Neuman the Pig fills in for Liberal News Anchor Bob Bubbly, who is out with the flu. Bob sees that his Neuman is doing so well, he takes a drastic step to protect his job.

My favorite is the one that stumbles over himself at the 38 second mark.

But read further in the article and one will learn that the poll data included 44% Democrats and a mere 17% Republicans. They say their sampling has a plus or minus error rate of only 5%.

And they wonder why they come in at the bottom of the pile for ratings.

Read the entire article here: CNN

Photo courtesy WikiCommons

It’s been more than four years since the Left began demonizing Sarah Palin, criticizing everything from her hair to her speech patterns. After losing the election we were told by the Main Stream Media that ordinary citizen Sarah was: no longer an important part of the Tea Party, not accepted by the Republican Party; that she was not relevant.

And yet, the Left, particularly the biased media, keep Mrs. Palin in the news. They love to headline the Palin family and criticize every word she says.

It makes no sense. If Sarah Palin is really irrelevant why do they keep talking about her? Why, today, is the Huffington Post and other Leftist news sites top story the amount of money per spoken word that Palin made as a contributor to FOX News?

HuffPo: Sarah Palin’s time at Fox News is over, and so is her $1 million-per-year salary. Now, a university study has chronicled just exactly how much the former vice presidential candidate was making when she did each interview on the network.

The University of Minnesota’s Eric Ostermeier tallied up all of the words Palin uttered during her three years on Fox News, and divided them by the $3 million she racked up over that time. His conclusion:

A Smart Politics review of the more than 150 FOX broadcasts in which Sarah Palin appeared as a paid commentator from 2010 through 2012 finds that she spoke 189,221 words on air during this span, for an average pay rate of $15.85 per word.

Has any other irrelevant news analyst had his words counted and attached a dollar per word figure? Has any other irrelevant celebrity had her slang words counted? Because when something is irrelevant it is no longer of interest to others. When someone is irrelevant after using up that 15 minutes of fame and returning to general anonymity.

Or, in the eyes of the media, is Sarah Palin still relevant?

This is what the “News Media” is counting on!

“The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media.” – William Colby, former CIA director

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
– William Casey, CIA Director (from first staff meeting, 1981)

Obama urging the National Weather Service to find more bad weather before the election.

Hurricane Sandy — much like Barack Obama — turned out to be an over–hyped phenomenon that failed to deliver. Our portion of the storm in Northern Virginia was so weak the Multicultural Commissars didn’t even bother to give it a Hispanic name, like last summer’s “derecho” (formerly known as “severe thunderstorm”).

I tried to lend a hand and come up with a culturally–sensitive name, but Spanish for “Sandy” is still “Sandy,” making it tough to appear cutting edge during a TV broadcast.

“Hurricane” translates as “huracán” and the resulting “Huracán Sandy” fails to advance the cause of linguistic arrogance. It doesn’t compare with changing the perfectly good name of “Bombay” to “Mumbai.” All that did was confuse millions of Americans looking for a particular large city in India. (The Indians already knew where it was.)

Besides, where does one draw the line? Does the “pecan sandie” cookie become the “sandie pacana?”

There were houses smashed by downed trees in my neighborhood — certainly a disaster for the affected homeowners — but nothing to compare with the “derecho.”

Even during the height of the hype, my household preparations were limited to bracing for a potential power outage. Since our family has never associated bowel movements with natural disasters, we even missed the ‘Assault on Food Lion.’ Because we don’t feel compelled to buy a pallet–load of toilet paper anytime it’s overcast for three consecutive days.

The local paper wrote of a Dominion Power repairman that just missed being drowned by rising floodwaters. But who noticed the unsung American Disposal Services crews braving wind and rain to pick up household trash during the beginning of the blow? While government employees, enjoying the shutdown, watched from their front window.

Naturally Obama’s media amen chorus and the administration itself, are doing their best to politicize the storm. There was extensive damage in New Jersey and New York. So the WaPost proclaims, “Storm provides Obama with a commander–in–chief moment.” Which only goes to show the mainstream media (MSM) thinks we’ll believe anything.

