Major Karl Rove Donor: ‘I Should Pay More Taxes’

[lakhota]

Major Karl Rove Donor Ken Langone On Debt Negotiations: ‘I Should Pay More Taxes’


Investor and Republican financier Ken Langone

In Feb. 2010, Karl Rove and operatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce convened a meeting of mostly Wall Street titans to fund a set of Republican groups designed to run attacks on Democrats. Ken Langone, a wealthy Wall Street investor and controversial former head of the New York Stock Exchange, was one of the very first major donors to the Rove campaign groups, which now include American Action Network, American Action Forum, American Crossroads, and American Crossroads GPS.

Yesterday on the Fox Business Network, Langone was asked by host Lou Dobbs about how to kickstart the economy. Langone repeatedly said high unemployment is the greatest problem, but conceded that corporations are doing better than ever. To get things going, Langone explained, everyone would have to feel “pain.” In a sharp contrast with his friend Karl Rove, Langone said wealthy guys like him “should pay more taxes”:


LANGONE: Well I say this as a devout Republican. I think in these negotiations, I think number one guys like me, I’ve said this before, there’s a caveat. I shouldn’t get Social Security. I should pay more taxes.

Watch it:


Langone says higher taxes on wealthy individuals like himself should go “entirely to paying down the debt.”

As President Obama and Democrats have pushed to include modest tax increases on the wealthy as part of the debt negotiations, as well as a repeal on tax subsidies to big oil companies (deemed a tax hike by some conservatives and those in the media), Rove’s front groups have hit back with nasty attack ads claiming any tax increase would hurt the economy. Perhaps Rove should listen more to his own wealthy donors.

thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/30/258559/ken-langone-pay-more-taxes/

[lakhota]

Since 2009, 88 Percent Of Income Growth Went To Corporate Profits, Just One Percent Went To Wages

After the longest recession since WWII, many Americans are still struggling while S&P 500 corporations are sitting on $800 billion in cash and making massive profits. Now, economists from Northeastern University have released a study that finds our sluggish economic recovery has almost solely benefited corporations. According to the study:

“Between the second quarter of 2009 and the fourth quarter of 2010, real national income in the U.S. increased by $528 billion. Pre-tax corporate profits by themselves had increased by $464 billion while aggregate real wages and salaries rose by only $7 billion or only .1%. Over this six quarter period, corporate profits captured 88% of the growth in real national income while aggregate wages and salaries accounted for only slightly more than 1% of the growth in real national income. …The absence of any positive share of national income growth due to wages and salaries received by American workers during the current economic recovery is historically unprecedented.”

The New York Times adds, “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, average real hourly earnings for all employees actually declined by 1.1 percent from June 2009, when the recovery began, to May 2011, the month for which the most recent earnings numbers are available.”

So as average wages fall, and nearly 14 million people remain unemployed, America’s economic recovery has almost entirely benefited corporations. This development adds another chapter to the decline of the middle class, whose incomes are shrinking and wages are stagnating. Last year, top executives’ salaries increased 27 percent, while workers’ salaries increased only 2 percent. At the moment, income inequality in America is the worst it’s been since the 1920s, as the richest 1 percent make nearly 25 percent of the country’s income.

thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/30/258388/corporate-profits-recovery/

NOTE: The above link also contains several supporting source links.

[Politically_Incorrect12]

And you'll find many others who disagree....not hard to find somebody who agrees with your position. It's also highly unlikely than any gains in revenue will go directly toward paying down debt unless it is done so by using a shell game tactic. If you want to raise taxes on the "wealthy," do so across the board and then we can talk...as long as you also throw in some cuts as well. Otherwise you are simply promoting class warefare.

[privateinvestor]

Major Karl Rove Donor Ken Langone On Debt Negotiations: ‘I Should Pay More Taxes’


Langone may just get his wishes because Obama & the Liberals are trying to convince the repubs that tax in increases are to be a way of life but they disagree..

[djAdvocate]

great idea. wonder if him and Buffett could campaign for it.