[PEN-L:33754] Re: Bush Administration On The Poor: Pay More Taxes!

[Michael Pollak <mpollak@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 11 Jan 2003, Ellen Frank wrote:

> Fleischer said that the Dems were engaging in "class warfare," which he
> defined thus: "It's class warfare to say that there are wrong people in
> America and these wrong people are not deserving of tax relief."

Who was it who said it's not class warfare is only one side is shooting?
It's class massacre.

I loved your quote Ellen, that Doug brought up on his show on Thursday:
"The rich today don't just want to pay less taxes.  They want to be paid
tribute!"

Needless to say, I think the key to persuading students it to get out of
this box.  It rigs the debate.  But it rests on the hegemonic idea that
everything that people gain in the private sector is somehow theirs
without the government's help.  Which is nonsense.  The society, never
mind the economy, wouldn't exist in its present form without the
government.  And people who make more have hence profited more from the
government's existence.

Fleischer's class warfare claim turns reality on its head.  Taxes become
not a question of who pays more, but of who we are giving money to in the
form of cuts.

Michael