Heated Rhetoric

The incoming Congress may very well gut Health Care (No Death Panel for Granny!) and reduce Wall Street regulation (Bernie Madoff wasn't really a bad guy), but we can be sure that the Bush tax cuts will remain in place for the wealthiest among us. After all, it's not as if taxing an additional 3% off the $100 billion paid out in Wall Street bonuses this year will make a real dent in the deficit. That $3 billion will no doubt be used by The Rich to create jobs for the rest of us.

Or maybe not. It took all of three minutes for Nieman Marcus to sell all 100 of its limited edition Chevy Camaros priced at $75K just before Christmas. A Manhattan dealership is sold out of $225K Ferraris and another is fresh out of $170K Audi R8s. There is also a shortage of those giant red ribbons that thoughtful gift givers place on the roof of a brand new luxury car before driving it under the Christmas tree.

In a recent column, Kathleen Parker supported extension of tax cuts for high earners by criticizing "the heated rhetoric that stokes class warfare and demonizes the doers who create jobs for others." Few Americans would deny a "doer" like Henry Ford or Thomas Edison all the tax breaks (and $225K Ferraris) he wants if a Ford Motor Company or a General Electric which actually produces something tangible while providing thousands of employment opportunities Unfortunately, the guys getting the tax breaks today (and $170K Audis) are producing nothing tangible other than market manipulation and precious few employment opportunities.

Perhaps a little more "heated rhetoric" would have been advisable. As a side benefit, if "class warfare" resulted in street barricades and a rousing musical score, we would have a modern update of "Les Miserables".