Macaca! Via Andrew Malcolm:
He got into the usual yada-yada about rich people paying their fair share of taxes.
And then, deep into the speech, according to the White House transcript, the president said:
When you start saying, at a time when the top one-tenth of 1 percent has seen their incomes go up four or five times over the last 20 years, and folks at the bottom have seen their incomes decline — and your response is that you want poor folks to pay more?
Give me a break.
If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that.
That’s what the transcript says he said.
Now, watch the C-SPAN video below, and listen especially to the phrase “the same tax rate as a janitor…”
[VIDEO CLIP]
Here is what the president actually said, catching himself almost in time but not quite:
If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that.
Smartest. President. Ever.