Idiocy Alert: Bill Maher Falsely Claims Bush Tax Cuts Gave Rich $2.8 Trillion
NewsBusters readers are well aware that we like to point out when arrogant, pompous, holier-than-thou liberals make completely false statements on the air and in print.
Bill Maher marvelously did so on HBO's "Real Time" Friday claiming that the Bush tax cuts have so far given a total of $2.8 trillion to the richest one percent of Americans (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BILL MAHER: What it really comes down to is that we spend so much of the money on the richest people in this country. Between the Bush tax cuts when he was in office and now the extension it’s something like $2.8 trillion to the richest one percent who don’t feel that at all. Can you honestly tell me if we had taken that amount of money and put people to work building bridges and roads and schools in this country…
LARRY KING: A W.P.A.
MAHER: … wouldn't this country be better off right now?
As NewsBusters reported last August, the liberal think tank the Brookings Institution calculated that extending all of the Bush tax cuts for an additional ten years would cost the Treasury a total of $3.675 trillion.
Of that, Brookings identified that $679 billion - or less than $70 billion a year - would go to married couples making over $250,000 and individuals earning in excess of $200,000.
It therefore is logical to conclude the cost of these taxes the previous ten years since enacted in July 2001 has been somewhat similar, and that Maher was off by over $2 trillion or 75 percent.
And this idiot is not only allowed to go on HBO once a week spreading such falsehoods totally unchecked, but he also gets invited on other television programs to do the same.
Meanwhile, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wonders why America's voters are so ill-informed.
Frankly, it's because ignoramuses like Maher are bestowed an overabundance of credibility by being given television programs, and their fans eat up every non sequitur like it's the finest caviar.
Just imagine the people sitting in that audience actually applauded a total falsehood.
If they were at all informed, they would have booed him off stage as they would have the MSNBC contributor who earlier in the show suggested Barack Obama's budget deficits have been smaller than Ronald Reagan's were.
Makes you weep for the future, doesn't it?
- Noel Sheppard's blog
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Comments
Noel.. on the top 1% of income earners..
Submitted by Gary Hall on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 1:23pm.
You, being the expert, will have to ice this for me, but:
As of 2008 (looking at Fiscal Fact, No. 249) the adjusted gross income (AGI) of the top 1% stood at $380,354. A simplistic deduction here might be to assume that the $70 billion figure ($250K/$200K) includes more than the top 1% of income earners.
(;~> gary
Oh, so the richest 1% kept 2.8 trillion of their own money?
Submitted by Red Jeep on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 1:28pm.
And something is wrong with that?
Idiot Maher ...
Submitted by NL207 on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 1:28pm.
The Bush Tax Cuts did not give one penny to anyone.
Nobody's income is the property of the Government. Maher's entire argument is based on the tyrannical proposition that all property and income belong a priori to the Government. This is conceptually contrary to the principle of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. It is simply un-American.
So true NL, it infuriates me
Submitted by Scuba Dude on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 2:12pm.
So true NL, it infuriates me when I hear these libturds spew about us "paying" for the Bush tax cuts!!!!
I truly wish any Republican/Conservative sitting there would immediately slam them so hard they would be left a blubbering mess. These friggin libturds have absolutely have no idea about economics or finance.
Infuriating isn’t it? If Bill
Submitted by Reaver on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 4:51pm.
Infuriating isn’t it? If Bill truly believes one hundred percent of his income belongs to the government perhaps he should just turn it over. He likes to accuse tea partiers of hypocrisy for collecting social security so naturally, being opposed to the Bush tax cuts, he tells his tax accountant to compute his taxes at the Clinton rate so he can pay the “proper” amount. Or do you think it’s more likely that he fully itemizes his income tax and takes every deduction the law allows?
Only his accountant knows for sure because Lord Knows
Submitted by ProudAmerican58 on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 5:30pm.
he is utterly clueless.
Still, I agree, this "the rich has to pay their fair share" mantra by people who are rich gets old.
If billionaires like Maher and the rest of his elitist brethren believe they should be paying more in taxes they why don't they just DO IT and leave the rest of us alone?!!!
