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Stephen King spoke at a Florida rally Tuesday night against Governor Rick Scott. King said, "Maybe my next horror novel could star Rick Scott."
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From the video: "Thanks for commin' out. Remember, when these people talk to you about a weekend, thank a union guy. If you want a days honest pay for a days honest work, thank a union guy. Hate the war, love the veterans. We don't leave them to sit in corridors in their own urine while they wait for someone to take care of them. It's hot, we're almost done, I want to say one more thing. I hear a lot of things down here about how we can create Jobs, how Rick Scott is going to create jobs. Then I heard about the Obama administration getting ready to give this huge slug of money to Florida to build a light railway, over to Orlando. Scott said no no no, we can't do that because we'll end up holding the bag. He's right. It's probably a bad deal considering how low the price of gasoline is. Who wouldn't want to get on I-4 . . . I mean, who would want to get on a light rail when you could get on I-4 and wait in traffic?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/09/stephen-king-rick-scott-book_n_833697.html
Jon Bershad quotes King further: “Now, you might say, ‘What are you doing up there? Aren’t you rich?’ The answer is, ‘Thank God, yes.’ . . . And you know what? As a rich person, I pay 28% taxes. What I want to ask you is, why don’t I pay 50%? Why is everybody in my bracket not paying 50%? The Republicans will say, from John Boehner to Mitch McConnell to Rick Scott, that we can’t do that because, if we tax guys like me, there won’t be any jobs. It’s bull! It’s total bull!” http://www.mediaite.com/online/stephen-king-speaks-budget-cut-protest-says-florida-governor-should-star-in-his-next-horror-novel/
"It's total bull!" Except it isn't. King is a millionaire who employs probably a very small amount of people compared to someone who owns a company.
ReplyDeleteIf that person is suddenly taxed at 50%, his business suffers. Rich people don't just sit on piles of money all day, and perhaps King doesn't know this because he makes most of his money producing something on his own, but a business owner employs hundreds, thousands or millions of people. Their money is in constant circulation. I once heard a millionaire business owner quoted as saying "I have to spend 2 million dollars every day just to make expenses." What if he suddenly only has 1 million to do that with because the other goes to taxes? He'll have to cut down on those expenses and that means...layoffs.
It also means raising prices. King is way, way wrong on this one. Taxing the rich hurts everybody.