When Senator Elizabeth Warren makes it official that she's running for president, she ought to hit up late night talk show host Seth Meyers for a campaign contribution. Better yet, his checkbook.
While chatting with Fox News's Bill O'Reilly last night, Meyers joked (or did he?) that he's more comfortable with Warren deciding what to do with his money than he is.
The conversation centered around O'Reilly's new book, "Killing Patton," until it turned in Warren's direction --
O'REILLY: I hate to disparage it (alluding to Congress), but you mentioned earlier that the approval rating for Congress is like seven percent.
MEYERS: Yeah.
O'REILLY: All right. Do you want them in charge of the economy? No. Have rules and regulations, have agencies that enforce them. But capitalism is what this country was built on and Elizabeth Warren would like to change that. So I disagree.
MEYERS: But I think if she wants to change it with just better rules and regulations ...
O'REILLY: That's OK.
MEYERS: That's OK, yeah.
O'REILLY: But, you know, I don't want Elizabeth Warren taking 70 percent of my money. I work hard for it and that's what she would do -- and your money too, Meyers. Your money too!
MEYERS: Let me tell you something, I'd feel safer, I don't trust me with it. (O'Reilly and the audience laugh). I don't trust me with it. ... I'd like her to hold it for me until I need it, I mean ...
O'REILLY: Believe me, she's not going to hold it. It's going to be spent.
After all, she's so darned earnest ... and she taught at Harvard!
Yes, Meyers is being facetious, but not entirely -- just as Woody Allen wasn't entirely kidding when he said he'd have an easier time believing in God if only He would leave a sign, like a large deposit in a Swiss bank. The philosophical fault line between liberals and conservatives is largely encapsulated in the exchange here. Wealthy liberal to government -- take more of my money, please, though nothing's stopping me from doing this voluntarily. Overtaxed wealthy conservative -- you're already taking plenty, thanks anyway, and the return on investment keeps shrinking.
Anyone who believes Warren and the angry collectivist left that she represents would temporarily "hold" their money might consider seeking treatment. Once the higher taxes sought by Warren kicked in, the steeper spending that followed would become the new baseline. After that, calls to reduce even the rate of higher spending would be derided as "slashing" of budgets by heartless conservatives.
O'Reilly, it's worth recalling, warned back in September 2011 that he might end his show on Fox if Obama raised taxes. Fortunately, O'Reilly stayed on after Obama and congressional Democrats pushed through expiration of the Bush tax cuts as of January 2013 -- for everyone except those in the highest bracket, who saw their 35 percent rate revert to the pre-Bush 39.6 percent.
Expect to hear more such discussions about Warren -- or Fauxcahontas as she's known here in Massachusetts -- while she sets in motion her inevitable challenge to Hillary Clinton, aka, Sitting Duck.
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