Blue Blood 1 %’er Tom Kean Jr: The Fate of the Free World Is In The Balance
The Richter Scale Shakes: so many examples, so over the top, so little time
[A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces goes off]
Horatio:
What does this mean, my lord?Hamlet:
The King doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail, and the swagg’ring up-spring reels;
And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.
Is it a custom?Hamlet:
Ay, marry, is’t,
But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honor’d in the breach than the observance,
I read that Tom Kean Jr – the epitome of what Paul Krugman calls the rise of “The New Gilded Age“ – is really, really mad – to the point of Statehouse protest! – about the Democrats’ attempts to raise taxes on millionaires and corporations.
Why, he feels that the fate of the Free World hangs in the balance: (Star Ledger):
These tax increases make this a much more difficult place to live, to work, to raise a family, to vacation, to raise tourist dollars, to really be a beacon for people around this country and around this globe to really believe in economic growth and opportunity,” state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union) said
He joins his corporate cronies from the Business and Industry Association and the Chamber of Commerce:
David Brogan, first vice president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said rolling back the business tax cuts or increasing taxes to address the state’s budget woes “would be devastating.”
“We’re in a fiscal crisis right now, but probably it is only going to get worse,’’ said Michael Egenton, a senior vice president of the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, said at a public hearing Monday that allowed the measure to move forward.
In capturing the essence, once again, my friend and superb writer Bill Neil gets it just right in this email note:
If you and the taxers are not nicer to them, they will move to Pennsylvania and tap into the freely flowing gas. And just as they say, the Democrats aren’t going after millionaires, they’re going after small businesses who just look like millionaires on their balance sheets, but we know that is not the full story.
They’ve got every angle on the revenue sources covered Bill, a self-sealed envelope with no visible seams; pry at any point for more revenue and the universe collapses inward upon everyone. This is not unlike the perpetual motion machine; its a perpetual protection scheme balanced just so. Move one little weight on those scales of economic justice and oblivion is just around the corner. Always. Look what happened in France in the spring of 1789 when the king convened the nation’s ancient processes to try to solve a very similar problem: le deluge followed. Do you want a state run by unemployed writers and bitter lawyers who have been reading too many Chris Hedges opinion pieces? Better leave well enough alone. With the Keans you’ll always be in good hands, always have been.