The attack on the consulate in Libya provided Obama with a genuine “commander–in–chief” moment where he could have affected events on the ground, which is something “commanders” do. But Obama failed miserably.

Hurricane Sandy provides him with a Social–Worker–in–Chief moment, a situation with which community organizers are much more comfortable. Obama took a helicopter tour while the wind was still blowing. Yet FBI investigators had to wait weeks before they could visit the ruined consulate in Libya, only to discover the scene hopelessly compromised by hundreds of journalists and sightseers who didn’t wait for administration approval.

And to show benighted conservatives how fortunate we are to have Obama in the White House, the WaPost adds: “Rarely, if ever, has a president had to deal with such a major disaster so close to Election Day…”

What’s “rare” — in fact unprecedented — is the MSM allowing an administration to take a bye on a disaster like Libya so close to an election. Governors in New York and New Jersey call Obama for help and he’s Johnny–on–the–spot. SEALs in Libya call for backup during an attack that kills four Americans, including the ambassador, and get an administration brush off.

If only Libya had a few more votes in the Electoral College.

The story also includes a breathless blow–by–blow of his day.  During a videoconference Obama uses the MSNBC slogan as he orders the bureaucracy to “lean forward on this.”

Then he holds a conference call with utility executives and “underscore(s) the urgency of restoring electricity,” as if the people at PEPCO were unaware their customers depend on electric power.

This is busy work in a pathetic effort to look engaged and presidential. It compares unfavorably with Obama’s trip to a Las Vegas fundraiser the evening we learned of Ambassador Stevens’ death.

The New York Times editorial page weighed in with, “A Big Storm Requires Big Government,” possibly indicating the NYT believes severe weather to be a recent invention.

Maybe they have a point. How could we do without FEMA officials “embedded in states’ emergency operations centers” getting the latest from local police, local fire and local officials. Then trying to decide how to give tax dollars taken from the states, back to the states after Uncle Sam has taken his cut for overhead, motivational speakers and government employee awards.

How did we survive disasters before Jimmy Carter’s FEMA got involved?

When I think of the abandoned buildings, the decaying harbor and the rusting trolley cars — all this could have been prevented if only Washington had helped after the San Francisco earthquake.

To say nothing of the vast desert, formerly known as Chicago, after the fire of 1871…

Gingrich was completely cleared by the IRS in February, 1999, of politically driven allegations that he earned money by teaching, via videotape, a college course that was partisan rather than educational. The MSM virtually ignored the ruling that neither Gingrich nor the nonprofit organizations that sponsored the classes had done anything wrong. Democrats said his teaching the course was a campaign gimmick, and filed ethics complaints accusing him of illegal use of tax-exempt funds for political purposes. In 1997 Gingrich agreed to pay a $300,000 fine for making misleading statements to the ethics panel and failing to seek better legal advice before using tax-exempt money for the course.

Let’s see. Gingrich was cleared in February, 1999. It is now February, 2012. MSM, you’ve had thirteen years to make as big a deal about Newt’s exoneration as you did when he was charged with ethics violations. We’re waiting.

And what is the MSM doing? Just what you would expect. On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi told CNN’s John King, “Let me just say this. That will never happen. He’s not going to be President of the United States. That’s not going to happen. Let me just make my prediction and stand by it: it isn’t going to happen.” But, then on Thursday, January 26, 2012, she retracted her statement. Pelosi, appearing on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, “clarified” her statements about former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. She said, “Let me tell you what is the truth. Everything I’ve said or will ever say about Newt Gingrich’s ethics is in the public record. I’ve said on and on, just read the public record.”

Just another example of the MSM protecting their own and not reporting the complete story. The MSM will counter that it is not legally obligated to report the complete story. But they will never acknowledge the moral obligation to report the complete story (unless it suits their purpose). And we all know that the MSM has no morals.

But that’s just my opinion.

BTW, Jon Corzine made $400 million when Goldman Sachs went public.

But enough about Jon Corzine and his troubles. Let’s get on with the purpose of this post.

