Month: February 2014

Perkins: Rich Americans Should Have More Votes

Buck Banks

The Tom Perkins system is: You don’t get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes. But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How’s that?

— Venture capitalist Tom Perkins, suggesting that “only taxpayers should have the right to vote — and that wealthy Americans who pay more in taxes should get more votes,” CNN Money reports. “The audience at the Commonwealth Club reacted with laughter. But Perkins offered no immediate indication that he was joking.”

Biden: ‘There Is No Republican Party’

Buck Banks

There isn’t a Republican party. I wish there were, I wish there was a Republican party. I wish there was one person we could sit across the table from and make a deal and make the compromise and know when you got up from the table that the deal was done. … There is no — all you had to do was look at their response to the State of the Union, what were there, three or four? I think we should get a little focused here, let’s get a little focused.

— Vice President Joe Biden, on the state of the Republican Party, quoted by the Washington Post.

The Real Reason Republicans Don’t Want Immigration Reform

Buck Banks

60%

Of House GOP members (143 of 232) represent congressional districts where Latinos make up less than 10% of the population, and that’s the reason they are balking at reform — not because they don’t trust President Obama on immigration reform, NBC News says. “In addition, Republicans don’t really face serious Democratic opposition in 80% of the districts (71 of 89) with more than 10% of Latinos, meaning their biggest threat to re-election comes from an intra-party primary. As a result, more than nine in 10 of House Republicans will be nearly unfazed by any possible pro-immigration-reform backlash heading into the November election.”

Newark Star Ledger Offers a Correction that’s a Distinction Without a Difference

Buck Banks

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Drewniak referred to the Port Authority’s executive director as a ‘piece of crap.’ While Drewniak did call him a ‘piece of excrement,’ it was David Wildstein who referred to the executive director as a ‘piece of crap.’

— Newark Star-Ledger, making a correction a day after walking back its endorsement of Chris Christie for governor in 2013.