Bloomberg Admits the Obvious

A tax hike on the rich would hurt all New Yorkers. No kidding.

It's what I've been saying for quite some time now, but billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg has now made the same argument.

Mayor Bloomberg warned yesterday that proposals to tax the rich will backfire and end up hurting the poor whom they are intended to help.

"They [the wealthy] are the ones that buy in the stores so that people that work in the stores have jobs in the stores, generate sales tax," he said.

"The rich are the ones that go to the expensive restaurants where, as a matter of fact, I looked at a list the other day of restaurants where the staff is unionized. They're the expensive restaurants. They're not the cheap restaurants."

"You know, the yelling and screaming about the rich - we want rich from around this country to move here. We love the rich people."

The mayor's comments on his weekly WOR radio show came a day after thousands of union workers rallied outside City Hall to push for higher taxes on those at the top of the income ladder to prevent cuts in government services as revenues contract.

Bloomberg said even the protesters clamoring for increased taxes on those earning $250,000 up had to be aware of the new economic reality.

"We can tax the rich, except that, if you haven't looked at the stock market lately, they aren't making any money," he said.

All you have to do is look at tax revenues since the start of the Wall Street collapse. Those revenues have collapsed because the rich aren't so rich anymore. You can't draw any more blood from that stone, and yet the Democrats' answer is to soak the rich and increase taxes on those who are best capable of moving assets and themselves to jurisdictions with lower tax burdens.

New York has been looking to soak the rich with additional taxes on those making more than $250,000, regardless of the fact that it was this group of people most affected by Wall Street. A huge chunk of state and city revenue is derived from Wall Street and the investment banking industry, and with the industry in chaos, there are simply fewer people making big money than just six months ago. That will have a huge ripple effect across the local economy.