Did you know that NPR, CBS, and ABC have trouble in their “news” broadcasts identifying Jon Corzine as a Democrat? Only the NBC Nightly News took the time to say he is a Democrat.

On Thursday’s (December 8, 2011) All Things Considered, NPR’s Yuki Noguchi and Lynn Neary omitted Jon Corzine’s Democrat affiliation, while Noguchi gave the Republican party affiliation of Frank Lucas and Timothy Johnson, two representatives who questioned Corzine at a recent hearing.

After NBC News anchor Brian Williams set up the Corzine report, correspondent Kelly O’Donnell included Corzine’s party affiliation in only the beginning of her report.

On the CBS Evening News, anchor Scott Pelley failed to identify Corzine’s party.

As ABC’s World News devoted an entire report to Corzine’s testimony, neither substitute anchor David Muir nor correspondent Linsey Davis mentioned party affiliation.

And the New York Times, in an October story, cited Corzine’s party affiliation in paragraph nine.

This Associated Press story, a rather long one (judge for yourself) that discusses Corzine’s career, mentioned his party affiliation in the penultimate paragraph.

But there is much more going on in and around Tahrir Square that the MSM is NOT reporting. For example;

• The Muslim Brotherhood, as is Hamas and Hez’ballah, is portrayed by the MSM as a peaceful, religious organization, just another political party. So when the Muslim Brotherhood staged a rally in a prominent Cairo Mosque, and thousands of its followers shouted to “one day kill all the Jews” and volunteered for “jihad” to liberate all of Palestine, most MSM gave this event a pass. Never mind that it revealed a dark side of the Muslim Brotherhood’s real agenda and cast a cloud over Egypt’s adherence to its 1979 peace treaty with Israel. That picture of the Muslim Brotherhood didn’t fit the favorable perception propagated by the MSM.   See this article by DJ Redman about the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) – Muslim Brotherhood – Hamas – OWS connection, and this article by Jeff P about the CAIR – Muslim Brotherhood connection and recent activities in this country.
• Two journalists were sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square. Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian-born U.S. columnist, said she was sexually assaulted Thursday, November 24, 2011. Caroline Sinz, a reporter for France 3 television, said on Friday, November 25, 2011, that a day earlier she and her cameraman were attacked by young men in the square. Sinz said she was punched, then “subjected to a sexual aggression in front of everyone in full daylight.” She continued, saying boys 14 to 16 years old “tore off my clothes and undergarments” and assaulted her.

• Reporters Without Borders, an international journalism group, issued an advisory to the MSM to not to send female journalists near Tahrir Square, making it clear that last February’s rape of CBS News reporter Lara Logan was not an isolated incident. But that organization was forced to withdraw the statement. According to one Cairo-based woman reporter, sexual harassment has been more prevalent in the past week than during the revolution earlier this year. “I’ve never experienced this much [harassment] in all my time in Egypt,” she said. “Today’s Tahrir Square has a menacing feel. It’s a grittier and dirtier Tahrir than before.”

With their fixation and preference for an end to military rule, the MSM ignored the fate that may await women under Egypt’s new civilian rulers. The MSM has ignored all of the recurrence of sexual assaults in Egypt, and of the Muslim Brotherhood’s hatred of the Jews. Almost anything that does fit the MSM template is ignored.

But that’s just my opinion.

Gasoline and Oil Prices

As of Monday, November 14, 2011, the nationwide average gasoline price was $3.436 per gallon (including all taxes) for regular grade. That price is UP by 54.4 cents from a year ago. It is cheapest on the Gulf Coast ($3.231) and most expensive on the West Coast ($3.759).

In the “so what?” department, gasoline prices in the United States are actually lower than in many countries. Drivers in some European cities, like Amsterdam and Oslo, are paying nearly 3 times more than those in the U.S. The main factor in price disparities between countries is government policy. Many European nations tax gasoline heavily, with taxes making up as much as 75 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has, in a recent report, said that oil supplies would become “critically tight” in 2012. Analysts predict that oil prices could go higher as production capacity and inventories are “effectively exhausted.” In the past four years we have seen China entering transactions all over the world to secure oil resources to fuel their economy over the coming years, increasing demand. The price of oil, on Friday, November 18, 2011, for benchmark crude, fell $1.41 to finish at $97.41 per barrel. But, as can be seen here, the price of a barrel of crude oil is trending upward after a sharp decline in 2008. And the price of oil definitely has an effect on gasoline prices.

