Soak the rich

Today, House Republicans scuttled the financial bailout bill. In response, the Dow plunged by 777 points, its biggest one-day loss in history.

It's worth remembering that these are the same House Republicans who, last week, presented an alternative plan (assisted by the furiously charging but completely uninformed John McCain, who backed off once he realized that he was backing the wrong horse). Anyone remember what was the centerpiece of that plan? It was big cuts in capital gains taxes.

Now, capital gains taxes are taxes on selling stock. They mostly affect people who own stock (i.e. rich people), so capital gains tax cuts have been called "giveaways to the rich." But it's worth realizing that the House Republicans, by defeating the bailout bill, utterly screwed the same rich stockholders that their capital-gains-tax-cut plan was supposed to help. The rich took a big fat bath this afternoon.

In other words, Republican economic policy is no longer about helping the rich. It's also no longer about mainstream economics. It's about adhering to the doctrines of a political religion - a religion that had meaning in Reagan's time, but is now as ritualistic and dogmatic as a cargo cult. They're just waving the magic sticks, going through the motions...but the cargo ain't comin'.

So to rich people, I say: Abandon the GOP, they're just going to soak you.