I’ll admit it, I am enjoying the epic flame-out of the Gingrich 2012 campaign. Watching him contort himself to prove that he is totally consistent with his 24-hours-ago-self is like paying the extra money to see behind the scenes at the circus freak show. This latest blunder presents a golden opportunity for those of us that have been trying to show that tax cuts don’t create jobs.
Newt has been shown to have been on the hook for $500,000 to Tiffany’s in New York. He has been subjected to a number of humorous references because of it. He’s been called Blingrich by several late-night hosts and Colbert suggested that this was because Newt buys his engagement rings in bulk. Newt’s expalnation?
As a private citizen who has done well, I think I’m allowed to pick and choose what I prefer doing.
True enough. Newt likely spent money on things like a diamond and platinum necklace ($45,000) that his wife Callista was spotted wearing. It sure must be fun to go back through the Getty Images of Callista and comparing them to the Tiffany’s catalog.
But the point that we aren’t hitting on, is that this is the sort of bullshit that we are enabling. The tax cut that Newt Gingrich received from the Bush administration didn’t go to create jobs. Sure, Tiffany’s probably was able to hire a “Gingrich jewelry consultant” position, but most of the money for Callista’s jewelry probably went to buying the precious metals contained within. There are no commercial diamond mines in the US and platinum mostly comes from South Africa and Russia. So some the tax cuts that the Gingrich’s received in 2003 that were supposed to create jobs, were instead spent on raw materials mined in Africa.
This is what we have to discuss. The uber-wealthy aren’t the job creators here, and cutting them an undeserved break on their contribution to our society doesn’t spur job creation. It allows them to amass more wealth, at the expense of our nation.
Newt Gingrich needs to be held up, not for mocking, but as the poster boy for what is wrong with the alchemy of trickle down economics and the degradation of civil society that it causes.
Here’s what Newt said on Face the Nation.
I’m a guy running for president who pays all of his bills, and after-tax income at no cost to the taxpayer, and who currently owes nothing except one rental property in Wisconsin. I am debt-free. If the U.S. government was as debt-free as I am, everybody in America would be celebrating.
Newt, America could be debt free if it weren’t for the snake oil you have been selling for the last 20 years. And the problem is that the cost to US taxpayers is that we are now paying interest on that tax money that you legally evaded paying, we can’t get an interest free loan from Tiffany’s as a country.
Of course, all of this is predicated on Democrats actually using this. So, nevermind.