Warren Beatty, who has been involved in politics for years, played a senator in the 1998 movie “Bulworth” and entertained the idea of running for the presidency six years ago, attacked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a commencement speech to University of California, Berkeley graduates. Among other things the liberal actor and director told students that his fellow thespian should raise California’s taxes.

While the Governor is well capable of defending himself we thought we’d share a few of our thoughts.

First off, did Mr. Beatty miss the whole part about the voting public not giving two hoots about what self-absorbed actors think about how the rest of us should think? I guess so and Mr. Beatty’s diatribe is an obnoxious reminder that he and his friends still don’t get it.

Second, on the issue of taxes, how can anyone suggest that taxes be raised without at least hinting that someone take a look at some of the more questionable spending decisions made by the Democratic controlled state legislature and former Governor Gray Davis (who was fired by the state’s voters in 2003). Doesn’t Mr. Beatty know that California’s state rate is amongst the highest (if not the highest) in the nation, this on top of a state sales tax rate of 6%?

Since Mr. Beatty is used to reading cue cards, we’ll make it easy for him and spell it out:

For taxpayers earning between $43,500 and $307,050 only Montana (which has no sales tax) has a higher rate, and for those earning over $307,050 of income only Montana’s and (Howard Dean’s) Vermont’s rates are higher. (Source: the Tax Foundation)

I know that I’d pay a lot more attention to Mr. Beatty if he said, “Look, this state is already collecting a lot of money, let’s figure out where it is going and see if we shouldn’t be directing it in different places. If, after we do that, we’re still short on the priorities then we should look at increasing the state’s revenues including increasing taxes.”

Instead he says let’s raise taxes on the rich as if that isn’t already done.

But that just might be too linear of thought for the man who brought us:

Okay, listing those films is a cheap shot and we should note that Beatty was also responsible for the critically acclaimed: Reds (1981), which, unlike the films above, got very good reviews.

Heres’ what the Maoist International Movement had to say about Beatty’s film:

“Reds” is a great gift to the communist movement and we heartily recommend it for entertainment.

Okay, that was a cheap shot too, but that’s the point. It’s hard to take these guys seriously when they talk politics and perhaps that’s because there is no reason to do so.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2005 at 9:50 pm by Insider and is filed under California Schemin', Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.