Sunday, July 11, 2010

Time Dulls The Memory

John Torinus' weekly diatribe about how tax payers should be subsidizing businesses is nothing really out of the ordinary for him. It is basically the same old "Taxes bad for business, but more than OK for the little guy," type of meme that conservatives have echoed for years.

Predictably, Owen Robinson thinks it's "spot on."

Brewtown Gumshoe is a little more straightforward with his opinion of Torinus' opinion:
Torinus and his ilk want to dismantle social programs, punish public workers, relieve themselves from paying taxes, and have their profits assured into perpetuity (at taxpayer's and worker's expense).
I am just curious on how Torinus would justify his double standard. Throughout the column, as with other columns, he parrots the right's usual anti-tax talking points, but then goes on to champion TOMMY!!:

Tommy Thompson was a governor in the 1990s who understood pro-business policies, but also the value of positive signals and strokes.

It looks like he's not running for office again. But he could add a lot of value to the job creation efforts by setting up a cheerleading school for presidents and governors.

So, according to Torinus, taxes are bad for business, and TOMMY!! was good for business. But under TOMMY!!, taxes were much higher than they are now. Not only that, but TOMMY!! was not afraid of spreading the money around, especially with the road builders and the health care mavens.

I will concede that TOMMY!! could be seen as pro-business though, considering how cozy he was with their CEOs and their lobbyists, and enjoyed much of his life through their generosity to him.

It just would be nice if the conservatives got their talking points straight, and even nicer if they were honest about them.

1 comment:

  1. 1. That's King Tommy.
    2. Taxes are great as long as they hit ordinary citizens and the benefits to to a private organization like the Milwaukee Brewers for a stadium. "Stick it to 'em."

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