by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n It is odd for a newspaper in unsigned editorials to go after a writer. But the Monterey Herald has done that on occasion with me, and with the usual\u00a0ad hominem<\/em>\u00a0tactics and failure to offer a rebuttal, which seem at odds with basic journalistic ethics. Here is the latest with brief commentary:<\/p>\n Real tax talk is needed<\/strong> When someone as rich and influential as Warren Buffett speaks, most people listen, especially others who are rich and influential. But Buffett\u2019s recent New York Times column, in which he opined that the nation would be better off if he and the similarly situated were taxed at higher rates, has been dismissed by the right wing think tanks and others whose job description apparently is to protect the rich from the rest of us.<\/p>\n The Hoover Institution\u2019s chief saber rattler, Victor Davis Hanson, didn\u2019t even wait for Buffett\u2019s column. He went proactive a week earlier with an argument so simplistic that it becomes apparent that the protectors of the rich are running out of ammunition.<\/p>\n Here are some excerpts, with some of the verbosity trimmed away: \u201cThese apologies insult our intelligence, since the boaster either makes so much money that he would not notice whether he paid 35 percent or 39 percent on his income\u2026 That\u2019s the best this darling of the rich right could come up with? If he thinks he should pay more taxes, then he should go ahead.<\/p>\n Brilliant. If it seems like you\u2019ve heard or read that suggestion before, it\u2019s because you have. In dozens of letters to the editor over the years, letters written by earnest people who meant what they said but who were not paid big bucks to come up with ideas either original or profound, preferably both.<\/p>\n Signaling a potential shift in the national thought processes, Hanson\u2019s response has typified the reaction from the better board rooms: Buffett should just write a bigger check.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s hoping the feeble counterattack means that Buffett\u2019s words will help lead the nation into a new and meaningful conversation about taxes, a discussion that goes well beyond the \u201cno new taxes\u201d chants of the Grover Norquist followers. The rich and their front men have managed to make the conversation about the poor and the working class, vilifying them for paying relatively little tax and preventing people from noticing that the tax rate for the super rich in this country averages about 18 percent \u2014 not the 35 or 39 percent that Hanson suggests.<\/p>\n Buffett, by the way, pays around 18 percent, far less than any of his employees. Note again the unprofessional\u00a0ad hominem<\/em>\u00a0tone, quite unbefitting a newspaper: \u201cThe Hoover Institution\u2019s chief saber rattler\u201d or \u201cprotectors of the rich\u201d or \u201cthis darling of the rich right,\u201d or \u201cfront men,\u201d or \u201cbut who were not paid big bucks to come up with ideas either original or profound.\u201d Such anonymous invective and cheap emotion in lieu of logical argumentation are simply beneath a reputable newspaper, and once again the\u00a0Herald<\/em>\u00a0should know better and be ashamed.<\/p>\n For the record, I live by choice in a rural area of the poorest quadrant of one of the poorest counties in the Central Valley of California, a world away from Monterey. My interest is not with the \u201crich,\u201d but jobs for the non-rich (unemployment in my home town hovers at 20%). I live with \u201cthe poor and the working class\u201d and their lot has gotten far worse since 2008 as jobs have disappeared and even generous state entitlements have now become unsustainable and are being cut back, as too many taxpayers flee the state and revenues nosedive. Whether George Soros, John Kerry, Al Gore, or Warren Buffett fly a little more quickly in their private jets than I do in coach, or whether their hot water comes out of designer faucets and mine does not, or whether their Mercedes or BMW is quieter than my quite adequate Honda concerns me not at all.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Herald<\/em>\u00a0deliberately did not address the chief point of my essay: My worry is instead with those creating most of the jobs who make between $200-$500,000. They represent about 5% of the tax filers and pay about 60% of the income taxes (about 50% of Americans pay no income tax and are thus not directly vested in income tax questions). They are not hiring in fear of higher taxes, rich\/poor class warfare rhetoric, worry over new regulations, and rising fuel and energy costs \u2014 and that hesitation hurts poorer millions as we see with near nonexistent growth, a declining stock market, a 9.1% unemployment rate, near record low consumer confidence, record annual deficits and aggregate debt, and soaring fuel and food costs. Does the\u00a0Herald<\/em>\u00a0not see that a red-state Texas or the Dakotas does not experience the stasis of the Illinois\/New York\/California blue-state model, in the manner a Germany or Netherlands does not suffer from the insolvency of a far more liberal tax-and-spend Mediterranean Europe? Did California\u2019s 10% income tax rate, 10% sales tax rate, and record gas tax rates ensure that the problems of infrastructure (crumbling), education (near bottom in national test score rankings), crime (record numbers of inmates with record costs per inmate) and entitlements (among the most generous and the most endangered) were addressed far better than elsewhere with lower tax rates? Are job-employers arriving to, or leaving a naturally beautiful California in preference to a cold Utah, North and South Dakota or arid Texas?<\/p>\n Again, note the absence of any rebuttal to my original contention. Why does Warren Buffett simply not pay at the income tax rate, rather than at the capital gains rate, as do most of those who make over $200,000 who do not have his options? And why, given his belief that our debt problem is found in a lack of revenue rather than in wasteful and counterproductive government spending, did he assign his own fortune of nearly $50 billion to a private foundation rather than to a more benevolent and wise government to disperse as it saw fit, especially inasmuch he will deprive the community of billions in lost inheritance tax revenue? (And why invest heavily in life-insurance companies while advocating hiked inheritance taxes, when the former\u2019s profits so often depend on the latter?)<\/p>\n So the\u00a0Herald<\/em>\u00a0does not address the chief point of my argument: that the super-rich are different from the upper-middle-class; they often make arguments for higher taxes usually when they reach the point of being super-rich, not while struggling and ascendant, at least in part apparently because higher taxation levels do not really affect their ample income in a way it might the family dentist, electrical contractor, or computer sales manager who, whether logically or due to emotion, so often reacts to a redistributive agenda like that of the last three years by not hiring another receptionist, another electrician, or another sales rep.