January 01, 2015
That’s what readers of his column on Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo would likely conclude. The column has the subhead, “Gina Raimondo’s approach to income inequality.”
There is not much in the piece that directly addresses income inequality as most of us would think about it. The piece highlights Raimondo’s cuts to the pensions of public sector workers. This is not a group of people that ordinarily is considered to be among the rich. While the piece tells us that she “framed the cutbacks as progressive,” it doesn’t follow that they are in fact progressive. (The piece neglected to mention that under Raimondo’s plan hedge funds may make large profits on handling the state’s pension fund money at the expense of public sector workers and taxpayers.)
The piece then tells readers that the pension cuts:
“provided a template for how politicians in Washington could try to rein in Social Security and Medicare spending, if they wished.”
The piece also indicates that Raimondo is either incredibly naive or dishonest. It reports:
“She said that she has told Wall Street titans point blank that they should be paying higher federal taxes and leveling the playing field, but with this message: ‘I need you to double down on America. We need you. We need your brains, we need your money, we need your engagement — not because it’s Wall Street versus Main Street, but because you’re some of the smartest, richest people in the world, and you need to be a part of fixing America, because you want to live in an America that’s the best country in the world.'”
Wall Street titans make investment choices based on profits, not admonitions from politicians. If Raimondo doesn’t understand this fact, she is dangerously naive. If she does, then her comment was meant to deceive the public.
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