‘The rich’ are people, too

There's little more corrosive in political discourse than the cheap trick of vilifying a minority in hopes of extracting a political net gain from the majority.

And few practice this kind of tyranny more ruthlessly than the Obama campaign. Currently, it seeks to cull "the rich" from the herd under the pretense that they don't pay their fair share of taxes.

"The rich" exploit the poor, goes the undertone of the argument. They game the tax system. It's time to make low "the rich," says the wind.

Scapegoating is an age-old tactic. It can be used against any group. The Catholic Church doesn't pay its fair share of taxes. Newspaper owners don't. Casino blackjack dealers don't. Left-handed Lebanese don't, and on and on.

The small point to make is that it is absurd. In the United States, everyone pays the taxes required. If they don't pay, they are deadbeats or cheats, not people who fail to pay their "fair share."

Comedian Jon Lovitz of "Saturday Night Live" fame put his finger right on it when he said: "This whole idea of this 1 percent versus the 99 percent, it's a false static" that fosters "false class warfare." And then he articulated a common lament for those who succeed in America:

"The rich don't pay their taxes? Let me tell you something, right. First they tell you - you're dead broke - this is the United States of America, you can do anything you want, go for it. So then you go for it, and then you make it, and everyone's like, '(expletive) you.' "

Pardon the profanity. But Lovitz strikes the appropriate chord, especially when you know that while Obama screams and points to "the rich," he's silent about his own employees who are, in fact, real tax cheats and deadbeats.

The Internal Revenue Service reports that 36 people in President Obama's executive office still owe $833,970 in back taxes. Where's the fairness in that, Mr. President?

Employees of the U.S. Senate owe $2.1 million in back taxes. Workers in the House of Representatives owe $8.5 million. One thousand, one hundred and eighty-one employees of the Treasury Department (led by Tim Geithner, who had to make good on $42,000 in back taxes before he could even be confirmed) owe $9.3 million.

The Department of Justice employees - those folks who enforce the laws of the land - support 2,069 people who owe $17 million in taxes.

The Obama regime's hypocrisy knows no bounds. But the larger point is that scapegoating diverts attention from worthy political discussion - such as substantive tax reform - and directs hostility toward people who don't deserve it. "The rich" as a group are no better or worse than any other arbitrary group you might like to segregate. The attributes of generosity and greed exist up and down the American wealth scale. It's a function of the human condition, not the bank account.

Instead of blasting "the rich," wouldn't it be better to hear the president celebrate the generosity of the human spirit, even with "the rich"? A couple of weeks ago, it was revealed that Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn gave $2 million to the United Way of Southern Nevada. It was given to needy families via $500 gift cards.

If any place suffers under the Obama recession, it is Las Vegas. Yet, I don't remember President Obama saying a word about that act of kindness.

Wynn's casino mogul next door, Sheldon Adelson, has given away millions of dollars to charities in hundreds of ways, to the stunning silence of the Obama crowd.

And nary a presidential word on the generosity of "the rich" who make Las Vegas an ever better place to live - Fred and Mary Smith, Kirk Kerkorian, Ralph Engelstad, Bill Bennett, to name just a few.

They all deserve better. But they won't get it. They are "rich," you know.

Sherman Frederick, former publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and a member of the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame, writes a column for Stephens Media. Read his blog at www.lvrj.com/blogs/sherm.