NPR calls GOP's bluff
Standing ovation for NPR this morning. Not often we see actual acts of journalism like this anymore. After months on end of listening to the Republicans wail they can't possibly support a tiny surtax on the super-wealthy because gosh, that would just crush the spirit of small business owners who will then never create any new jobs, NPR said, bring us a small business owner who fears the tax.
The Republicans came up empty. Couldn't find a single small business owner who could describe the paralyzing effect of tiny tax increases. So NPR asked the lobbyist groups. They couldn't deliver even one. NPR then issued a plea on Facebook. There they finally found small business owners willing to be interviewed.
To no one's surprise, none of them were quavering under their desks in fear of taxes. In fact, they all sensibly pointed out their main concern was demand for their goods and services. Taxes aren't on their list of concerns or criteria for new hires.
The only down side to this Pultizer deserving move is it happened on NPR. The people who most need to hear this message wouldn't listen to that liberal cesspool to save their lives. Or believe what they heard if somehow they were forced to listen to it. If it doesn't happen on Fox, it's not real for those folks. And we all know that's never going to happen.
The Republicans came up empty. Couldn't find a single small business owner who could describe the paralyzing effect of tiny tax increases. So NPR asked the lobbyist groups. They couldn't deliver even one. NPR then issued a plea on Facebook. There they finally found small business owners willing to be interviewed.
To no one's surprise, none of them were quavering under their desks in fear of taxes. In fact, they all sensibly pointed out their main concern was demand for their goods and services. Taxes aren't on their list of concerns or criteria for new hires.
The only down side to this Pultizer deserving move is it happened on NPR. The people who most need to hear this message wouldn't listen to that liberal cesspool to save their lives. Or believe what they heard if somehow they were forced to listen to it. If it doesn't happen on Fox, it's not real for those folks. And we all know that's never going to happen.
Labels: lies, Media, Republicans
posted by Libby Spencer at 12:06 PM
4 Comments:
Great observation and thanks NPR.
What most people don't realize is that the only time "small business owners" are millionaires is when (and if) the sell their profitable, thriving business to a competitor or incorporate.
Most pay themselves a salary and use profits to pay down the debt and improve the business. Unlike the corporations that pay huge bonuses to officers, lay off workers, cut R&D, and show fleeting, short-term (and often paper) gains.
There are some small businessman that are actually millionaires. I know a few of them myself. I'd say only half of those actually earned the money through the business. Other half are trust funders.
But a lot of people who file as small business for tax purposes, a) don't run the kind of companies that would do a lot hiring. For instance some hedge funds are technically small businesses. And b)raising their tax rate to Clinton levels isn't going to change their business habits in any event.
I beg to differ about it doing no good.
I have a relative who watches only Fox News[*], but she also listens to NPR in the car. Also in the car, she listens to talk radio, but favors the shows that have a range of opinion over those that are obviously one-sided. She leans Republican but prefers even more to vote for the underdog -- the representative of the commoner struggling against The Man. She's torn between voting for Elizabeth Warren (for who she is and her agenda) and Scott Brown (to avoid having the representation of Massachusetts be all one party).
She is one sort of person whose eyes we need to open.
[*]: I hear from an objective observer that it's not as bad as you'd think by watching clips on The Daily Show. Their reporting during prime time is largely sensationalized news (which is why my relative watches it -- "real"[**] news is boring), while outside of prime time their programming quality degrades to propaganda and opinion.
[**]: I put "real" in quotes not because it is just a lesser version of Fox News. The only TV news I find worth watching is on public television.
Well thanks to telling me that. I find it hopeful to know there are still people like your relative who are reachable.
Post a Comment
<< Home