by Tina Grazier
Big money stars of Hollywood are often out on the television circuit begging politicians to give them higher tax rates.
Stars like Barbara Streisand, Will Smith, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Eva Longoria come out in droves to endorse President Obama who calls for higher taxes on the rich and insists that greedy corporations should pay more of their fair share to help bring down the debt. I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about all of the shaaaaaaaaaared love! “Cause that’s what shared sacrifice is, isn’t it? It’s shared love!
Imagine Americans sacrificing together to share the tax burden…to share the love!
Can you dig it?
CAN YOU BE THE DREAM?
In California Governor Brown and the Democrat run legislature share the dream of higher taxes to fix the problems they produced.
There is just one teeny little problem with this dream. The emotionally infused notion of “shared sacrifice” is just so much fairy dust, trick lighting, and camera angles when there’s a union to protect or a special industry that needs a tax break or a favor.
Governor Brown shows us how it’s done…via the L.A. Times:
“The state of California took a big step forward today, thanks to Gov. Brown and the legislature,” said MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd. “The two-year extension of the state’s production tax credit will keep California competitive for tens of thousands of production-related jobs. This is an important victory for California’s economy, our national economy, and the hardworking men and women who comprise the film and television industry.”
You remember Chris Dodd, the disgraced former Democrat Senator from Connecticut?
He was one of Countrywide’s, “Friends of Angelo”…part of a group of high powered Congressmen that were given favors in exchange for making sure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remained firmly in the business of purchasing Countrywide’s bundled low cost home mortgage loans:
Former Countrywide Financial loan officer Robert Feinberg says Mr. Dodd knowingly saved thousands of dollars on his refinancing of two properties in 2003 as part of a special program the California mortgage company had for the influential. He also says he has internal company documents that prove Mr. Dodd knew he was getting preferential treatment as a friend of Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide’s then-CEO.
That a “Friends of Angelo” program existed is not in dispute. It was crucial to the boom that Countrywide enjoyed before its fortunes turned. While most of the company was aggressively lending to risky borrowers and off-loading those mortgages in bulk to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Mr. Feinberg’s department was charged with making sure those who could influence Fannie and Freddie’s appetite for risk were sufficiently buttered up. As a Banking Committee bigshot, Mr. Dodd was perfectly placed to be buttered.
Dodd is now Chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America and as such does buttering lobbying for the motion picture industry.
Isn’t that nice? Suddenly tax cuts are good!
Corporate tax breaks are good! They’re good for the California economy. They’re good for workers. Tax breaks offer incentives for the motion picture industry to do business in California! They create jobs and opportunity for thousands of Californians! Quoting the L.A. Times and Chris Dodd again:
“This is an important victory for California’s economy, our national economy, and the hardworking men and women who comprise the film and television industry.”
Hooo-wee…they even got a lick in for the President…it’s a good deal for the national economy too!
We’re feelin’ the love now!
Here’s a question…or two…or more…If it’s good for California and the nation…then why isn’t it also good for all of California’s industry and business? Why isn’t it good for all Employees? Why not across the entire fruited plain? Why not the rich?
Why does the philosophy of a tax break only apply to one industry, the film and television industry, in California?
In reality this is crony capitalism…another case of government picking winners and losers. Democrats do it all the time. I think they think they are entitled!
But according to these generous, caring, employment inducing democrats…the rest of us greedy buggers had just better pay up!
,strong>Governor Brown breaks for Hollywood…but he sure isn’t giving the rest of California business a break.