60 Minutes continued its love affair with billionaires tonight: cbsnews/8301-18560_162-57612677/the-giving-pledge-a-new-club-for-billionaires/ Bill and Melinda Gates eradicating polio from the face of the earth (except where war and oil mix), over 100 billionaires so far pledging a half trillion dollars and counting to charity, because government cant do it all. How could is that -- except for the hot answers to questions unasked by Charlie Rose. For instance, for all the wonderful examples of philanthropic goals of these denizens of the .01%--and make no mistake about it, some are funding important developments, even, we hope (Mr. & Mrs. Gates, here at NAM)--how much of their lobbying money goes to things like opposing minimum wage increases, or backing anti-labor measures, especially for public employees. Now Charlie and his producers did spend quite a bit of time discussing efforts by one of those who agreed to be on the show, an E-Bay founder, who has financed notable advocacy documentaries, such as Al Gores Inconvenient Truth. You know, they focused on political/media influence by the liberal. But what about the grandfatherly fellow seated with the others in the Billionaires Club, the one noted in passing to be using his wealth for fight the National Debt? Who could be against that? Well, Ill tell you who -- maybe you. You see, this billionaire is named Peter G. Peterson. Now, I happen to know a lot about this one because he has financed groups such as the current Fix the Debt organization arguing that the U.S. economy needs be saved for our grandchildren but -- guess what -- cutting Social Security and Medicare. But also, unlike his friend Warren Buffet and his Bill Gates, who created the billionaires club, Mr. Peterson has also forceful lobbied to keep something in the tax code called carried interest on the books as is. You see, that rule taxes hedge fund and similar profits at 15%--a lower rate than, say, his chauffeur pays or the wait staff at the Four Seasons in New York, where Mr. Peterson famously has lunch every day. Now Charlie Rose knows well of this controversy, because he loves to interview Pete Peterson now and then on his PBS program. But.well, maybe Social Security was just too complicated to get into here. And isn;t the idea of political influence by a liberal more, you know, Billionaire bites right. Its try of course, but yet another 60 Minutes half truth. (Except the whole untruths they have to apologize for, as happened last week.) Id sure like to know what the others 100 or so in the club have done to weaken the American economy and drain the countrys middle class -- so they can go on TV to talk about the diseases they are curing. But that might take better, excuse the expression, journalism.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 05:10:47 +0000
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