Politics

Horror Meister Stephen King Asks, "Why Don't I Pay 50%" in Taxes?

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The answer, of course, is that he chooses not to. The IRS is happy to accept extra payments from just about anyone. (And speaking of which, maybe the IRS should look into King's return based on his claim below. The upper limit of the 28 percent rate is $200,000 for a married couple filing jointly [and lower still for other statuses], which seems far below what the best-selling author would be pulling in annually.)

For all the talk of people going Galt, it's strange, innit, that you never hear about rich progressives going Zakaria (or going Krugman or going Buffett, etc). Lead by example already!

Stephen King appeared at a rally in Florida and denounced Sunshine State Gov. Rick Scott, Maine's Gov. Paul LePage, and national GOP leaders for not supporting a 50 percent top marginal tax rate (something that, uh, no leader of either major party has pushed since, wha, the 1980s?

Via Mediaite, here's the author of The Shining, Firestarter, and Maximum Overdrive:

And you know what? As a rich person, I pay 28% taxes. What I want to ask you is, why don't I pay 50%? Why is everybody in my bracket not paying 50%? The Republicans will say, from John Boehner to Mitch McConnell to Rick Scott, that we can't do that because, if we tax guys like me, there won't be any jobs. It's bull! It's total bull!

More, including ultra-overexpose phone-cam vid, here.

For those counting, Gov. Scott - who recently cited a Reason Foundation study in his decision not to fund a really awful 84-mile (!) high-speed rail project between Tampa and Orlando - proposes to "slash" Florida's budget by 6.5 percent, down to $65.9 billion. Among the cuts is a $703 reduction in the amount of per-pupil spending the state gives to K-12 schools and the laying off of about 8,700 state employees (out of about 170,000). It also cuts various sorts of taxes, the bastard, to the tune of $1.6 billion over the next year. The spending cuts total $4.6 billion. Florida is facing a $3.6 billion budget shortfall. What Stephen King decries as bad sounds pretty responsible to me.

Remember back when Stephen King just wanted to scare the hell out of us (click below)? I think he's finally done it, with nary a tractor trailer in sight.