{"id":529818,"date":"2010-04-16T07:48:16","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T11:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehollywoodliberal.com\/2010\/04\/16\/right-wing-class-warriors-launch-tax-day-offensive\/"},"modified":"2010-04-16T07:48:16","modified_gmt":"2010-04-16T11:48:16","slug":"right-wing-class-warriors-launch-tax-day-offensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/529818","title":{"rendered":"Right-wing class warriors launch Tax Day offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.mediamatters.org\/~r\/mediamatters\/latest\/~3\/0T8SaovDqSw\/201004150042\" >Right-wing  class warriors launch Tax Day offensive <\/a><\/p>\n<p>In recent  days, right-wing  media figures have  stoked  class warfare while discussing taxes,  asserting that it&#8217;s not &#8220;fair&#8221; for the government to &#8220;steal&#8221; money from those  who &#8220;succeed&#8221; and give it to &#8212; in the words of Wayne Allyn Root &#8212; &#8220;those who  couldn&#8217;t care less, sit on the couch, and watch Oprah all day.&#8221; These media  figures have suggested that those without federal income tax liability or those  who benefit from tax credits or government assistance are &#8220;freeloaders&#8221; who  don&#8217;t work hard or succeed.<\/p>\n<h2>Right-wing media mark Tax Day by  attacking less fortunate as &#8220;freeloaders&#8221; <\/h2>\n<p><strong>Stuart Varney: Is  it &#8220;fair&#8221; for government to take &#8220;half&#8221; of money earned by those who &#8220;succeed&#8221;  and give it to others because they make less money?<\/strong> On the  April 15 edition of Fox News&#8217; <em>Fox &amp;  Friends<\/em>, Fox Business&#8217; Stuart Varney said: &#8220;Just think of the  fairness issue. Is it fair that you go out, start a small business, you work  hard, you save your money, you don&#8217;t spend lavishly. You succeed, and then the  government takes half your income &#8212; and that&#8217;s what&#8217;s happening these days &#8212;  the government takes half your income and gives it to other people, solely on  the grounds that they make less than you do. So it&#8217;s only fair for you to share.  I maintain that&#8217;s not fair.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wayne Allyn Root:  &#8220;It&#8217;s greedy to ask government and the IRS at gunpoint &#8230; to steal [money] from  others&#8221; and give it &#8220;to those who couldn&#8217;t care less, sit on the couch, and watch  Oprah all day.&#8221;<\/strong> On the April 15 <em>Fox &amp; Friends<\/em>, former Libertarian  Party vice presidential nominee Wayne Allyn Root said: &#8220;It&#8217;s not greedy to want  to keep more of your own money. It&#8217;s greedy to ask government and the IRS at  gunpoint and the threat of prison to steal it from others who earn it and  redistribute it to those who don&#8217;t. That&#8217;s the definition of greed.&#8221; He later  stated: &#8220;I am diametrically opposed to my old college classmate Barack Obama,  who seems to think you take it from the people that work all day to earn it, and  you redistribute it to those who couldn&#8217;t care less, sit on the couch, and watch  Oprah all day. That&#8217;s not my crowd.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Wall  Street Journal<\/em> op-ed: &#8220;Why  should I have to carry so many people on my back?&#8221;<\/strong> In an April  14 <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> <a  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303828304575180330903787128.html%3Fmod%3Drss_Today%2527s_Most_Popular\">op-ed<\/a>, Mike Donahue, &#8220;a financial  adviser in La Jolla,  California,&#8221; wrote:  &#8220;I have more than most only because I&#8217;ve worked harder  than most and because I am a saver. It was not easy.&#8221; He continued:  <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Why then  does the government feel so entitled to take my money and give it to others? Why  should I have to carry so many people on my back? Call me cruel. I don&#8217;t care. I  give to whom I choose &#8212; but since so much is confiscated (and wasted in the  process) I have little left I wish to give.<\/p>\n<p>During the  1990 recession I could have qualified for state and federal assistance, but my  wife and I managed to get by as she worked nights while we juggled our infant  daughter between us. It was hard. However, it never occurred to us to take from  others to subsidize our shortage. It&#8217;s not our way.  <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Phyllis Schlafly:  Tax Day &#8220;divides Americans into two almost equal classes: those who pay for the  services provided by government and the freeloaders.&#8221;<\/strong> In an April  13 <a  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Fcolumnists%2FPhyllisSchlafly%2F2010%2F04%2F13%2Famerica_becomes_a_two-class_society%3Fpage%3D1\">column<\/a>, Phyllis Schlafly wrote:  &#8220;Income tax day, April 15, 2010, now divides Americans into two almost equal  classes: those who pay for the services provided by government and the  freeloaders.&#8221; She later wrote: &#8220;The bottom 40 percent not only pay no income  tax, but the government sends them cash or benefits financed by the taxes  dutifully paid by those who do pay income tax.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bernie Goldberg:  &#8220;If we continue down a road where we&#8217;re giving half the country free stuff, they  will continue to take it, and they will drive us and this country into  bankruptcy.&#8221;<\/strong> On the April 12 <a  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/mmtv\/201004120061\">edition<\/a> of Fox News&#8217; <em>The O&#8217;Reilly Factor<\/em>, Fox News contributor  Bernie Goldberg said: &#8220;You can&#8217;t have a system where you give people &#8212; half the  country &#8212; free stuff, because they&#8217;re going to take it. And the other half of  the people are pulling the wagon while the half that gets free stuff is sitting  in the wagon. They&#8217;re going to take the wagon right to the poorhouse.&#8221; Goldberg  later called for a flat tax and stated, &#8220;If we continue down a road where we&#8217;re  giving half the country free stuff, they will continue to take it, and they will  drive us and this country into bankruptcy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\"> <a  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.mediamatters.org\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?a=0T8SaovDqSw:TGYH7QV3ewM:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.mediamatters.org\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?a=0T8SaovDqSw:TGYH7QV3ewM:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?i=0T8SaovDqSw:TGYH7QV3ewM:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.mediamatters.org\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?a=0T8SaovDqSw:TGYH7QV3ewM:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?d=qj6IDK7rITs\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.mediamatters.org\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?a=0T8SaovDqSw:TGYH7QV3ewM:l6gmwiTKsz0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?d=l6gmwiTKsz0\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a  rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.mediamatters.org\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?a=0T8SaovDqSw:TGYH7QV3ewM:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/mediamatters\/latest?i=0T8SaovDqSw:TGYH7QV3ewM:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/mediamatters\/latest\/~4\/0T8SaovDqSw\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right-wing class warriors launch Tax Day offensive In recent days, right-wing media figures have stoked class warfare while discussing taxes, asserting that it&#8217;s not &#8220;fair&#8221; for the government to &#8220;steal&#8221; money from those who &#8220;succeed&#8221; and give it to &#8212; in the words of Wayne Allyn Root &#8212; &#8220;those who couldn&#8217;t care less, sit on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":807,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-529818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/807"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}