The 1 Percent
Published August 27, 2013
by Gary Pearce, Talking About Politics, August 26, 2013.
Republican pay policies are the same as Republican economic policies: For the top 1 percent, lobster and champagne! For everybody else, crumbs. Cookie crumbs, I presume.
The N&O reported that DHHS (Department of High High Salaries) “has created new high-salaried positions in its central office this year and is paying some top executives more than their predecessors even as the agency’s full-time payroll and average salary have declined.”
This on top of high, high salaries for campaign aides with negligible health and human services experience.
On top of McCrory, in his first official action as Governor, giving big raises to his Cabinet secretaries.
This is such a wonderful line of attack because it is so simple and people get it so clearly: “Governor McCrory paid two 24-year-old campaign aides more than $85,000 each. But he wouldn’t raise teachers’ pay.”
Now Democrats have called on the Republican legislature to inquire into the raises. If they don’t inquire, Tillis, Berger & Co. are complicit.
The Republican response goes like this: Criticizing these raises for 24-year-olds is age discrimination.
That’s a knee-slapper. But here’s an even better one. A Richard Dietz wrote in the Charlotte Observer: “Alexander Hamilton was in his 20s when he began work on the Federalist Papers. Thomas Jefferson was barely 30 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Ifyoung people can draft the core tenets of American government, surely they can help run a state agency.”
You’ll know the rest of this story if you remember the 1988 Quayle-Bentsen debate. (You kids who don’t know, look it up. You’ll get a kick out of it.)
To paraphrase Senator Bentsen, I know about Hamilton and Jefferson. Hamilton and Jefferson are heroes of mine. Diaz and McKillip are no Hamilton and Jefferson.
August 27, 2013 at 8:55 am
Richard Bunce says:
Political hack stirring up the base again... your check is in the mail.
August 27, 2013 at 10:12 am
Norm Kelly says:
Can we take it from your comments that you know Diaz and McKillip well enough to know they are not worth the room they take up? You know them well enough to know that they are overpaid, just because they are young? Did you express the same outrage when Democrats were in control and did stupid things?
As for the Republicans supporting champagne & caviar for the 1%, let's look at it from the opposite/Democrat/Liberal perspective. (while I believe the liberal perspective is the opposite of just about everything worthwhile, that's not what i meant in this case!) The Democrat way of thinking is, at every level of government, federal & state, that the top 1% should pay a higher percentage because they have more. The top rate for rich people should be higher because they got "lucky" at some point in their lives, walked on enough poor people, that they got rich. So, because they have so much, we'll steal it from them & make everyone else feel good that we've put those nasty, do-nothing, lazy rich people in their place. So when an across the board tax cut is proposed, liberals say that it should apply to everyone except the rich. In the minds of liberals, it is just fine, to be expected, that rich people should have more of their money confiscated from them. After all, it is "their fare share" that they are paying.
So, be the first liberal in modern history, answer 1 simple question: what exactly is their fare share? How much should government be allowed to steal from people who have worked hard enough, provided a better service/product, that they've made money? Another good question for liberals: if the income tax rate is set at 10% for everyone doesn't it mean that rich people automatically pay more? (10% is just an example, not a suggestion) Another obvious question for liberals: is it right that just because I have income, I should pay another tax? What about people who don't have income, should they be excused from supporting the very government that creates a safety net for them? Maybe it's just me, but it sure seems that every day another tidbit is revealed indicating that productivity is under assault, another regulation is exposed making it harder for private business to employ more people, pay people what they deserve, fire who they want, hire who they want. The sliding income tax rate is just another example of penalizing success. I save money in my bank account every month, allowing it to accrue for the rainy day, and I'm taxed on it (though I've already paid income tax on the money that was put into the bank). Another way of penalizing someone who tries to do the right thing (for themselves!). Maybe that's why I feel penalized. I'm trying to do the right thing for myself & my family, and liberals don't want independent people. But that's for another blog post.
