Cultural References

Le Vow
President François Hollande is vowing to impose a 75 percent tax on the portion of anyone’s income above a million euros ($1.24 million) a year....A chill is wafting over France’s business class as Mr. Hollande, the country’s first Socialist president since François Mitterrand in the 1980s, presses a manifesto of patriotism to “pay extra tax to get the country back on its feet again.” The 75 percent tax proposal, which Parliament plans to take up in September, is ostensibly aimed at bolstering French finances as Europe’s long-running debt crisis intensifies.

But because there are relatively few people in France whose income would incur such a tax — an estimated 7,000 to 30,000 in a country of 65 million — the gains might contribute but a small fraction of the 33 billion euros in new revenue the government wants to raise next year to help balance the budget. (NYT, 8/7/2012)

The wealthy Liberal elite in the U.S. who piously claim that they should pay more in taxes (but likely use every legal measure possible to minimize their taxes), are generally seen to have what is called "screw you" money. The definition is: enough money so that it really does not matter if Obama takes a bit more for redistribution. The key here is "a little more." But what about if Obama decides that he needs 75% like France? Would they threaten to leave the country as the article says some rich French have? Would the wealthy Liberals become..... conservatives? 

Wealthy Liberals are not worried, but they should be. And they should be listening to what Vermont's Colonel Bernie Sanders wants to do with the estate tax. If Liberals realized that a significant portion of their wealth would be confiscated at their death, and not passed on to their children, they just might say "screw you" to someone else.

(Special irony is the New York Times pointing out that even if enacted Hollande's proposed tax would have negligible effect on French finances - the exact point made by Republicans about Obama's "tax the rich" scheme. The Times is unable or unwilling to make the connection. All of which validates Republican philosophy that the answer is not more taxes, it's less spending.)

Reaching Out...Touching You
Stories abound of big donors who stopped giving as much or working as hard because Obama never reached out, either with a Clinton-esque warm bath of attention or Romney-esque weekend love fests and Israeli-style jaunts; of celebrities who gave concerts for his campaigns and never received thank-you notes or even his full attention during the performance; of public servants upset because they knocked themselves out at the president’s request and never got a pat on the back; of V.I.P.’s disappointed to get pictures of themselves with the president with the customary signature withheld; of politicians disaffected by the president’s penchant for not letting members of Congress or local pols stand on stage with him when he’s speaking in their state (they often watch from the audience and sometimes have to lobby just to get a shout-out); of power brokers, local and national, who felt that the president insulted them by never seeking their advice or asking them to come to the White House or ride along in the limo for a schmooze. (Maureen Dowd, NYT, 8/7/2012)

An absolutely stunning admission by Dowd, no friend of any Republican. Dowd echoes and amplifies the brief comment that Chris Matthews let slip several months back which spoke to the same point. Obama is an island unto himself. He is no politician, and seemingly disdains the process. It appears he has few friends in Washington and few even in his own party.