Hannity: 6 Ideas to Save America?

On April 9, 2009, the following segment aired on Hannity on the Fox news channel:




While the transcript can be accessed on the Hannity website, I am going to briefly discuss the piece. Mr. Hannity is talking to Representative Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, about the economy and potential solutions. This segment comes as a portion of a larger feature on the show: "6 Ideas to Save America". Representative Ryan speaks about lowering corporate taxes to keep jobs in America, making tax returns less complicated and suspending the capital gains tax through the year 2010. All of these things sound great to anyone; no one likes to pay taxes! Representative Ryan goes on to state that President Obama intends to raise every one of these taxes. Mr. Hannity asks Rep. Ryan if Republicans in Congress can garner any support from the Democrats (who have the majority in Congress) in order to support what the Rep. Ryan is proposing. Rep. Ryan does not seem to think so, even in the wake of the "$4 trillion in debt on top of a stimulus on top of a TARP on top of an omnibus on top of earmarks" mentioned by Hannity. (Just a side note here: I think it is funny that the way Mr. Hannity brings this up, to the uninformed citizen it would seem as if President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are responsible for the $4 trillion debt that America is in. I could have sworn some of that money was spent before President Obama's administration! My thought: Maybe Obama would not have to raise any of these taxes if it were not for the massive debt and mess of an economy he was left with.)

Mr. Hannity and Rep. Ryan then go on to discuss the tax system, and Mr. Hannity states that the bottom fifty percent of wage earners pay less than three percent of the federal tax bill. They also state that the top ten percent of wage earners pay seventy percent of the federal tax bill. That sounds awfully unfair at first glance, but if you think about it: who are the top ten percent of wage earners in America? I do not have statistical evidence to back my assumption here, but with all the celebrities, corporate business owners, CEOs (until recently of course) and other ridiculously high paying positions in America, I would think that a good portion, if not all of the top ten percent of tax payers are millionaires (if not billionaires). I would also assume that the bottom fifty percent consists mostly of people working minimum wage, working 40 hour weeks only to show about $15,000.00 for it at the end of the year. I cannot agree with Mr. Hannity and Rep. Ryan here: the wealth IS NOT already redistributed. We as a country just are not going to tax people who can barely survive (if they even can) on what they earn as much as we tax people who can live lavishly and still have tons of money to spare. This does not constitute a redistribution of wealth, it is merely a refusal to put a burden on people who cannot handle it as opposed to people who can.

Mr. Hannity and Representative Ryan basically conclude that nothing can be accomplished until elected Democrats are replaced with elected Republicans, and essentially put this plan on hold until 2010. What I do not understand is why. In my opinion, this type of show only encourages partisanship divisiveness. If these people really wanted to find a practical and feasible solution to the country's problems, they would attempt to work together with their colleagues, regardless of political affiliation, and collaborate to find the best solution. I do not disagree with all of the points that were made by Mr. Hannity and Representative Ryan, but the us versus them mentality is why nothing ever gets done in this country. I think that despite all the criticizing they do of President Obama, this time they should take his lead in fostering a connection between Democratic and Republican elected officials. It is time we put politics aside and truly save America, before it is too late.