Ignorance in its natural habitat

During a recent Newsweek interview, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly revealed his dumbitude on two fronts. First, he boasted that he has "more power than anybody other than the president." Second, he said he would have to quit his day job if Obama "begins taxing me more than 50 percent, which is very possible. ... there comes a point when taxation becomes oppressive. Is the country really entitled to half a person's income?" I'll skip O'Reilly's legend-in-his-own-mind proclamation. His self-delusion is self-evident. Point two, however, offers a good talking point for debating your Republican friends. As the Washington Monthly noted, we don't know yet if Obama has a 50% tax rate in mind for gazillionaires like O'Reilly. But for the sake of argument, let's assume he does. First, a top 50% rate doesn't mean Uncle Sam walks away with half your income (it's complicated). Second, guess what the gazillionaire tax rate was under Reagan? That's right, 50%. And it was 91% under Eisenhower. And guess what? The economy grew robustly under both Republican presidents. O'Reilly's ignorance would qualify for slapstick if it weren't so pathetic.