Obama (In)Actions

So what has Obama done lately to relieve or increase oil production capacity? Well, on the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline he “passed the buck” and made no decision. The Obama administration opened on Tuesday, November 8, 2011, more of the U.S. coast to offshore drilling, opening six offshore areas with active oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska. The entire West and East Coasts of the continental USA remain off limits, as does the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). “Since President Obama took office, he has systematically taken steps to reimpose an offshore drilling moratorium, and today he is one step closer to making that a reality for the next five years,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA). “Oil and natural gas production on federal lands continues to decline under this administration, and the new Offshore Oil & Gas Program does not provide much hope that this destructive trend will be reversed anytime soon,” said Karen Harbert of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The MSM

So where does the MSM come in? The MSM is doing its best to hide that fact that when Obama took office on January 20, 2009, gas was $1.84 a gallon. It topped $2 a gallon on March 26, 2009. And it continues to rise, topping $3 per gallon in December, 2010. And AAA said that prices could be as high as $4.25 to $4.50 a gallon in 2012 thanks to crude oil volatility and increased demand due to positive economic indicators.

Obama called on major oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, to increase their oil supplies and production. Obama, on the one hand, is asking for more production from countries to whom the United States sends billions of dollars for oil every year. On the other hand, he is taking cash away from companies who use that cash to increase domestic production of oil and related jobs. The ultimate outcome of course being more reliance on foreign countries for oil and fewer jobs at home. Was his plea or actions ever noted in the MSM?

MSM “experts” several times in 2011, predicted that gasoline prices, which nearly hit $4 a gallon in 2011, would be dropping. Remember how badly the MSM lamented high gas prices during the Bush administration? In August, 2005, John Blackstone of the “CBS Evening News” said, “Across the nation, gas prices went to record highs today. Will it get to the point that only the privileged can afford gas?” Gas then was around $2.60 a gallon. Gas is almost 80 cents higher right now, yet the MSM isn’t screaming about the 1 percent being the only ones who can afford gas.

During the near-record price spike that occurred earlier this year, the MSM hardly treated higher prices like a big story. They produced just 40 percent of the gas price stories than they had during the 2008 price increase that occurred under Bush. Further, the MSM linked “skyrocketing” gas prices to Bush 15 times more than Obama.

During the Bush administration, fluctuating gas prices was a way the MSM depicted a struggling economy. Now under Obama, they largely dodge their own indicator because it would make their man in the White House look bad.

So I looked up the word “uppity.” Here is what I found: Definition of UPPITY: putting on or marked by airs of superiority: arrogant, presumptuous (uppity technicians) (a small uppity country). Examples of UPPITY: Don’t get uppity with me.     Uppity social climbers who were the biggest snobs in town.

There is ABSOLUTELY nothing racist about this definition. Yet the MSM has its own definition: from ABC’s Jake Tapper on World News on Monday, November 21, 2011, “Uppity, a word that means presumptuous, but is loaded with racist connotations often used to describe African-Americans who don’t know their place in the view of white society.” So now we have the MSM (re)defining words to suit their purpose.

World News fill-in anchor George Stephanopoulos said “the First Lady booed at a NASCAR event. Now Rush Limbaugh weighs in, hurling a racially charged word at Michelle Obama.” The next time Stephanopoulos spoke of the incident, “word” became “words.” “Still ahead on World News, Michelle Obama booed at a NASCAR event and now Rush Limbaugh hurls racially-charged words at the First Lady.” Then Jake Tapper snidely chimed in, “Don’t worry, NASCAR fans, Rush Limbaugh is here to defend your honor and make things worse….Much worse.”

