Ben Nelson can’t spel (or maybe he can’t count)

from the Washington Post (h/t Yglesias):

“Tax is a four-letter word” with voters, said Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

And from Bloomberg (h/t NNN)

Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, said he’s “not hearing a lot” of support for a surtax on wealthy Americans. People in his state don’t like the millionaire’s tax “because they are looking someday to get there themselves,” Nelson told reporters on July 13. “It’s the American way.”

Ben Nelson is no stranger to conducting imaginary polls of Nebraska opinions that conveniently line up with his predetermined conclusions. When I read of his latest fake survey, I couldn’t help but be reminded of this post from Ezra Klein during the stimulus debate:

Confronted with Krugman’s argument that Nelson’s cuts did not display “any coherent economic argument,” Nelson offered no coherent argument — economic or otherwise — in response. And this is the guy deciding the size of the stimulus package. He’s cutting 500,000 jobs from the stimulus based on some fake poll he mentally conducted of Nebraskan preferences. He doesn’t even bother to justify his actions on the merits. It’s appalling.

Jonathan Chat at The New Republic points out that ABC News and the Washington Post conducted a real poll, which found 60% of surveyed Americans would support raising income taxes on those with incomes above $250,000 to help pay for health care reform, while 37% were opposed.

But when the issue is that there will be a tax hike and the question is who should pay, why would a middle class person favor a middle-class tax hike on the grounds that they might one day be rich? Are there really people who think, “I’d rather take the hit now, and have less money for my kids’ college education, so that one day when I’m really rich I can have a lower tax burden and thus afford two BMW’s instead of one”?

It’s possible such people exist and have shared their thinking with Ben Nelson. On the other hand, perhaps the more likely possibility is that the people who Ben Nelson hears from are already in the top 1% right now.

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