Grassley misleading

People who live in glass houses, my dad used to say, shouldn't take baths.

And by the same token Senator Grassley ought to watch out how he throws around the word "stupid":

This from the man who suggested that we should get rid of child labor laws to combat obesity; who spells the Israeli prime minister' name "Netanyahoo" (that would be clever in a thuggish way if he were doing it on purpose, but I'm afraid he's not); who accused Kathleen Sebelius of illegally using the HHS website for propaganda; and who explained the crisis of rising health care costs thus (for splendid video, see the Daily Show edition):

As Congress contemplates ways to cut down the massive, fire-breathing Debt and Deficit Dragon, it must wield the proper weapon or weapons.  

A few weeks ago, House Democrats proposed a graduated surtax of up to 5.4 percent on taxpayers making over $280,000 to partially offset their health care reform bill. This small business surtax would push the top marginal tax rate up to between 43% and 46.4%, a rate that would jump to over 50% in 39 states if Medicare and state and local taxes are added in, according to the Tax Foundation. So, is this small business surtax the proper weapon to strike down the Debt and Deficit Dragon? I have a chart here that shows not Sir Lancelot, but Sur Tax-a-lot, on his way to slay the Debt and Deficit dragon with his mighty surtax.

As you can see from this chart, the surtax is a large, heavy, painful weapon, and lethal to America's job engine -- the goose that lays the golden egg -- small business America. However, it is not effective against the Debt and Deficit Dragon because it does nothing to slow the dragon's exponential growth. The costs of health care that the dragon feasts upon will continue to increase much faster than the revenues Sur Tax-a-lot can collect with his surtax.

See, Chuck, we all know you're not quite as dumb as you look, and the cornpone idiocy you laced that speech with was specifically meant to distract attention from the bald lies you and the Tax Foundation were trying to sell about this so-called "small business surtax" that would have affected virtually no small businesses and its imaginary effect on top marginal tax rates.

And damn if it didn't work! Old Jon Stewart and I were laughing so hard that the lies slipped right by us back in 2009. But the word "stupid" is a large, heavy, painful weapon, a-and sometimes it boomerangs too!