Prayin' for Time.

Krugman's column today brings to mind George Michael*:

Yes, Republicans are pushing the line that raising taxes at the top would hurt small businesses, but their hearts don’t really seem in it. Instead, it has become common to hear vehement denials that people making $400,000 or $500,000 a year are rich. I mean, look at the expenses of people in that income class — the property taxes they have to pay on their expensive houses, the cost of sending their kids to elite private schools, and so on. Why, they can barely make ends meet.

And among the undeniably rich, a belligerent sense of entitlement has taken hold: it’s their money, and they have the right to keep it.
...
Never mind the $700 billion price tag for extending the high-end tax breaks: virtually all Republicans and some Democrats are rushing to the aid of the oppressed affluent.

You see, the rich are different from you and me: they have more influence. It’s partly a matter of campaign contributions, but it’s also a matter of social pressure, since politicians spend a lot of time hanging out with the wealthy.

Which explains the appeal of neophyte politicians, I think. Remember Davy Crockett's latter career? Coonskin in the House? (Not being racist; that was his folksy campaign sell**.)

The more things change...




--------------

* The rich declare themselves poor
And most of us are not sure
If we have too much
But we'll take our chances
'Cause God's stopped keeping score
I guess somewhere along the way
He must have let us all out to play
Turned his back and all God's children
Crept out the back door
...
So you scream from behind your door
Say what's mine is mine and not yours
I may have too much but I'll take my chances
'Cause God's stopped keeping score
Did you cling to the things they sold you?
Did you cover your eyes when they told you
That he can't come back
'Cause he has no children to come back for

Enjoy the last lingering days of summer 2010.
Make of them what you will...

**Crockett, Davy (1786-1836), American folk hero. The real David Crockett was a Tennessee backwoods politician who had the good fortune to be systematically promoted by the Whig party to counter the frontiersman appeal of the Democrat Andrew Jackson. The latter, under whom Crockett served in the Creek war (1813-15), made a point of ending his political career in 1835. His Autobiography, vigorously ghost-written by the Kentucky congressman Thomas Chilton, and several likewise imaginative almanacs ensured that the ‘coonskin’ image caught on during his lifetime. But his durable position in popular culture, most notably the commercial craze of the 1950s, was born of his heroic death as the best-known defender of the Alamo. There is violent controversy whether he was among the handful killed after surrender, but the point is surely that he went to Texas to explore land investments and could easily have avoided his fate. He chose instead to share the fortunes of the volunteers and thus to symbolize uncompromising commitment to liberty.

~ Hugh Bicheno

US Military Dictionary: Davy Crockett