Bloomberg: 'We Love the Rich'

I've had no shortage of disagreements with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg over the years, but when it comes to business and taxation, I'll defer to his expertise considering the guy is a billionaire and certainly is well-versed on the subjects.

So it comes as a welcome relief that he's fighting back against the creeping socialism and the popular if greatly misguided notion that simply soaking the rich will solve our economic crisis.

Mayor Bloomberg warned yesterday that proposals to tax the rich will backfire and end up hurting the poor whom they are intended to help.

"They [the wealthy] are the ones that buy in the stores so that people that work in the stores have jobs in the stores, generate sales tax," he said.

"The rich are the ones that go to the expensive restaurants where, as a matter of fact, I looked at a list the other day of restaurants where the staff is unionized. They're the expensive restaurants. They're not the cheap restaurants."

"You know, the yelling and screaming about the rich - we want rich from around this country to move here. We love the rich people."

Sadly, not many do. They just think you can drop a higher tax rate on them and they'll willingly pony up. Clearly they're living in an alternate reality. After a certain point people will resist doings the things they did to become rich, will intentionally try to keep themselves from earning more that $250,000 and that in turn results in fewer jobs created, ironically for those who were whining yesterday about soaking the wealthy.

The mayor's comments on his weekly WOR radio show came a day after thousands of union workers rallied outside City Hall to push for higher taxes on those at the top of the income ladder to prevent cuts in government services as revenues contract.

Bloomberg said even the protesters clamoring for increased taxes on those earning $250,000 up had to be aware of the new economic reality.

"We can tax the rich, except that, if you haven't looked at the stock market lately, they aren't making any money," he said.

Seems these people would prefer to be on the welfare rolls, which is exactl where Democrats want them, indebted to the government.

But United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten declined to take such a personal potshot. "I respect him," she said of the mayor.

"We disagree on this. What we're doing here is saying, for a period of time, the people who are still doing well should help the people not doing well. Ultimately, that's fundamental fairness."

No, ultimately, that's socialism. I don't see Weingarten in any rush to fork over any of her bloated salary.

Something else few seem to notice is charities are taking a huge hit, which again will simply result in more government dependence, which is by design.

Bloomberg also stuck up for the rich on another front - maintaining tax deductions for charitable contributions.

In a rare public break with President Obama, the mayor said attempts to lower tax benefits for donations by families earning $250,000 or more would have a devastating impact on charities that have already lost 30 to 40 percent of their endowments.

"The people they depend on for new gifts have lost an enormous amount of money," the mayor said. "And to make it harder by making less deductibility doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever."

Very little of what Obama is doing makes any sense. The sooner he starts listening to people like Bloomberg, men who have created wealth and jobs, the sooner we may emerge from the recession. Obama plays make believe and says he's going to 'save or create' jobs when in his entire life he hasn't created a single job for anyone nor has he ever run a business.

Linked at Instapundit. Thanks!