Click here to see Paul Ryan offer a teaching moment to Chris Matthews and Cong. Joe Crowley. The whole thing's good, but the money moment begins about 3:57 when they're talking about eliminating tax cuts "for the wealthy."
Matthews asks:
Are you comfortable going to the voters, Congressman Crowley, with a proposal to eliminate the $250,000 and above tax cut?
To which Crowley, bright light proving the incandescent intelligence of the Congress
that he is, responds that he doesn't have any such voters in his district.
I could tell you, Chris, in my district, there are very few people who make more than that money just a gross income of $250,000 or more. And I think, to live in the greatest country, as I said before, the world has ever known, it`s a small price to pay.
Really, Congressman? There are no
S-corps in your district? Because, as Ryan patiently and smilingly explains:
You have to understand, Chris, 75 percent of those people who pay that tax rate are small businesses who file as individuals, not corporations. That`s the problem with this economic argument, Chris, is when you think you`re just taxing rich people like Bill Gates, what you`re end up doing is you`re hitting successful small businesses. When we tax our employers more than our foreign competitors tax theirs, they get our jobs and we lose in global competition.
