Charles Pierce: The GOP remains committed, root and branch, to plutocratic economics

[phantom power]

It was the asides of which you had to be the most wary, the little morsels of truth that get dropped in as dependent clauses or as the classic "Oh, by the way…" coda, the tiny fragments of reality that cling to the end of the talking point. In last night's hooley, you may have missed the moment when Carly Fiorina seemed to say that the government has no constitutional authority to require a minimum wage, or the moment when Big Winner Marco Rubio just happened to mention that his economic plan includes zeroing out any tax on investment income. (Out in Malibu, Willard Romney felt a warm breeze from the mountains and didn't know why.) The audience certainly missed them. They weren't the applause lines that bullying Becky Quick turned out to be. But they were signifiers, both of them. The Republican party remains committed, root and branch, to plutocratic economics, to the fiction of the trickle-down, to the restorative powers of supply-side snake oil. On this, there is no room for debate. Which is why, among other things, it was hilarious to watch Tailgunner Ted Cruz and the rest of them try to turn CNBC (and the likes of Rick Santelli) into Pravda On Wall Street.

The economics they are pushing do only one thing well: shove more of the country's wealth upwards. History tells us this. The candidates don't tell all of us this, but they tell their donors this very thing when they think nobody's listening—or covertly taping their remarks. Right, Mitt? The contempt for ordinary workers, the suckers who vote for them because of scary Muslims or Jeebus or both, is manifested most clearly when they talk to their primary constituencies within the country's oligarchy. Sometimes, though, the truth slips out. Marco Rubio wants no taxes at all on investment income. None. Zero. Zippola. Bupkis. And he quoted JFK to support his position in the clumsiest example of the chronic supply-sider tic of enlisting Kennedy as a premature Lafferite I think I've ever seen. As I usually say in such circumstances, when we get the top marginal rate back up to 65 percent, which is the level to which Kennedy's tax cut reduced it, then we can start to talk about the rest of it. I think it's significant to note that, when Rubio tossed this turkey from the helicopter last spring, even supply-side fanatic Steve Moore thought it was at best incoherent nonsense, albeit because it also includes a head-fake toward middle-class tax relief that Moore believes leaves the plan open to reneging on its glorious promises to the yacht-owning classes.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a39277/republican-party-plutocratic-economics/

[KamaAina]

1. Root and branch?

Where's that Alabama fan who poisoned Auburn's oak trees when you need him?

[2naSalit]

2. Indeed!

[eShirl]

3. "...when Rubio tossed this turkey from the helicopter last spring, ..."

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Made Me Laugh Too!

"As god is my witness, i thought turkeys could fly!"