The Koch Brothers message: “We care”
by digby
I wrote about the latest PR campaign coming from the billionaire boys club for Salon this morning:
One of the more interesting sub-plots of this election season is the newfound interest in income inequality among the billionaire class. It seems odd, wouldn’t you say, that they would be suddenly struck by the idea that such drastic disparities in wealth and income aren’t simply the natural consequence of the invisible hand rewarding those who deserve it? That has certainly been the line we’ve heard for decades from the wealthy Masters of the Universe and Titans of Industry (not to mention those who were smart enough to inherit vast fortunes or marry into them). Indeed, after the financial crisis of 2008, virtually all we ever heard from the 1 percent was whining about the terrible unfairness of being held liable for the destruction of millions of lives in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Their total lack of self-awareness was illustrated by endless quotes such as those reported in this 2011 story about something called the Job Creators Alliance, “a Dallas-based nonprofit that developed talking points and op-ed pieces aimed at shaping the national agenda.”
To take just a few examples:
At a lunch in New York, Stemberg and Allison shared their disdain for Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires public companies to disclose the ratio between the compensation of their CEOs and employee medians, according to Allison. Stemberg called the rule “insane” in an e-mail to Bloomberg News. “Instead of an attack on the 1 percent, let’s call it an attack on the very productive,” Allison said. “This attack is destructive.” […]Asked if he were willing to pay more taxes in a Nov. 30 interview with Bloomberg Television, Blackstone Group LP CEO Stephen Schwarzman spoke about lower-income U.S. families who pay no income tax. “You have to have skin in the game,” said Schwarzman, 64. “I’m not saying how much people should do. But we should all be part of the system.” […]Tom Golisano, billionaire founder of payroll processer Paychex Inc. and a former New York gubernatorial candidate, said in an interview this month that while there are examples of excess, it’s “ridiculous” to blame everyone who is rich.“If I hear a politician use the term ‘paying your fair share’ one more time, I’m going to vomit,” said Golisano, who turned 70 last month, celebrating the birthday with girlfriend Monica Seles, the former tennis star who won nine Grand Slam singles titles.
This was during the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which these fine fellows referred to as a bunch of “imbeciles.” There was some nervousness about all that “populist anger” being directed at the wealthy elites but for the most part, they were merely petulant and pouty about being criticized by inferior people who simply weren’t giving them proper credit for being their wonderful selves. The billionaires already had all the money and all the power. Now they wanted to be loved.
Not kidding.