And I remember in 1999, a Washington D.C. councilman used the word “niggardly” (grudgingly mean about spending or granting: begrudging) to describe a proposed budget. On January 15, 1999, David Howard, a white aide to Anthony A. Williams, the black mayor of Washington, D.C., used “niggardly” in reference to a budget. This apparently upset one of his black colleagues (Marshall Brown), who interpreted it as a racial slur and lodged a complaint. There have been controversies concerning the word “niggardly,” an adjective meaning “stingy” or “miserly,” due to its phonetic similarity to the racial slur “nigger.” The two words are etymologically unrelated. When Rush Limbaugh pointed out that Howard was correct, he was castigated by the MSM.

We have already seen the MSM try to redefine the word “conservative,” saying we are insensitive to groups that the MSM defines, such as illegal aliens. What’s next? Will the MSM castigate us conservatives because that word is phonetically similar to the word “conservation?”

But that’s just my opinion.

Cable News Network (CNN), ever a bastion of liberalism, at its website, tried to say that the”lazy” remark was taken out of context. On November 18, 2011, Roland Martin, CNN Contributor, said:

“… Texas Gov. Rick Perry used the word in an ad, not even bothering with the context. Fox anchor Martha MacCallum said Obama was ‘scolding’ Americans. Sean Hannity, never one to let facts get in the way of a good lie, said Obama ‘attacked’ Americans. And the king of taking anything out of context, Rush Limbaugh, said the president ‘insults the people who make this country work.’

Seriously, please pass the cup so these folks can take a drug test because they are hallucinating.

This is the problem with the stubborn belief in American exceptionalism: It assumes that no matter what the issue, Americans are the best in the world and can’t be topped or beaten.

There is another word for this: arrogance.”

All of this from an American, no less!

But I get off point. Obama’s “lazy” remark received a TOTAL of just 36 seconds on the ABC, CBS, and NBC morning and evening news shows. That coverage came during Kelly O’Donnell’s report on Monday’s (November 14, 2011) Today show. Both CBS and ABC completely ignored it.

Compare that with the coverage of Herman Cain’s pause when answering a question about Libya on November 15, 2011. It generated 11 segments on ABC, CBS, and NBC in just two days. This was on top of the Big Three’s feeding frenzy over women accusing Cain of sexual harassment.

Are we beginning to see a MSM pattern here?

But that’s just my opinion.

A memo prepared by GOP staff at the House Energy and Commerce Committee cites an October, 2010, email from an unnamed Solyndra investment adviser to another unidentified investment adviser. The email said DOE officials were pushing “very hard” to delay announcing the layoffs until November 3, 2010, – the day after the midterm elections. The email said, “Oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.”

Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison told the DOE that he had “received some press inquiries about rumors of problems,” and also notified DOE that he wanted to tell employees about upcoming layoffs on October 28, 2010. According to the GOP memo, Harrison’s email was forwarded to Jonathan Silver, then head of the DOE Loan Programs Office, and to Energy Secretary Chu’s chief of staff. Silver forwarded the email to Ron Klain, then Vice President Biden’s chief of staff, as well as Carol Browner, then head of the White House climate change office.

An October 30, 2010, email in which an unidentified Argonaut executive tells Ken Levit, director of George Kaiser’s charity, “No announcement till after elections at doe request.” was released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight subcommittee. Argonaut Private Equity, BTW, is the investment firm that backed Solyndra and is owned by Obama fundraiser George Kaiser.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said last week that GOP lawmakers have “cherry-picked” documents, trying to create controversy over a decision-making process that the White House insists involved no political influence.

While The Washington Post, no bastion of conservatism, gave front-page coverage to the latest Solyndra scandal development, the MSM ignored the layoff delay request. ABC, CBS, and NBC all ignored this latest Solyndra development in their November 15, 2011, evening newscasts, and on their November 16, 2011, morning programs. Both Fox’s Fox and Friends and MSNBC’s Morning Joe commented on the lack of coverage.The MSM has a history of ignoring Obama scandals.

News Anchor:  “We have a report from the scene that Republican Candidate Herman Cain is attempting to swat a dangerous mosquito.  We will be going to our field reporter later in the news cast.  This is really big, a man swatting at a mosquito that could knock him out of the presidential race.  This is a story that could end a bid for a presidential nomination.  More later on that but for now we will take a commercial break.”