You think they'd be this amenable to such an idea if it meant they'd no longer be able to live in the manner in which they've become accustomed.
Skipping the obvious...
Submitted by Scott Trent on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 2:32pm.
You`re skipping the obvious here. How do you "give" $2.8 Trillion in money earned by the people who earned it? You don`t. You take less of their hard earned money by force. That`s not even close to give....
Government Grinch
Submitted by JakeMo on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 5:41pm.
For Christmas this year I'm going to follow the Maher model of giving:
I'll tell my kids I'm "giving" them the gift of only stealing half the money from their piggy banks instead of taking all of it.
This is why
Submitted by Dave81 on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 3:44pm.
I prefer print (including online like this) news rather than TV. It's so easy on TV to just spew numbers and statistics without citing source or evidence and people just go along with it. When you try that in print, it's so easy to provide a link to your source or some article to backs you up that when you don't, people are suspicious.
Most 'liberals' only want to hear things they agree with...
Submitted by Phryj1 on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 3:56pm.
...or that reinforce their views and beliefs. Most of them also consider anyone who disagrees with them stupid or uninformed, and use that to justify dismissing or ignoring anyone with opposing views. Since 'liberal' implies open-mindedness, very few of these 'liberals' are actually liberal at all. There are a few exceptions, but by and large, these 'liberals' are just mindless fanboys of leftism.
Here's the way Bill Maher's 'mind' works. He thinks people only disagree with him because they are stupid, that means he's smart and they're dumb, and he's right and they're wrong. Circular logic orbiting an ego massive enough to have it's own gravity well.
Progressives seem to be completely averse to facts and logic. Apparently, reality has a conservative bias.
So in Maher's world
Submitted by KC Beach on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 7:22pm.
If you were robbed on the street and the robber took all your money but left you a $20, would the robber be giving you 20 bucks?
And all of this ignores...
Submitted by Order270 on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 8:45pm.
...the fact that Obama continued the same tax policy. If it was such a horrendous policy, why did Obama keep it in place?
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Submitted by GregE on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 10:02pm.
Maher: "....to the richest one percent who don’t feel that at all. "
How much do the 47%, who pay zero federal income taxes, feel it? I'll bet they feel that zero even less than those evil rich feel their amount.
Maher
Submitted by batcat on Sat, 06/04/2011 - 11:49pm.
Everyone knows that Maher gives morons a bad name, and he blows dead bears.
Bill Maher To Be Intoduced To The Decimal System
Submitted by Avitar on Sun, 06/05/2011 - 12:33am.
I can nolonger grasp a thought Process that can keep Bill Maher walking around up right but produce errors of this magnitude. Was he thinking that was what the Government could get if the Obama death panels kill off the rich and estate taxes were collected?
I believe you intended to add "tank" to "liberal think" in your
Submitted by Rush Fan on Sun, 06/05/2011 - 2:18am.
post.
With this country's educational system in an accelerated downfall, journalist and media spewing falsehoods and misinformation, and an influx of illegal and illiterate aliens populating our cities, the future looks bleak for our children and grandchildren. I say this as an old man who has enjoyed, for most of his life, the fruits of a center-right nation.
A couple of things
Submitted by gmaniac1 on Sun, 06/05/2011 - 7:27am.
First referring to Bill Maher as an idiot gives idiots a bad name.
Secondly, the left constantly berates the evil rich though where would the muck of society (i.e. the liberal contingent) be without these same people?
bill maher IS AN ARROGANT,
Submitted by telecaster on Sun, 06/05/2011 - 9:41am.
bill maher IS AN ARROGANT, HYPOCRITICAL LIAR. His mother must be so proud.
we spend so much on the richest....???
Submitted by wizardjr on Sun, 06/05/2011 - 2:09pm.
"... is that we spend so much of the money on the richest people in this country."
Huh?
Close...
Submitted by Cowboy on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 1:04am.
Well, $70 billion a year nearly covers a $1,650 billion annual deficit, right?
The US Treasury paid $414 billion just in interest on the debt in fiscal 2010.