Free Republic

“Let me tell you about the very rich,” F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote. “They are different from you and me.” He was absolutely right. And we need look no further than Dina Eastwood for confirmation. On a recent episode of her new E! reality show, “Mrs. Eastwood & Company,” the wife of famed actor Clint Eastwood stood idly by as her stepdaughter Francesca and her photographer beau destroyed a $100,000 Hermes Birkin handbag to make an artistic statement. To flaunt wealth in such a manner is nothing short of obscene. Especially, when there are so many needful people throughout the...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The Facebook IPO. Ho-ho-ho-ho! Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho! Somebody's gonna have to pay for this. These are Obama's buddies at Facebook. (interruption) Well, because the bottom's falling out. They can't maintain the initial price, the 38 bucks. (interruption) Right. Well, okay. So somebody's gonna have to pay the price for this. Somebody's gonna get the blame for this. You can't have these people losing Obama money like this. That can't happen. You can't blame Goldman Sachs. They're underwriters. They were in for $500 million at the outset, before the IPO. You can't blame Goldman Sachs because they're Obama buddies. And...

'It is the tragic story that everybody knows the end to - the doomed Titanic sinks. Its final hours have become the stuff of myth - but how much have the various film versions of the story helped to create and reinforce these legends?'

Two months after successfully marshaling public support to extend a payroll tax cut for all Americans, President Obama today is attempting to do it again. At the White House this morning, Obama will showcase supporters who were among the thousands that spoke out online and over social media in December to pressure Congress to compromise. But the deal was only temporary. Taxes will rise on 160 million Americans at the end of the month unless lawmakers act again, and congressional negotiators remain at impasse. “Your voices changed the debate and reminded Washington what was at stake,” Obama says in a...

The theme President Obama gave to his State of the Union address was “An America Built to Last.” But his vision would be better described as an “An America Built to Be Last.” As the president asked us to be patient and keep drinking the same kool-aid he’s been serving up for three years, the New York Times reported that the Federal Reserve’s latest assessment of our economy is that “…a full recovery is years away.” Even his most loyal constituency, black Americans, is losing patience. In Gallup’s latest tracking poll, black approval rate for Obama was 79 percent. This...

EDITORIAL What They Don’t Want to Talk About January 14, 2012 Ever since Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry started criticizing Mitt Romney’s actions at Bain Capital — and talking about the thousands of people laid off as a result of Bain’s investments — party leaders have essentially told them to shut up. That response is a pretty good indication of how deeply party elders fear the issue of economic inequality in the campaign to come. “What the hell are you doing, Newt?” Rudolph Giuliani asked Thursday on Fox News. “This is what Saul Alinsky taught Barack Obama, and what you’re...

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Newt Gingrich signaled Wednesday that he believes his criticism of Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is a mistake — and that he’s created an impression that he was echoing Democratic rhetoric. Gingrich conceded the problem when pressed by a Rick Santorum supporter at a book-signing here Wednesday. “I’m here to implore one thing of you. I think you’ve missed the target on the way you’re addressing Romney’s weaknesses. I want to beg you to redirect and go after his obvious disingenuous about his conservatism and lay off the corporatist versus the free market. I think it’s...

Barack Obama channeled Teddy Roosevelt this week in a speech in Osawatomie, Kan. Supporters are calling it the most significant economic speech of his administration. But critics rightly point out that the Teddy Roosevelt whom Obama invoked was not the beloved 26th president and standard-bearer of the GOP. Instead, it was the radicalized third-party candidate seeking a third term and the man whose progressivism was a precursor to the rise of big government in the later 20th century. What's more, President Obama's speech was so full of reckless accusations and misinformation that The Washington Post's Fact Checker blog gave it...

President Obama has decided that he is more likely to win if the election is about big things rather than small ones. He hopes to turn the 2012 campaign from a plebiscite about the current state of the economy into a referendum about the broader progressive tradition that made us a middle-class nation. For the second time, he intends to stake his fate on a battle for the future. This choice has obvious political benefits to an incumbent presiding over a still-ailing economy, and it confirms Obama's shift from a defensive approach earlier this year to an aggressive philosophical attack...

From “An Open Letter to the People of California”: I am filing today an initiative with the Attorney General’s office that would generate nearly $7 billion in dedicated funding to protect education and public safety. I am going directly to the voters because I don’t want to get bogged down in partisan gridlock as happened this year. The stakes are too high.

