Ben Stein on tea parties.

[hay rick]

Turns out Ben Stein doesn't quite get the tea party thing: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/business/economy/12every.html?scp=3&sq=Ben%20Stein&st=Search

"These tea parties strike me as off-base, in some respects, though they evoke a certain principle that rings true, or at least possibly true.

First, I don’t quite get the taxation uproar. As far as I know, no new taxes of any size have been enacted. The only new tax I can spot immediately in front of us is the “cap and trade” levy on carbon emissions, which would be a tax on energy consumers. And even that, based on a questionable idea, doesn’t seem imminent.

When the recession ends, though, we will be facing very large budget deficits, even under the best projections. Unless the Federal Reserve is just going to print money — usually a dangerous road to inflation — how will we pay for government, except through taxes? And who has the money to pay, except the rich? So unless I am missing something, don’t we have to tax the rich, defined in some sensible way?"

Hmmm. Bush tax cuts overboard.

Stein on another subject:

"I’d like to bring up one more little bijou about the economic crisis. I read that Lawrence H. Summers — wonderful guy, fine economist, former Harvard president, high-ranking economic adviser to Mr. Obama — was paid about $5 million last year by a large hedge fund, D. E. Shaw. Some other high-ranking Obama advisers were also fantastically well paid by the finance sector.

Of course, this phenomenon didn’t begin with this administration. The last Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., was the head honcho of Goldman Sachs and was paid hundreds of millions by it. (Yes, that’s one of the banks that we as taxpayers supported with many billions, via the A.I.G. conduit.)

I know people and I know money, at least the basics. If anyone thinks that a man who has had a taste of honey from Wall Street on that scale will ever really crack the whip on Wall Street, he’s dreaming. Wall Street knows how to get its hooks into government. This is how the world works. Money talks."

I disagree with Mr. Stein on numerous issues- oil companies, evolution, and military spending come immediately to mind. But credit where credit is due- he is in touch with the economic realities that we currently face. Sad that the same can't be said for the vast majority of his fellow Republicans.

[havocmom]

1. Mebbe ol Ben gets some now and then

and isn't so consumed thinking about teabaggin?

[Mike 03]

2. Ben Stein is a washout failure who applied for a job with my father years ago and couldn't even

qualify for that. I read what he submitted for that job, and it was... lame. It wasn't disgraceful, but it was lame. And I was fourteen years old when I read it, and even then I knew it was lame.

[Skittles]

3. that's pretty bad

when tea parties are so fucking stupid even Ben fucking Stein cannot spin them