Like many of you, I'm not only a political junkie and a Daily Kos junkie but a big Twitter junkie as well. I love following hundreds of people and taking in their perspectives, particularly when it's slow at work. But I rarely tweet. With all the people who seem to live, eat, drink and breathe Twitter out there, what can I, a mere mortal with a day job, possibly offer? Well, today was different. Follow me after the orange wedding invitation/fleur de lis of death below:
So one of the people I follow is John Podhoretz, the oft-featured columnist for the New York Post whose tabloid headlines I have the great pleasure of perusing during my walk to work. Though I don't agree with him on much, he's certainly prolific and at times can even be amusing. Plus, why live in a bubble, right?
So today, instead of discussing the awesomeness of President Obama's second inauguration, the right was all over far more important matters like Phil Mickelson's insistence that he might give up golf because of a mysterious new 65% tax rate. Salon wrote a piece on the good golfer, and J-Pod decided to mock the Salon article.
Now here was something I could tweet back about! Besides working in financial services, I'm also able to both read and use Google. As such, I know that even at the highest levels of income in the highest tax states, marginal rates of income will never reach much more than 50% and certainly nowhere near 65%. Seeking to inform the esteemed journalist, I tweeted back:
@jpodhoretz Man so rich yet ignorant of tax policy. Highest possible rate, in NYC, is below 50% Deserves mockery.
To my great surprise, he quickly replied!
To which, stunned that such an eminent journalistic force would deign to engage me in literary battle, I continued the dialogue:
@jpodhoretz He doesn't. Marginal rate 39.6 + 12 tops for NYC (partially deductbile). Soc Sec ends at like 100K but he includes it.
Now here I erred. Being a New Yorker, I naturally assumed we're #1 in everything, including income tax rates. Apparently I was mistaken: California's is a full percentage point higher on income above $1 million (I know, cry me a river, right?) J-Pod rightly called me on it but then threw out additional unrelated nonsense:
@KitTraverse And what about payroll taxes; and Calif at 13.5 percent now? And cap gains? You're being stupid.
Feeling feisty and somewhat incredulous that such a known writer would peddle obvious bunk, I shot back a few tweets at once:
@jpodhoretz Most payroll taxes end at 113K, Medicare's 2%, cap gains are 23.8 and separate from regular income. He's ignorant.
@jpodhoretz But again, you know this. It ain't rocket science. Misinformation helps your cause.
@jpodhoretz All this aside, are you seriously arguing he actually pays 65%, even as a marginal rate? That's a flat lie. By a lot.
Amazingly, he replied back, but had nothing!
he hasn't paid it yet. He's not LYING. He has no reason to LIE.
Enjoying my moment in the sun, I drove my point home as respectfully as I could:
@jpodhoretz May not be a deliberate lie, but certainly misinformed. Angry less at him than at the media who parrots it w/o informing
To which I received this juicy nugget:
go take a flying leap
Anxious to respond back, I was informed by Twitter that I'd been blocked. He couldn't take the heat so, dare I say it, he got out of the kitchen! Hey, a win is a win, right? Though I'll sure miss his wit and wisdom.
Apologies for not imbedding the tweets themselves. I tried, I really did, but techie stuff ain't my strong point.