Reporting from Iowa on Monday, ahead of the Democratic Caucus, CBS This Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil received praise from left-wing Senator Elizabeth Warren for his recent effort to sell socialism. The 2020 Democratic contender cheered a segment aired on Friday that featured Dokoupil using pies to convince unwitting mall patrons to support wealth redistribution.
“First stop, an overflowing rally for Senator Elizabeth Warren,” Dokoupil eagerly announced at the top of his report on Monday. He noted that “We spoke with her backstage about how the economic pie is distributed,” as he referenced his Friday coverage: “An issue we covered last week with a real pie.”
Warren marveled at the juvenile stunt: “You had it exactly right. You showed how it is that the wealthy have so much pie. When I do a wealth tax, it’s not to hand out money, it’s to make the investments.”
Viewers of Friday’s CBS This Morning could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a comedy skit when Dokoupil was shown standing in the middle of a shopping mall asking baffled bystanders if they wanted to talk about economic inequality. After getting several nos and a few odd looks, the morning show anchor held up a pie and proclaimed: “This is the American pie!”
The report began with Dokoupil explaining:
The growing gap between rich and poor Americans is one of the biggest challenges facing the country. Get this, the richest 1% controls more wealth now than at any time in more than a half century. And that’s a concern cited by every leading Democratic presidential candidate and a recent bipartisan survey found that most Americans, 61%, think it’s a problem. But how big of a problem and what does wealth inequality really look like in this country? We found that most people have no idea.
Talking to participants in his mall performance, Dokoupil unveiled his table of props:
We turned America’s economic pie into a real one....We have five plates. This represents everybody in America. So you’ve got your wealthiest 25% all the way down to your poorest 20%. And that is the American pie. The pie itself represents about $98 trillion of household wealth in America.
After giving the volunteers a chance to “dole it out as accurately as possible” across the different income levels, Dokoupil smugly announced: “No one was even close.” He explained to his dismayed assistants that “it’s actually nine pieces of pie....90% of the wealth is right here at the top,” while the lower middle class “got some crumbs” and the poor not only “have no pie,” but are actually “in pie debt.”
Dokoupil went on to specifically tout Warren and socialist Senator Bernie Sanders having “promised to redistribute the pie, with a special tax on fortunes $50 million and up.” The anchor happily added: “And polls show most Americans support the idea.”
No wonder why Warren was eager to return the favor on Monday by celebrating his fawning coverage of her radical agenda.
Dokoupil was shown asking some of his volunteers: “Do you think there should be an extra tax on the super-wealthy?” One woman replied: “Why not? They could afford it.” Dokoupil concluded: “The political fight will continue....but at our little table redistribution was a hit.”
After his pie display, Dokoupil only briefly noted the negative consequences of massive wealth redistribution schemes: “But you know, I have to serve this American pie, this economic pie, with a glass of cold water....A wealth tax, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, might actually slow overall economic growth.”
Feebly trying to sell socialism with baked goods, this is what passes for journalism in 2020.
Here is a transcript of Dokoupil’s January 31 report:
7:31 AM ET
TONY DOKOUPIL: The growing gap between rich and poor Americans is one of the biggest challenges facing the country. Get this, the richest 1% controls more wealth now than at any time in more than a half century. And that’s a concern cited by every leading Democratic presidential candidate and a recent bipartisan survey found that most Americans, 61%, think it’s a problem. But how big of a problem and what does wealth inequality really look like in this country? We found that most people have no idea.
(...)
DOKOUPIL: We turned America’s economic pie into a real one.
This is the American pie!
And found a lot more people willing to address the simple question: Who gets what?
We have five plates. This represents everybody in America. So you’ve got your wealthiest 25% all the way down to your poorest 20%. And that is the American pie.
The pie itself represents about $98 trillion of household wealth in America. We asked people to dole it out as accurately as possible.
(...)
DOKOUPIL: No one was even close.
So it’s actually nine pieces of pie. Yeah, 90% of the wealth is right here at the top. Now, the upper middle class and the middle class, they share one piece. So these guys, they've got about 80% of a piece, they get 20% of a piece. And then the lower middle class, they’ve got 0.3% of a piece. Yeah, they’ve got some crumbs there. There you go. That’s what they get. And the poorest, they have no pie. In fact, they have less than no pie, they actually have a bill for pie. They’re in pie debt. They owe pie.
People in the poorest 20% are, on average, more than $6,000 in debt.
(...)
DOKOUPIL: Let me show you something else. So even if you just look at the wealthiest and you go to the top 1%. So the wealthiest 1% of everybody, these people alone have not one, not two, not three, but four slices of pie.
(...)
DOKOUPIL: This election cycle...SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: It’s time for a wealth tax!
DOKOUPIL: ...Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have promised to redistribute the pie, with a special tax on fortunes $50 million and up.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: The wealthiest people in this country will start paying their fair share of taxes.
DOKOUPIL: And polls show most Americans support the idea.
(...)
DOKOUPIL: Do you think there should be an extra tax on the super-wealthy?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN A: Why not? They could afford it.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN B: Yes, they should. Will it happen? Probably not.
(...)
DONALD TRUMP: A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream.
DOKOUPIL: The political fight will continue....but at our little table redistribution was a hit.
(...)
DOKOUPIL: But you know, I have to serve this American pie, this economic pie, with a glass of cold water. And that is as follows. A wealth tax, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, might actually slow overall economic growth.
(...)