Now Behind the scenes, off air, what the viewers can’t see or hear:

Field Anchor:  (Laughing) “You should see this guy. I keep telling him there is a mosquito buzzing his head but there isn’t.  He’s waving, and waving.  This is hilarious.”

Anchor:  “You idiot, we have been hyping this story since the beginning of the telecast.  We can’t go to the audience and tell them it is a fake story to waste their time and unfairly destroy a career.  What are we going to do”?

P.R. Man:  “Don’t worry.  Just begin to talk about what a pathetic job he is doing swatting at the mosquito”.

Anchor: “They won’t buy that”.

P. R. Man:  “Yes they will. Our viewers are so stupid they would believe it was snowing in hell if we had fire, snow, and a guy in a devil suit in the same picture.  And we can get the Republican talking heads to agree with us because they want the air time”.

Anchor: “What about the TEA Party and Cain supporters?”

P. R. Man: “Don’t worry about them. We will just call them racists, mosquito-phobes, and Nazi’s, you know, like we usually do. Our viewers will eat that up, all 2% of them.”

Now to the report:

Anchor: “Now we go to our field reporter who is with Herman Cain.”

Field Reporter:  “Thank you, anchor. I am here with Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain.  He is swatting at what he thinks is a mosquito.  No one has actually seen the mosquito but it has been reported by anonymous sources that one is actually hovering around his head. What is unique about this story is that he can’t seem to hit the mosquito.  He doesn’t seem to be capable of swatting this mosquito because he isn’t holding his hand in the right position.   Mr. Cain, you seem to be having a hard time with this mosquito.”

Herman Cain:  “I don’t see any mosquito.   I don’t hear any mosquito.  Where is this mosquito?”

Field Reporter:  “Mr. Cain, how does it feel to not be able to swat this mosquito you can’t see or hear?”

Herman Cain: “Do you see a mosquito?”

Field Reporter:  “Mr. Cain, there must be a mosquito.   We have reports of a mosquito hovering around your head.  I don’t need to see the mosquito, it has been reported to exist.”

Herman Cain:   (stops waving , frustrated by now) “Do you see a mosquito? Show me this mosquito you keep telling me about and I will swat it.  There is no mosquito for me to swat.”

Field Reporter: “Well, Mr. Cain has stopped swatting at the mosquito and has yelled at me. How could he talk to me that way?  Mr. Cain, has spoken rudely to this reporter.  Now back to the anchor desk” (reporter breaks into sobbing)

Anchor: “Thank you field reporter.  Well that was just unnecessary.  Not only can Mr. Cain not swat the reported mosquito, he has been gruff to a member of the media.  Analyst, what do you think of this little outrage?”

Analyst: “Well it is obvious that Mr. Cain is not very good at swatting mosquitos.  Not only can he not swat a mosquito properly, he seemed to get miffed because we kept reporting on a mosquito that wasn’t there instead of listening to what he had to say about the economy.  It is painfully obvious to this analyst that Mr. Cain does not realize who he is speaking to.  He will learn to bow to us like the other Republicans do.”

Anchor:  “Thank you, Analyst, I quite agree. Now a word from our sponsor.”

Off air once again:

P.R. Man: (Comes running in): “That was great. Everyone in every media outlet is talking about how bad Herman Cain is at swatting mosquitos. They have no idea that the reported mosquito doesn’t even exist.  And our viewers are all talking about Cain’s mosquito swatting technique. By the time they figure out there was no mosquito Herman Cain will be ruined.”

Anchor:  “We really pulled that one off. Everyone is talking about how a man can’t swat a mosquito that doesn’t exist.  We have total control of public opinion. I AM ALL POWERFUL!!!! Now the rest of the candidates will bow down to us and be afraid to oppose anything we say. If they do, we can do the same thing to them and all the others will cower before us.” (Maniacal Laughter).

MSM, OWS, Obama Administration

The OWS gang and President Barack Obama want the “rich” to pay their fair share of taxes. With that “fair share” statement in mind, let’s (again) look at income taxes and who pays them. Why again? Because the MSM covers the OWS and Obama administration and promotes the “fair share” message. We can never stop broadcasting the truth! Combating the MSM can never stop because the MSM never stops.

