Matt Taibbi is becoming my favorite political writer. This is not say I agree with everything he says but he does seem to nail down things that everyone else is either missing or deliberately avoiding. In this blog post, he notes how our tax codes keep carving out certain classes of rich folks to pay lower tax rates than the rest of us…like hedge fund managers. I'm not even sure what that job involves but when I hear about the tax breaks they get, I begin contemplating a new career in that field. (Well actually, I think I do know what they do. And I know enough about them to know that they get their tax breaks for no other reason than they successfully lobbied Congress into giving them a sweetheart deal.) We oughta all be madder about this kind of thing than we are. Somehow, the average American rarely hears about this kind of thing…and when they do, they think, "Oh, good…if they can pay no taxes maybe someday, I can pay no taxes." They don't think, "Oh, God…because they pay no taxes, I'm going to wind up paying more."
And the other day, I linked to this piece by Taibbi about the soul and future of the Tea Partiers. When I first read it, it struck me as good but unremarkable and I linked accordingly. Upon a second, later reading, I came to the conclusion it was a more perceptive, important piece than I first thought. I should have made more of a fuss about it. If you haven't read it, take the time.