Millionaires

[ccpup]

With all the talk in the media of Ned Lamont being a Millionaire, perhaps it's time for us to begin a discussion about how much money Cheney has made from those Halliburton stock options he promised to divest himself of in the 2000 Debates. Or talk about how much the Bush Family has made since, oh, I don't know, the start of the Iraq War? If the Dems could surreptitiously have their few friends in the Media start asking questions like these (Keith? AirAmerica? Keith reporting something he heard from AirAmerica?), I suspect the American People would be hoppin' mad!

Just think back to the outrage "we" had over the earnings of certain CEOs in the last few years. Nothing gets Americans angrier than someone allegedly powerful getting a lot of money for what looks like nothing. Can you imagine what the reaction might be if they see Cheney has made $$$$$$$$$$ since his buddies at Halliburton got the no-bid contract to rebuild a city we destroyed?

And I think we Dems shouldn't point fingers, but simply ask (with our best "I just don't get it" faces) is this the right way for a sitting VP or the family of the President to be acting? To be evidently benefitting financially off what amounts to death and destruction? And it would be something we'd have to "ask" over and over again as I'm sure the MSM wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

Just a thought. Hey, the Repugs ain't gonna play nice. We should we? I say we kick the sand in their faces and run off with their marbles first!

[bleedingheart]

1. the problem is that the republicans who vote think that one day they

too will be the recipients of such largesse.

Democrats are mad, the poor are mad and any reasonable voter (independent or republican) is mad...but there are still a fair number of people willing to put up with corruption because one day..."it will be their turn"...I kid you not.

I refer to a lot of GOP voters as those who vote GOP because they think and they feel it means they too are affluent or that they are aspiring to be affluent...

[Stinky The Clown]

2. You raise an important point

And many on our side don't seem to understand this. It seems to me we need to work hard to differentiate between the schlub (who doesn't see himself as a schlub) who is or will be worth a million or so simply because his house's value went crazy and who has the benefit of a lifetime of pension and IRA growth. Technically, he's a millionaire. In reality, he's middle class or (AT BEST) upper middle class.

A guy worth $1.2M (with $1.1M being the value of the little tract house he bought for $21,900 in 1973) is VERY different from a guy worth $10M or a guy worth $50M. And **they** are very different from the guy worth $250M. Or $1B.

The problem is with the word 'millionaire'. It doesn't have nearly the needed differentiation. There are probably quite a few 55+ year olds right here on DU who, if they checked, are also millionaires.

[JuniperLea]

Millionaires don't count

Billionaire is the new millionaire.

[ccpup]

3. Good point.

But don't you think a lot of people got angry over the earnings (and spending) of people like Kozlowski? Or, just recently, of that guy that got a $400 million paycheck or bonus or something? I think there's a deep anger in Americans when it comes to people benefitting financially off the backs of the "regular folk". And, if you throw the destruction of a country and a people because of a strongly unpopular war, who knows what the American concensus would be with that? I say we "ask" the question over and over.

[librechik]

4. yeah, they seriously count on winning the lottery--for their political

decisions. My husband calls em 1943-ers cuz they all live in the glorious world of 1943--in their minds.