Taxes

While it is true, as the OWS gang claims, that the “rich” are making more of the income (20%), they are also paying most of the income taxes (38%). Since 1980 the rich’s share of income has doubled, but so have income taxes. Those making at least $114,000 in 2008 (the last complete year from the IRS), earned 45% of the nation’s income, and paid 70% of all taxes. The top 25% of earners, those earning at least $67,200, took in 67% of the income, and paid 86% of the income tax total. The average income tax rate paid by those in the bottom half of the income scale is only 2.6%. Couple those facts with the fact that, in 2010, 47% of households paid no income tax. In fact, some in that group will be getting money from the federal government.

Tax Rates

One thing the MSM and Democrats love to focus upon is how tax rates have fallen for the “rich.” The latest manifestation comes in the form of the “Buffett Rule.” “[Last year] what I paid was only 17.4% of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than what was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office,” wrote Buffett. Obama chimed in, “Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward.” That is what the MSM reported, but they did not report WHY Buffett paid a lower rate. There are two fundamental reasons. Buffett makes a lot of money from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate than wages. And the Social Security tax applies only to the first $106,800 in wages.

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, chairman of the DNC, said that we’re at the lowest tax rate since the 1950s. When Wolf Blitzer of CNN (no bastion of conservatism) pointed out to her that the “rich” pay a huge chunk of the federal income tax, Wasserman-Schultz responded, “But they’re still at the lowest tax rate since the 1950s.”

As can be seen in terms of who pays taxes, there is a big difference between taxes paid and tax rates. Besides, if some of the “rich” want to pay higher taxes in the form of gifts, they are free to do so.

The Deficit and “Tax the Rich”

To partially offset his massive overspending, Obama proposes to raise taxes on the “rich.” His class warfare plan can take him only so far since the rich don’t earn enough to make up the difference for all the spending he plans. The proposed Obama tax hikes, in the next ten years, will take almost $700 billion from taxpayers. That is only 8 percent of the nearly $9 trillion President Obama’s budget adds in debt over that same period. Low tax revenues are not the cause of the debt explosion, spending is.

Bush Tax Cuts

The MSM and Obama administration never tire of demonizing the “Bush tax cuts.” They contend that the tax cuts put more of the burden on the backs of the middle class and the poor. But that is simply not true. An analysis of Treasury Department data shows that the “rich” are paying more than they would have paid, not less, after the Bush tax cuts.

And they like to maintain that the “Bush tax cuts” favored the “rich.” In a static world that is true. But the world isn’t static, it’s dynamic. There was more investment, more hiring by businesses, and a stronger stock market. Comparing taxes paid under the old system with those paid after the Bush tax cuts, the rich actually paid a higher proportion of income taxes. The latest IRS data show an increase of more than $100 billion in tax payments from the wealthy by 2005 alone. Why can’t Obama and his economic advisors learn this one fact? But I guess it’s easier to promote “class warfare” by mixing apples and oranges, a static world with a dynamic world.

They also maintain that gains by the rich come at the expense of a declining living standard for the middle class and poor. Again, that is simply not true. The middle class (defined as those between the 40th and the 60th percentiles of income) isn’t falling behind or disappearing, it is actually getting richer. The lower income bound for the middle class has risen by about $12,000 (after inflation) since 1967. The upper income bound for the middle class is now roughly $68,000, $23,000 higher than in 1967. A family in the 60th percentile has 50 percent more real income (buying power) than 30 years ago. And the same thing is happening to the “poor.” Real income levels of the poorest 20% of Americans have actually risen. Economics professor Steve Horwitz explains why this is true.

Conclusion

The rich aren’t paying their fair share, they’re paying their unfair share. But the MSM, OWS gang, and the Obama administration ever let facts or the truth get in their way. And have you noticed that they (MSM, OWS gang, Obama administration) never cite references or analyze data? All they can do is repeatedly play the “class warfare” card.

But that’s just my opinion.