a family of four making less than twenty two thousand three hundred fifty dollars a year for twenty two thousand three hundred fifty a year they'll be fine families in the United States are not what they used to be when you look at the actual living conditions of the 43 million people that the census says are poor you see that in fact they have all these modern conveniences 99% owned have a refrigerator 99% have refrigerators you that's why it makes complete sense that the word poor in that graphic is in quotations these people aren't poor they're I'm sure the other 1% of those people who don't have refrigerators don't have them not because they don't have food because they're always ordering these poor people are living like they just want to showcase showdown 81% have a microwave 78% have air-conditioning 63% of cable TV 54% have cell phones 48% have a coffee maker 25% have a dishwasher 25% of a dishwasher a little be fair after a 12-hour shift of washing dishes the last thing you want us to bring your work home with you so you see the problem with increasing the marginal tax rate on the rich and closing some corporate tax loopholes isn't that it engages in class warfare it's that it's fighting on the wrong side of the war it is all-out war on the productive class in our society for the benefit of the moocher class the makers and the takers they want to take it from somebody else everyone's jumping in the wagon no one wants to pull parasites we have out there dependent on government the raccoons they're not stupid they're gonna take they're gonna do the easy way if we make it easy form just like welfare will create a generations of utterly irresponsible animals yeah those people the poor we'll be right back [Applause]

Channel: Civic Lab

Views: 796,662

Rating: 4.9422927 out of 5

Keywords: class warfare, rich get richer, taxes, deficit, poor, wealth inequality, Fox News

Id: 8-_A2yw4RPU

Length: 11min 16sec (676 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 27 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/pangur0ban0]

It's so sad how relevant this issue still is today.

[u/MikoSkyns]

I miss John and his brilliant craft of mocking Fox News and showing the world what a propaganda machine they are: but here we are, years since he retired and over 2 decades since he started and Fox News is still is as strong.

Unfortunately in the end, it's quite apparent all he did for the most part was preach to the choir. People who buy in to that Chanel are like cult followers and there's no persuading them to see what it really is.

[u/Kinovy]

God i miss Jon Stewart.

[u/wutsizface]

Come back John?!?

We need you

[u/justkeptfading]

ITT: A lot of people who don't know how to properly spell his name.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/Acid_Baron]

I had no idea the media do such a hatchet job on the poor in the USA!

Totally outrageous. Feel for you yanks 😢

[u/noicenoice9999]

Ah John, he was the best.

[u/GetYourMotherPlease]

I miss Jon Stewart