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Bill O’Reilly Whines About Taxes and Jon Stewart Hammers Him With Facts
When Bill O’Reilly tried to complain that his taxes were already too high, Jon Stewart beat him down with facts, and debunked the GOP’s howls of class warfare.
Here is the video from Comedy Central:
O’Reilly claimed that he is paying through the roof in taxes, and when Jon Stewart said that wasn’t true, the FNC’s top rated host moved the goalposts.
Here is their exchange:
O’Reilly: I’m not going to give you. I am paying now through the roof in taxes.
Stewart: You’re paying less than you paid in the nineties.
O’Reilly: That’s not true. Property taxes are up. If you had a home you’d know that. Sales taxes have gone up.
Stewart: The marginal tax rate was 39.6%
O’Reilly: Yeah, and now it’s thirty six.
Stewart: No, it’s thirty five. What is it?
O’Reilly: Thirty five and a half, you round it up.
Stewart: So, it’s 4% less. The rich have…
O’Reilly: But every other tax in the country has gone up. What’s the matter with you? Every other tax, sales tax, state tax.
Stewart: You are not living in reality. Here’s the reality. Here’s the reality. The top 1% taking nearly 25% of income today…
O’Reilly: And pay how much of the tax? 30% of it.
Stewart: The top 1% control 40% of the wealth. Twenty five years ago it was 33%. Top 1% have had incomes rise 18% over the last decade.
O’Reilly: So we should shoot them.
Stewart: I’m not saying we should shoot them, but we shouldn’t act like returning to the tax rates of the Nineties is class warfare on par with Lenin and Marx.
O’Reilly said that he would be in favor of raising taxes if he got big spending cuts. Stewart pointed out that this was Obama’s plan, and Bill-O replied with Solyndra. O’Reilly typified the Republican position by saying that he would agree to a tax increase on the wealthy if the federal budget was cut by 10% across the board.
The statistics Bill-O used to defend the wealthy were misleading. What he didn’t tell you was that 34% of federal revenue comes from the payroll tax, and the top 1% only pay 4.1% of the payroll taxes in this country.
Bill O’Reilly complained that state and local taxes have gone up, but he didn’t mention why. When the federal stimulus money dried up, states were forced to raise taxes and slash funding to local governments, which then caused a budget shortfall for local governments, who were then forced to raise taxes. Unemployment and the mortgage crisis have also caused state and local tax bases to erode. Economic factors combined with the fact that the term stimulus has been turned into a slur by Republicans, left many states with little choice other than to raise taxes in order to meet their constitutional requirement of a balanced budget. (A constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget is also a GOP fav).
The tax increases that Bill O’Reilly was moaning about are a direct result of the Republicans refusal to pass more stimulus. Stewart was right. Bill-O is not living in reality. The economy of the past decade has been so good to him that he easily can afford to pay the increased state and local taxes, and still come out with a profit due to the Bush tax cuts.
This latest Stewart/O’Reilly exchange on taxes demonstrated why it is impossible to negotiate with Republicans. Jon Stewart offer of rationality and facts, was met with a sarcastic rebuttal from O’Reilly that we should shoot the rich for doing well, and dismissal of the president’s deficit reducing plan by bring up Solyndra.
It isn’t class warfare to suggest that the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share, and no, Bill O’Reilly you don’t get to demand that the poor and middle class get hurt even more with a 10% spending cut to programs that they depend on. Why do we have to cut spending on schools, roads, grants for police and firefighters, Medicare and Medicare, and programs for children, the poor and the elderly by 10%, just to coax people like Bill O’Reilly to do what’s right and pay their fair share?
Bill-O caused his own local and state taxes to go up by supporting the slash and don’t spend policies of the GOP.
This isn’t a negotiation. Bill O’Reilly, stop whining and pay your fair share.
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6 Responses to Bill O’Reilly Whines About Taxes and Jon Stewart Hammers Him With Facts
Rick
Sep. 29th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Warren Buffett presented his tax return on Charlie Rose last month to prove that he pays a lot less than most of us.
So we just need to see O’Reilly’s “through the roof” tax return to show how much he’s suffering more than us.
What say you, Bill?
J
Sep. 29th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Its funny how Bill O’Reilly has become one of the most moderate of the right ever since the right went extreme radical. At least Bill O’Reilly has some intelligence so that some civil conversation is possible and of course humorous. Imagine if it was Palin or some other nutcase, a conversation like this would have to be a miracle.
Tidux
Oct. 1st, 2011 at 9:33 pm
The thing is, BillO’s come towards the center a bit. He used to be almost as crazy – just look at some of the stuff he said in the 90′s. He’s still got his own show on Fox, so I can only hope his leftward drift goes unchecked through election day.
Shiva (Moderator)
Sep. 29th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
another misleading fact from Mr. O’Reilly was concerning the people who don’t pay taxes. That fact was only true for 2009 when Obama dropped everyone’s taxes and people got tax credits. Especially those who are hardly making anything. That is not necessarily true today.
We would not have to raise taxes if we had a system by which there was no way to get out of paying your set percentage of taxes. Everyone pays a sales tax wherever they are, but there’s an awful lot of people not paying the percentage they should be paying. Kill all the deductions and fill all your taxes on one single postcard I made this much, whether it’s 1 million 10 million or 49,000, and here’s how much I owe. If you make it all on stocks investments than those investments need to be taxed. There shouldn’t be any way that you can get around not paying your set percentage. I don’t feel sorry for the millionaires today when the millionaires of 30 years ago were paying a far far higher rate. And they were profitable
I enjoy these go-betweens with Stewart and O’Reilly.
rm
Sep. 29th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Dick Morris Slams Trump, Palin, Huckabee, Christie and Daniels
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t...
Sarah Asher
Sep. 30th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
The class warfare in this country has been waged on the poor since Reagan, and the rich have won every battle.If you were trying to live on Social Security or Disability, you’d know that there isn’t 10% fat in *those* budgets. Electric rates, food and other basics are up,incomes flat. People are barely getting by – choosing between necessities, between food and electricity. Even with Medicare, many can’t afford doctors. These are not bums, they are hard-working Americans now too old or ill to continue in the labor force. Not that there are jobs for them out there in any case…
Moreover the tax cut to the rich was sold to us as a temporary stimulus measure,with an expiration date. Only the dishonesty of the bate-and-switch Republicans in Congress turned it into a tax-hike.
So many members of Congress are slavishly in the pocket of the rich and powerful; they are routinely selling out their constituents. O’Reilly is just helping them do it.