{"id":251766,"date":"2017-10-23T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?p=251766"},"modified":"2017-10-24T16:13:25","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T20:13:25","slug":"a-rich-guy-defends-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/","title":{"rendered":"A “Rich” Guy Defends Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Mark, you\u2019re next in Louisville. How are you doing, sir?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Rush, it\u2019s an honor to speak with you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m calling about this million-dollar tax bracket.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n

\"\"CALLER: Yeah. For someone like me who owns stock options in a small company, the million-dollar tax bracket\u2019s very punitive because I may only make a million dollars or more than a million dollars one time in my career. The company I\u2019m with now, I\u2019ve been with for 15 years, and every day I work hard to help the company grow and make the company more valuable. Someday, we might get acquired. You know, at that point in time I would cash out of my options. I might get a couple million dollars. But that\u2019s just gonna happen one time. So to me, you know, it\u2019s not like I make a million dollars every year. That\u2019s the way they want it to sound. You know, millionaires make a million dollars every year. It\u2019s just a one-time deal. So it just seems unfair to me that, you know, I would have to pay a higher tax rate for that type of, you know, one-time event.<\/p>\n

RUSH: It is unfair. It\u2019s designed to be unfair in order to make everybody else think you\u2019re getting soaked. That\u2019s what makes it fair: That you\u2019re getting soaked. That\u2019s exactly right. And you\u2019re supposed to bite the bullet and pay for it \u2019cause you don\u2019t need as much of that million as you otherwise would have if you got the tax rate reduction.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You should call Trump and say, “I heard what your buddy Bob Kraft said, that he doesn\u2019t want the tax cut. You know what? I do.”<\/p>\n

CALLER: (laughing) Well, I agree.<\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughing)<\/p>\n

CALLER: It\u2019s just, you know, just the whole perception that —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me ask you a question. Mark, let me ask you a question.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You\u2019re talking here… You\u2019ve got a very, very large audience listening to you. And you\u2019re talking about the possibility of earning, you know, $2 million take if circumstances happen right. And you\u2019re suggesting that you would like to keep as much of that as you can, and certainly you don\u2019t want a higher rate than anybody else. Do you feel nervous admitting this in public? Do you feel like you\u2019re worried that people are gonna think you\u2019re greedy, or do you have no problem admitting this?<\/p>\n

CALLER: No, not at all. I mean, I have three kids. You know, the difference between 45% and 40%, or 35% and 40%, I mean, it could be college tuition for one of my children. So, I mean, I don\u2019t feel guilty about wanting that.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, they want you to.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You know, we\u2019ve been… Well —<\/p>\n

RUSH: They want you to feel guilty for it. They want you to feel like you\u2019re insensitive to the plights of people who don\u2019t have as much as you do, and that\u2019s —<\/p>\n

\"\"CALLER: Sure. Sure. But, you know, we\u2019ve been… In the past 15 years, you know, I\u2019ve helped create jobs by growing our company. We\u2019ve hired new software developers, new engineers. You know, so we\u2019re giving people employment that may otherwise not be employed or, you know, college graduates that are coming out of engineering school.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You know, we\u2019re in Louisville. It\u2019s not a huge town. So, you know, we have high quality jobs available for graduates from engineering school. So, I mean, I think what we\u2019re doing\u2019s pretty worthwhile and virtuous. So, you know, I don\u2019t feel guilty about —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Well, good. This has been one of my points is that people like you are among the group of Americans that hire other Americans.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But the picture that\u2019s painted is that people like you have a stash of money in the bank that you don\u2019t use, and that you don\u2019t want to share it with your fellow man.<\/p>\n

CALLER: (laughing)<\/p>\n

RUSH: You don\u2019t want to give it away. And it\u2019s not right. So since you have it, you should part with it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right. Well, in the company, you know, the leadership team at our company, you know, the corporate tax rate dropping to, you know, 20% or 15 or whatever, it\u2019s huge. And we\u2019ve already decided if it does that, we will hire more people. We\u2019ll invest more into the company.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, wait a minute. I want you to answer a question.<\/p>\n

CALLER: We\u2019ll give people raises if we get that tax rate.<\/p>\n

RUSH: If you get that rate reduction on the corporate side, you decided you\u2019re gonna hire more people. Why are going to hire more people? Tell the audience. Why are you gonna hire more people?<\/p>\n

CALLER: It\u2019s huge! We have a lot more profitability and we have a lot of more money to invest back into the company. You know, if we don\u2019t that tax break, cash flow can be tight.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. But you\u2019re gonna hire more people because you\u2019ve got more work to be done because you want to grow the business, right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s exactly right. Exactly right. Yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Are there some people who work for you now — if that rate reduction happens — that warrant a raise? Would you use some of money to raise people currently who deserve it?<\/p>\n

CALLER: We\u2019ve already talked about it. Every employee will get a raise if that happens.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. So you\u2019re just not gonna hoard it and go buy a bunch of company cars or a company jet?<\/p>\n

