Class Warfare

WASHINGTON - When Democrats charge that President Bush's tax policies favor the wealthy, Republicans cry "class warfare." But many experts say middle- and lower-income Americans are indeed getting nicked - by both parties. More of government's costs have been shifted down the income ladder, critics say, even as the 1 percent of families with the highest incomes reap government's biggest benefits. "If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning," Warren Buffett, the billionaire investment specialist and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, told his shareholders recently.

WASHINGTON -- Ever since Newt Gingrich came up with his "Contract with America," one item has stuck out like a fat man in a nudist colony: the figure of $200,000 as the top family income level at which the Republican-proposed tax credit of $500 per child would be granted.To members of Congress who make $133,600 a year, that ceiling may seem reasonable. But to Joe Sixpack, it is likely to sound like helping the rich get richer. The Contract, in defense of the $200,000 limit, proclaims that 90 percent of the estimated 50 million families that will be eligible earn less than $75,000 a year, which sort of begs the question.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Emerging from a presidential debate in which he scored marks for style but was frustrated on substance, George W. Bush sought yesterday to portray Al Gore's attacks on his tax-cut proposal as an invitation to "class warfare." And key supporters, such as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, focused on Gore's performance in Tuesday night's presidential debate in Boston - the first of the 2000 campaign - suggesting that he was lecturing and then letting out audible sighs as the GOP nominee was talking.

WASHINGTON -- It didn't take long after their election-night setback for the Democrats to resurrect their internal debate over the direction of their party. The immediate resignation of Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri as House Democratic Leader opened the door to a fight for his job between his chief deputy, liberal Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, and centrist Rep. Martin Frost of Texas. When Ms. Pelosi quickly garnered heavy support, Mr. Frost dropped out, but Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee, a 32-year-old third-termer, jumped in as the moderate alternative.

In 1978, a raucous, raunchy, testosterone-laden, anarchic comedy hit movie theaters -- and changed how movies have been made ever since. The movie is Animal House, a tale of the losers and slackers in the Delta Tau Chi fraternity in the early 1960s. They drank, smoked dope, cheated on exams, lusted after women, swore, lied, swaggered and gave a horse a heart attack. Before its release, it appeared to be a forgettable, cheap comedy. After seeing the script, Universal Studios "hated it," producer Ivan Reitman said.

In the great pile of email that arrived after last Sunday's column on millionaires who whine about "class warfare," there were numerous defenses of wealthy "job creators like Mitt Romney," and an equal number of attacks on "liberals like President Obama" who believe the rich should start paying more in income taxes again. Beachterp — that's his email handle (he did not provide his full name when asked) — made a number of assertions about millionaires, including Maryland's, and the unfairness of asking them to contribute more of their earnings to the public treasuries.

Finally, a sign that Congressional Republicans may have some flexibility after all. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner's recent disclosure that he'd be willing to vote for President Barack Obama's proposed tax break for families earning $250,000 or less demonstrates that a compromise over Bush-era tax policy is possible. It appears Mr. Boehner has recognized that outrage and extremism only gets you so far. The GOP's all-or-nothing approach to tax cuts — reminiscent of the party's oppose-at-all-costs philosophy toward the president's agenda generally — wasn't going to play well with working class Americans.

President Barack Obama reacted a few months ago to a question aboutIran's deliberate efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. His reply and how he was going to prevent it was "all options are on the table. " That's sort of like imagining General George Custer threatening Crazy Horse at the Little Bighorn with, "Surrender! I've got you surrounded!" The only option he failed to include was the upcoming sequestration (read elimination) of $500 billion in defense spending which will begin in earnest next January and will progress into deeper cuts well past 2014.

Before WWII, a large number of people were against America's involvement in the wars in Europe and Asia. After Pearl Harbor, however, that argument disappeared, and virtually everyone got involved. Sons of rich families enlisted. The Kennedys, for example, lost a son and a daughter and of course, Jack Kennedy was seriously injured. Movie stars like Jimmy Stewart and sports figures all joined ordinary people in the fight. Those at home sacrificed by needing coupons to buy meat, sugar, flour and many other things.

Dan Deacon is obsessed with the apocalypse. From a dilapidated couch in his Station North practice space, the city's most well known electronic musician and composer quickly rattles off grim crises: the United States' "growing military stronghold," drone warfare, genetically modified foods, fracking to find oil. "We're living in constant flux and there's this growing stranglehold on our individual liberties and our collective liberties," Deacon,...