Inequality for All Page #8

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that paid as low a tax rate.

The taxation system

has tilted toward the rich

and away from the middle class

in the last ten years.

It is dramatic, and I don't

think it's appreciated.

What's the effective rate

I've been paying?

Well, it's probably closer

to the 15% rate than anything.

Mr. Romney's income taxes

were finally posted,

and he paid 13.9%.

Nancy and I paid 33% or more.

It was in the 30s,

and I find that atrocious.

I paid 11% last year

on an eight-figure income.

- Wowzers.

- So less than Mitt Romney.

When you give rich

businesspeople tax breaks

all in the name of job creation,

all that really happens

is that the fat cats get fatter.

And, of course,

that's what's happened

over the last 30 years.

That's the signature feature

of the economy

over the last 30 years.

Look, nobody wants

to pay taxes.

But taxes are the price we pay

to finance the kinds of things

that we can't do individually,

that we need to do together.

There's kind of a negative

trickle-down effect,

and it starts in Washington.

I mean, if the wealthy

are not paying their fair share

and if the middle class

are basically stagnant

and are not paying much

in taxes

because they're not making

much money,

then you're gonna have

a budget crisis

somewhere along the line.

That means less revenue sharing

with the states.

That means the states

have to pull in their belts.

They cannot support

public higher education.

As state funding to institutions

of higher education went down,

tuitions went up to compensate.

I mean, at Berkeley,

where I teach,

in the 1960s, tuition was free.

In the 1970s,

it was $700 a year

in today's dollars.

But now it costs $15,000

for in-state residents.

Next week, members of Congress

are gonna have a chance to vote

on what we call

the Buffett Rule,

and it's simple.

If you make more money...

more than $1 million a year,

not if you have $1 million

but if you make more

than $1 million a year,

you should pay

at least the same percentage

of your income in taxes

as middle-class families do.

He is killing the economy,

and this is class warfare.

I think Barack Obama

is a socialist.

It'll only be a minimum tax

on people who make

lots of money.

More class warfare

from an affable billionaire.

Is he completely a socialist?

Is Warren Buffett a socialist?

You really have no clue

what socialism is, do you?

CEOs and Wall Street

have been doing terribly...

you know, enormously well.

Why should they get

continued tax cuts

when, in fact, we have a huge

deficit way down the line?

- Robert Reich.

- You know Robert Reich?

- I do indeed.

- He's a Communist.

- You know that, right?

- Communist/socialist.

- Okay.

- Confused. He's a confused.

The guy secretly adores

Karl Marx

and is up there in Cambridge...

Can I just be clear about this?

I am not, nor have I ever been,

a member of the Communist Party

or a Communist.

A lot of people are

watching Fox, and I like Fox.

I like appearing with you,

and I like you personally.

I used to be on O'Reilly's show.

In fact, I even substituted

for Bill O'Reilly

a couple of times.

He asked me.

I was on Fox quite a lot.

Joining us now

is former labor secretary,

our good friend Robert Reich.

Secretary, how are you,

my friend?

Good see you.

But no longer.

They don't ask.

The football field

of American politics

has kept on shifting

to the right.

I just... you know,

basically I just stand here.

I've watched it move.

I used to be

something of a centrist.

In fact, my first job

was in the Ford administration.

Hello.

That's a Republican

administration.

You know, were considered

conservative in the 1990s.

Yeah.

You almost became the

majority leader of the Senate.

I could have been king.

Our staffs

were not terribly happy

that we were getting together.

My staff said, "Don't have lunch

with this right-winger."

- From Wyoming.

- From Wyoming.

"There's nothing in it."

We were approached

about doing a show.

Mmhmm.

- Hello, Robert.

- Good to see you again.

- Good evening.

- Yeah, here.

Oh, thank you so much.

You're now considered

a moderate,

if not lefty.

- Commie.

- What happened?

They came in,

and they brought with them

an antigovernment hatred.

And you don't have adversaries

anymore.

You have enemies.

There does seem to be

a strong correlation

between political polarization

on the one hand

and widening

economic inequality.

Researchers measured

the distance

between the median

voting patterns

of one party

and the other party,

and what they found is that

in times of high inequality,

you have the highest degree

of polarization.

It almost tracks exactly.

You see how totally integrated

and connected

the issue of inequality is

to our democracy.

And you see how the ultimate

guardians of our democracy...

if Congress doesn't do it

and if the executive

doesn't do it,

the ultimate guardians

are up here.

In 2010, the Supreme Court

in Citizens United

decided that corporations

are people.

And as Citizens United

was interpreted by lower courts,

it basically said

that corporations,

wealthy individuals,

anybody who has a lot of money,

can flood the political system,

can basically inundate

our democracy

with their money.

Mr. Wertheimer?

- Robert, how are you?

- How are you?

The idea that a corporation

could spend $1 billion

in an election

to elect a president

and it would not have

the capacity

to have a corrupting influence

over government decisions...

- That's absurd.

- I mean...

Is a concept

from another planet.

The money isn't new.

The quantity of the money

is new.

In the last

presidential election,

we saw for the first time

in this country

billionaires...

I mean,

a handful of billionaires...

contributing huge sums of money

to individual candidates,

basically keeping

those candidates going.

I mean, is this America?

Not in my mind.

I think

it's absolutely stupefying.

I think, if you keep going,

in the next presidential

election,

it will be, "Have you got

$300 million in your pocket?

'Cause you can buy a president."

There are liberal billionaires.

There are conservative

billionaires.

So if you see someone

buying a result that you like,

someone else can buy a result

that you're gonna hate

if they can give

a huge amount of money.

You cannot have government

on the auction block.

When we see the contrast

between the values we share

and the realities we live in,

that is the fundamental

foundation for social change.

You work for us!

You work for us!

The Tea Party movement

was born in the wake

of the Wall Street bailout.

We want to make sure

that the government

is doing what's right

for all people,

not just for some of the people.

An everyday Tea Partier

is an American citizen

that is frustrated

with the direction

the country's going.

The banks got bailed out.

We got sold out.

The banks got bailed out.

The Occupy movement

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