Over the past few weeks viewers of The Ed Show and others have witnessed Bill O'Reilly's brave crusade to save the super rich from paying their fair share in taxes. Remember, he claimed that raising federal income tax rates back to the Clinton era levels would be "oppressive" and could force him to "pack it in"
O'Reilly backed down from his bluster this week in an interview with the Daily Show's Jon Stewart. He said he would AGREE to a tax hike if there were serious spending cuts on the table. Psst! Billy! There are!
O'REILLY: I don't mind paying 40 percent, but first they're going to have to stop wasting the money. One word, Solyndra. Do you know what that is, Solyndra?STEWART: Yes I do, solar company.O'REILLY: How much money was wasted there, do you know how much?STEWART: $500 million.O'REILLY: $528 million. Ok, $528 million.STEWART: All right.O'REILLY: Ok, so if you clean it up, if you stop wasting it, then you can come to the job creators and we'll help you out.
So now we have Bill O'Reilly agreeing to raise the federal income taxes if we stop wasting his money. Fine. The President is bending over backwards to work with GOPers on spending cuts.
But what about capital gains taxes? As we laid out last night, rich people make their money work for them by investing it and making income off their capital gains which are taxed at an extremely low rate of 15%.
O'Reilly claimed in his original warning to the president that raising capital gains taxes would tank the stock market. But in a rarely seen video clip unearthed by the Ed Show staff (on youtube... any joker could find, actually) O'Reilly already agreed that he needs to kick in a higher rate on his capital gains. Unfortunately for O'Reilly, his agreement to raise taxes was during a 2008 interview with a Senator running for President on the Democratic ticket. O'Reilly told Senator Barack Obama that he didn't want his capital gains taxes hiked up to 40% or even 25 % but both men agreed that 20% was a reasonable number. We have to caution "the folks" before you watch this. Bill O'Reilly agreeing to the terms of a tax hike during a face to face interview with a socialist, marxist radical may be difficult to watch. (relevant portion begins at 6:48)
OBAMA: What say we go up to 20? BILL O`REILLY, HOST, O`REILLY SHOW: Twenty is OK. Not 25. OBAMA: You and I agree.
So there we have it. Bill O'Reilly has agreed to widespread increases to both federal income taxes for the wealthy and capital gains taxes. Lets see if Bill "no-spin zone" O'Reilly keeps his word. This shocking revelation should end O'Reilly's crusade to protect the ultra-wealthy from paying their fair share. Of course, it won't.