From the December 18 edition of Sirius XM's Breitbart News Daily:
Breitbart editor-in-chief: “There is no better time and place to be in poverty than in America right now”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
CALLER: As the great Thomas Sowell points out in many columns over the years, there is no such economic term as trickle-down economics. It's purely political and the biggest trickle-down economic failure is actually government, the socialization of government, and the redistribution of wealth. If it worked so well, we wouldn't have the same percentage of poverty that we've had since the LBJ Great Society days. So, as much as Breitbart may want to control the narrative, you've just got to get away from that because it's just not true.
ALEX MARLOW (HOST): Sure, it's an important point, David. So your point is basically that a lot of it is just about framing? A lot of it's about vocabulary. It's not actually -- the policy itself is called “supply-side,” it's not called “trickle-down.” Trickle-down is a branding and that's sort of been set in stone.
CALLER: Absolutely. And it's part of this narrative that's beaten into peoples' heads and if they really don't take any time to study the market distortions that are a direct result of the government picking winners and losers -- I don't want Rs or Ds to pick winners or losers, right. They need to be the referee rather than a player in the game. And another thing just to go off that, the conversation you just had, the left is the group that is identity politics and classes, and Levin talks about it all the time. You know, it's not middle class and upper class, we're all Americans. Depending on how you define these ranges of income and I'd say, you know, poverty level compared to what? A flipping jack-of-all-trades in India? I mean, come on, let's get a grip. The poverty people in this country have cell phones, they have air conditioning, most of them have cars. So lets just really define the topics here before we go down and just play in their game. Let's hit control, alt, delete, and just say no. Thank you, but no. And move on.
MARLOW: And, David, thank you, John I want you to respond to a couple points David made. The last point, which is there is no better time and place to be in poverty than in America right now. Of course we don't want that for everyone, but that is something that people do gloss over very quickly. That in the United States there tends to be a certain level -- the baseline is just so much higher than even working class or middle class elsewhere on the planet, which people do gloss over. It's important not to. But I want to talk about the way the left controls the language, and when people talk about trickle-down, it really is leftist branding that's just stuck.
Previously:
Breitbart radio is a bigoted and misogynistic cesspool
4 ways right-wing media are shilling for tax reform (and why they're wrong)