Eat the Rich: Oregon's Solution to Its Fiscal Crisis

Voters in Oregon passed Measures 66 and 67 that raise taxes on residents and businesses. Oregonians making $125,000 per year and couples with incomes of $250,000 per year will now pay more as will many businesses. Who was pushing these initiatives? The usual promoters of class warfare. As the New York Times reports:

Supporters, led by teachers' and public employees' unions, spent about $7 million on the campaign, including television commercials and mailers that portrayed middle-class residents struggling far more than the wealthy and big business, from Wall Street executives to credit card companies….

Charles Sheketoff, executive director of the Oregon Center for Public Policy, one of the groups that pushed for the tax increases, said the campaign was not about class.

No. Not at all about class; just about income. Skeketoff offers this wonderfully disingenuous quotation:

"It's not that it was targeted at the rich," he said. "It was targeted at the right people, those with the ability to pay. It made the system more progressive."

Oh, please.

For more on how real class warfare is being waged on citizens by our "public servants," go here to see Steven Greenhut's excellent and disheartening article in Reason's February issue.