\"\"CALLER: No. No. I\u2019ve actually had liberals tell me that. When I explain what the Trump tax plan will mean — that we\u2019re gonna hire more people, we\u2019re gonna get people raises — they actually tell me, “Well, no one else is gonna do that. Only very few people would actually do that. Everyone else is gonna put that money in their pocket.”<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You know, I guess they just assume the worst in human nature. I don\u2019t know. But we definitely are. We\u2019re gonna do that if the Trump tax plan goes through. He have would already discussed it. You know, and then the whole punitive tax — and I have the same issue with capital gains, you know, on this whole, you know, stock-option payout deal. You\u2019ve got like Warren Buffett… You know, nothing against Warren Buffett, but he pays capital gains on all his income and I pay as ordinary income — and I still pay as ordinary income when we cash out. You know, when those options cash out.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n

CALLER: So there\u2019s so much unfair about the tax code. It\u2019s so antiquated, and it\u2019s not geared toward companies like us.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, that\u2019s another thing. There\u2019s the rich, and then there are the wealthy, and the wealthy are people like you\u2019re talking about: Buffett and Gates. And they don\u2019t have what we call ordinary income. Nobody\u2019s paying them anything. The income… They\u2019ve got their wealth, and it\u2019s there as a pool, and they don\u2019t pay any tax on that. There\u2019s no wealth tax in this country yet. What they pay tax on is whatever they have invested in.<\/p>\n

But then only if they sell it. Only if they sell it and realize a profit do they pay the capital gain rate on that. So raising taxes on the rich? A lot of people say, “Yeah, we\u2019re gonna go after the Gateses and the Buffetts and…” No, you\u2019re not. That\u2019s not who you\u2019re ensnaring with this. They\u2019re getting guys like Mark here in Louisville. Anyway, Mark, I appreciate the call. Thank you much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CALLER: For someone like me who owns stock options in a small company, the million-dollar tax bracket's very punitive because I may only make a million dollars or more than a million dollars one time in my career. The company I'm with now, I've been with for 15 years, and every day I work hard to help the company grow and make the company more valuable. Someday, we might get acquired. You know, at that point in time I would cash out of my options. I might get a couple million dollars. But that's just gonna happen one time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":251779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nA "Rich" Guy Defends Himself - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"A "Rich" Guy Defends Himself - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"CALLER: For someone like me who owns stock options in a small company, the million-dollar tax bracket's very punitive because I may only make a million dollars or more than a million dollars one time in my career. The company I'm with now, I've been with for 15 years, and every day I work hard to help the company grow and make the company more valuable. Someday, we might get acquired. You know, at that point in time I would cash out of my options. I might get a couple million dollars. But that's just gonna happen one time.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/FB-091817-EIB-Callers-Male.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"George Prayias\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"description\":\"Excellence In Broadcasting\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/FB-091817-EIB-Callers-Male.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/FB-091817-EIB-Callers-Male.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":315},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/\",\"name\":\"A \\\"Rich\\\" Guy Defends Himself - The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-23T19:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-24T20:13:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a2bc43fbe4b4e1ff4d1f092c6086a349\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A “Rich” Guy Defends Himself\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a2bc43fbe4b4e1ff4d1f092c6086a349\",\"name\":\"George Prayias\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a43c262983f0228d5f474ce08e691cf9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a43c262983f0228d5f474ce08e691cf9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"George Prayias\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/author\/georgeeibnet-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A \"Rich\" Guy Defends Himself - The Rush Limbaugh Show","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_title":"A \"Rich\" Guy Defends Himself - The Rush Limbaugh Show","twitter_description":"CALLER: For someone like me who owns stock options in a small company, the million-dollar tax bracket's very punitive because I may only make a million dollars or more than a million dollars one time in my career. The company I'm with now, I've been with for 15 years, and every day I work hard to help the company grow and make the company more valuable. Someday, we might get acquired. You know, at that point in time I would cash out of my options. I might get a couple million dollars. But that's just gonna happen one time.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/FB-091817-EIB-Callers-Male.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"George Prayias","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/","name":"The Rush Limbaugh Show","description":"Excellence In Broadcasting","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/FB-091817-EIB-Callers-Male.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/FB-091817-EIB-Callers-Male.jpg","width":600,"height":315},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/","name":"A \"Rich\" Guy Defends Himself - The Rush Limbaugh Show","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2017-10-23T19:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-24T20:13:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a2bc43fbe4b4e1ff4d1f092c6086a349"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2017\/10\/23\/a-rich-guy-defends-himself\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A “Rich” Guy Defends Himself"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a2bc43fbe4b4e1ff4d1f092c6086a349","name":"George Prayias","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a43c262983f0228d5f474ce08e691cf9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a43c262983f0228d5f474ce08e691cf9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"George Prayias"},"url":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/author\/georgeeibnet-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251766"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252076,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251766\/revisions\/252076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/251779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}