Entitled Andy Richter Says He'll Pay High Taxes, Then Embarrassing Address Shows Up
When entitled, highly visible Hollywood and music world stars advocate some policy position which they’re woefully uninformed about, I get it. Yes, they may know nothing, but they have a big platform.
When Taylor Swift endorsed Phil Bredesen for the Senate seat from Tennessee, she may have evinced no special insight into the workings of American politics, but she’s arguably the biggest pop star in the world and she has an opinion, so why not let loose with it? People are going to care, no matter how incognizant a star may be.
I’m more confused when it comes to the B-, C- and D-listers and their belief we’re waiting with bated breath to hear what they have to say.
When Michael Rapaport goes on one of his rants about conservatives, the only thing it makes me do is look up Michael Rapaport to remind me what exactly he did again. (He was apparently the star of “The War at Home,” a show I missed because I had anything better to do.)
Sometimes these stars doing something profoundly offensive actually gets people’s attention, albeit in the wrong way (see: Griffin, Kathy). And sometimes, a total lack of self-awareness from someone on the D-list will also do the same thing.
In that vein, I present to you Andy Richter.
Richter, for those of you with an early bedtime, is best known as the Ed McMahon to Conan O’Brien’s Johnny Carson. This means he was last relevant, oh, 10 years ago. Conan’s show is now buried on TBS and near the bottom of the ratings, making him roughly as famous as, say, the third-place finisher on this season of “America’s Got Talent.”
But he’s got opinions. For instance, he thinks you millennials should block your parents’ access to Fox News when you go home for the holidays, starring in a fake commercial in which he encouraged people to do just that. He’s prone to going on long, semi-profane rants about how he, being “a privileged white liberal male,” needs to call out anyone who supports Donald Trump as being an incorrigible racist.
And, in his latest minor-league diktat, he says he wants to pay more taxes.
As someone who makes a good living, I’d be happy to pay pre-Reagan tax rates in exchange for roads/bridges/schools/families that aren’t falling apart.
— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) January 6, 2019
“As someone who makes a good living, I’d be happy to pay pre-Reagan tax rates in exchange for roads/bridges/schools/families that aren’t falling apart,” Richter tweeted Sunday.
I would assume that the tweet was inspired by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s appearance on “60 Minutes,” in which she advocated a 70 percent top tax rate to fund her “Green New Deal.” I’m not sure how this is going to stop families from falling apart, but whatever.
However, it didn’t take long for Twitter users to point out the flaw in Richter’s thinking, all with one simple address:
Make your check payable to the following:
Bureau of the Fiscal Service
Dept G
P.O. Box 2188
Parkersburg WV 26106-2188(Yes, this is a real thing) #PutUpOrShutUp
— Chris Harris (@stalegum) January 6, 2019
You’re still able to. You can pay more than required at any time.
— Kevin Oakley (@themightyko) January 6, 2019
You don’t have to wait till April, feel free to send an extra check to the Treasury any time you feel the urge.
— Tim Henry (@melaexec) January 6, 2019
See, the government will take Andy Richter’s money anytime he’s willing to give it. And there’s the great fallacy in what he’s talking about: Richter isn’t talking about being willing to part with his money, he’s talking about being willing to make other people part with their money.
The deeper flaw in this is that these tax rates don’t just catch people like Richter. They catch people who don’t make that sweet basic-cable money, people whose “wealth” is often caught up in small businesses. These are people who wouldn’t be able to afford it the same way that Richter does.
Furthermore, it encourages people who make the kind of money Richter does but don’t think like him to put their money in places it can’t be taxed. It’s a drain on economic growth and generally doesn’t end with the kind of semi-utopia that Richter imagines.
But if Richter really thinks taxes are going to accomplish these things, again, he can get the ball rolling.
You have the address, Andy. You can do the “right thing.”
Can’t wait to see you tweet an image of that check.
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