<\/p>\n And finally, should we laugh or cry when the liberal\u00a0Herald<\/em>\u00a0starts out with \u201cWhen someone as rich and influential as Warren Buffett speaks, most people listen.\u201d I guess I\u2019m not \u201cmost.\u201d You see, I don\u2019t listen to someone, right or left, based on whether they are \u201crich and influential,\u201d but rather whether their ideas seem logical and well presented. In the case of Warren Buffett, his wealth and media exposure, as with a George Soros or Al Gore, mean less than nothing to me. I would rather listen to hundreds in Selma and Fowler who own tractor repair shops, oil driveways, and sell pesticides but who daily make far more sense than do Buffett and the \u201crich and influential\u201d who live lives that do not match their advocacy.<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media It is odd for a newspaper in unsigned editorials to go after a writer. But the Monterey Herald has done that on occasion with me, and with the usual\u00a0ad hominem\u00a0tactics and failure to offer a rebuttal, which seem at odds with basic journalistic ethics. Here is the latest with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[145],"tags":[12,1014,1057,401,473,1062,1044,1052,640],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-wE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2055,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-war-against-the-wannabe-rich\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":0},"title":"The War Against the Wannabe Rich","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services There is class warfare going on in this country \u2014 but it's not against the established rich. It's against those who are trying to become wealthy. President Obama has declared that those who make over $200,000 will pay higher income taxes. Caps on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2009"","block_context":{"text":"December 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/december-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3312,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/make-the-rich-pay\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":1},"title":"Make the Rich Pay!","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Last week, President Obama reversed course once again and now wants to raise taxes on the \"rich\" making above $250,000 per year. Obama is in dire need of additional revenue after proposing a $3.8 trillion 2011 budget \u2014 containing the largest deficit in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Taxes"","block_context":{"text":"Taxes","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/taxes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1034,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-not-soak-the-rich\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":2},"title":"Why Not Soak the Rich","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services For the last two years, $250,000 in annual income has been an arbitrary line in the sand of a renewed class war. Those above it must have their income taxes raised. Those below it are deemed more virtuous and so deserving of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2010"","block_context":{"text":"December 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/december-2012\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1482,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/pampered-populists\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":3},"title":"Pampered Populists","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner It's surreal to see President Obama play the class-warfare card against the Republicans while on his way to vacation on the tony Maine coast, and even more interesting to note that now gone are the days when the media used to caricature Bush I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":765,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-power-of-cool\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":4},"title":"The Power of Cool","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online When Barack Obama two years ago joked at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner that potential suitors of his two daughters might have to deal with Predator drones (\u201cBut boys, don\u2019t get any ideas. Two words for you: Predator drones. You will never see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Identity Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Identity Politics","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/identity-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3332,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/patient-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":5},"title":"Patient Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Last week the president\u00a0gave a speech on the deficit\u00a0[1], rightly trying to convince Americans that it is now beyond unsustainable. Yet his theme was that the Republicans\u2019 attempts to reduce it were cold-hearted, endangering the most vulnerable among us, such as those with Down\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/commentary-obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2025,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions\/2025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Monterey County Herald
\nPosted: 08\/24\/2011 01:45:06 AM PDT<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\u201cAbout every month or so either a politician \u2014 a Barack Obama or John Kerry \u2014 or a billionaire \u2014 a Bill Gates Jr. & Sr. or Warren Buffett \u2014 or a celebrity \u2014 a Matt Damon \u2014 pontificates about the need for some sort of higher taxes, as if we are supposed to be in awe over such professed magnanimity. Usually the narrative goes one of two ways: \u2018I wouldn\u2019t mind paying more taxes\u2019 or \u2018My secretary pays more taxes than do I.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOf course, the very wealthy who rant about higher taxes simply could pay higher taxes\u2026The media would love Matt Damon if he were paying 70percent in taxes on his income. Indeed, he could start a movement to shame other Hollywood celebrities, who then could shame CEOs, who then in turn could shame the rich in general. Or alternatively, the very wealthy who feel under-taxed simply could donate directly to their own favorite government program \u2014 a Head Start, solar power subsidy, or food stamp program.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nNo, Victor, Buffett\u2019s secretary doesn\u2019t pay more taxes than her boss does, but her tax rate is less than half of his.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n