The Democrat Party is an arm of the Media-Entertainment Complex. This powerful industry has a near totalitarian control over the US. They literally decide who will be President and what the important issues of the day are. back in 2005, although there were economic issues in terms of wage stagnation, unemployment was at 4.5%. Yet any article from that time period claim the economy was bad. Now unemployment is at 7.7% officially and due to people leaving the labor force, wages have declined yet the media claims this is the best economy in American history. Many Americans believe it because the nice guy on the 6 O’clock news told them. Despite evidence of this bias, Republicans still refuse to treat the media as an enemy entity.
Victor David Hanson points out that the true 1% are the member’s of the Media-Entertainment Industrial Complex. Millionaires like Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Depp support Obama. Therefore, Republicans should target this industry through taxes. He proposes what I have been calling for, which is an Entertainment tax!
Who exactly were the rich who, as the president said, were not “paying their fair share”? The rapper Jay-Z (net worth: nearly $500 million)? The actor Johnny Depp (2011 income: $50 million)? Neither seems to have heard the president’s earlier warning that “at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”
Could both zillionaires simply have quit making money at $10 million — and thereby given their poorer audiences a break on ticket prices?
With all the talk of raising taxes on the supposedly conservative rich who make more than $250,000 per year, why not levy a $3 surcharge on tickets for movies, concerts, and sporting events to “spread the wealth” from multimillionaires? That way, LeBron James (approximate annual earnings: $53 million) or Oliver Stone (net worth: approximately $50 million) might at last begin to “level the playing field.”
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If the country is going to turn redistributionist, then we might as well do so whole-hog — given that eight of the wealthiest ten counties in America voted for Obama. Why not limit mortgage-interest deductions to just one loan under $100,000 — while ending tax breaks altogether for second and third vacation houses?
Under the present system, the beleaguered 99 percent are subsidizing the abodes of Hollywood and Silicon Valley “millionaires and billionaires” — many of whom themselves have been railing against the 1 percent. Should the government provide tens of thousands of dollars in tax breaks for a blue-state 1-percenter to live in tony Palo Alto or Newport Beach when there are plenty of fine homes far cheaper and sitting empty not far away in Stockton and Bakersfield?
Blue states usually have far higher state income taxes that are used as deductions to reduce what is owed on federal income tax. Why should working folks in Nevada or Texas have to pay their fair share, while Wall Streeters get huge federal write-offs from their New York or Connecticut state income taxes?
This is what republicans should be doing in the fiscal cliff debate. Turn the tables on Obama and make him defender of the rich. But as always, the GOP lacks imagination nor do they have killer political instinct. If they had any balls, the GOP would propose what Victor David Hanson is calling for. Hit the Progressives where it hurts, in the wallet.
I am starting to think the national Republican party is just a straw-man operation for the Democratic Party. The GOP at the national level is the perfect boogeyman that Democrats and the Media-Entertainment Industrial Complex use to scare voters into supporting them. If Victor Davis Hanson and people on this blog can think of the Entertainment tax, why can’t John Boehner, Eric Cantor or Paul Ryan? Just food for thought!
Tags: Media-Entertainment Industrial complex, Victor Davis Hanson