RYAN: Then he spent months going around the country impugning people's motives, setting up strawman arguments, basically saying Republicans are for dirty air and dirty water and against people with health insurance, basically, picking a partisan conflict versus going for compromise. But more to the point, Greta, I think it's the rhetoric of class division that is especially destabilizing. This is not the American idea. We believe in a system of upward mobility. We believe in a system to get the hurdles out of people's way so they can rise in society. We don't believe in talking to people like...

The United States tax code is so backward that billionaire investor Warren Buffett pays only 17 percent in income taxes, a rate even lower than that of his secretary. Or so he claims. While I have great respect for Mr. Buffett, and while I agree that our tax code could benefit from major adjustments, Mr. Buffett's statement is misleading. And he knows it. Even worse, when Mr. Buffett implies that wealthier Americans are under-taxed, it gives public officials cover to pursue disastrous policies such as Maryland's failed millionaire's tax, and the pending sales tax on interstate Internet purchases known as...

On all the cables whenever His Majesty deigns to bless us with his presence.The topic is his latest plan to bash Republicans over the economy while actually doing nothing to help the economy.

Ultra-rich people come in a variety of shapes, sizes and ages. But they can generally be divided into two distinct groups when it comes to what they do with their money - there are those who made it and those who inherited it. " Inheritors are far less hungry than the ones who worked for it - Raymond Goss Raymond Goss, investment specialist at Investec, says the first generation with serious money is usually inherently entrepreneurial and entirely focused on wealth creation - they are always on the alert for a great deal and are shrewd and incisive about the...

ST. CLOUD, Fla. — Most Utahns are unaware that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns one of the biggest ranches in the country — and it's nowhere near the Beehive State. Because of its prominent location, millions have seen the ranch without realizing what it was. But managers are opening the curtain; they have a message they want the public to hear. ______________________________ Deseret Ranch From St. Cloud to: Orlando Airport: 10 miles Kennedy Space Center: 15 miles Magic Kingdom: 22 miles ______________________________ The cowboys are up before dawn, but this is not the Old West. They...

Adele has sparked an online backlash over her recent comments surrounding the amount of tax she has to pay. In a recent interview with Q, the 23-year-old ranted about having to hand over 50 percent of her earnings to the tax man. She said (via Metro), "I'm mortified to have to pay 50 percent! [While] I use the NHS, I can't use public transport any more. Trains are always late, most state schools are s**t and I've gotta give you, like, four million quid -- are you having a laugh?"She added, 'When I got my tax bill in from '19'...

A new Gallup poll reveals that voters who identify as more conservative, do not have college degrees and who make less than $24,000 annually are more likely to support former Alaska governor Sarah Palin over Mitt Romney for president in 2012. Romney, on the other hand, has evidently fared better with voters who describe themselves as “liberals to moderate”, have received degrees of higher learning and who make at least $90,000 a year. The split drives home the challenges facing any would-be GOP candidate: Catering to the party’s base without completely alienating those on the fence, and appealing to voters...

Dan Mitchell of CATO clearly demonstrates why "soaking the rich" doesn't bring in more revenue and doesn't help the poor...

As Democrats scramble to find a new budget course after talks collapsed this week, the California Federation of Teachers is calling for a 1 percent tax hike on the top 1 percent of earners as part of a state budget solution. The union estimates the tax hike would raise an estimated $2.5 billion as the state faces a remaining $15.4 billion deficit, said spokesman Steve Hopcraft. The proposal would hike taxes by 1 percent on personal income above $500,000. CFT represents 120,000 teachers and school employees at all levels, including the University of California. To back its efforts, CFT commissioned...

This past Saturday in Baton Rouge, La. a MoveOn union rally was thrown together to protest Gov. Scott Walkers union legislation in Wisconsin. After the rally was held, a MoveOn coordinator was caught on tape saying the Tea Party is fueled by “class envy” and “racism.” The following is a partial transcript. We’ll call the person who wished to remain anonymous ‘Condor‘ for transcript reasons: MoveOn: My opinion is that, first of all, Tea Partiers tend to be in a wealthier category so even if you don’t currently benefit from it, people don’t want to tax millionaires because everyone believes,...