Related Story Bloomberg: NYC Income Tax Could Rise 15 Percent

GLENN: I want to talk a little bit about Bloomberg and what's coming just for New York City, New York and then the rest of the country and I want to explain how trickle-down economics actually works and then I would like somebody to explain trickle-up economics. Remember, the rich aren't paying their fair share. The rich aren't -- you can tax them more, they've got lots of money laying around, they will never notice it gone and those small businesses that make over $250,000 a year, don't worry about them. They've already gotten theirs. We've got to now take it and make sure everybody has that opportunity. Got it? Same time, Barack Obama says this is good to do. However, now in this economic situation we're not sure if we can do it. He might wait. I don't understand that one. You might wait to rescind the Bush tax cuts because of the economic situation, but rescinding the Bush tax cuts is the right thing to do, but we have to wait until we get out of the -- trying to make this work in my head here. Let me see if I can -- I think what he's saying is we have to let capitalism heal the economy before we implement socialism.

So explain to me how trickle-down economics works. Then I'm going to give you the scenario. I was thinking about this this morning when I read that Bloomberg is going to raise taxes in New York City by 15%, okay? I just want to look at -- let's just look at, you know, let's say my tax situation. Pay 30, what is it, 36%? I'm going to be raised to 39%. That's at a bare minimum. So let's just round the numbers off, 40% for income tax. 40%. Great. Now Bloomberg, I'm already playing I think 5% in city tax. So 5% city tax. He wants to raise that. I believe that's -- we're talking about a cap of, what, 9% or 10% of tax? Let's just say it's 10%. So we now have 40% for the federal, we have 10% for the city. That is now 50% of the income gone. Then you have 5% for the state. Now we're at 55%. Then we look at my local, my real estate taxes, your real estate taxes, all the other taxes. For a small business -- remember those evil businesses that are making over $250,000 a year -- you can now find yourself paying about 60% of your income to taxes. That's not including everything that you buy, that you pay an additional 6% on. So you're paying a minimum of about 60% to a government, probably closer to 65% when all is said and done.

So I happen to pay tithing. Now we'd be at minimum 70% of my income, closer to 80% of my income which now leaves me the whopping 10% -- 20% of my income. 20% of my work, of my time. 20% is what I'm left to now run my business. Huh. Oh, and my house and my life. Got it. 20%. Let me make you a promise. This kind of stuff happens, businesses all around the country will not be able to do business.

Let me give you the example. This Christmas show has cost me a fortune to do and I'm thinking about this this morning. I'm thinking, all right, the Christmas show, the Christmas Sweater. Could I even afford to do it next year? The answer is no. This will most likely be the last time this Christmas show is ever seen because I couldn't afford to put it on because of the taxes and the tax burden that would be coming my way. If these things come to pass, then there's no way I could afford to do business.

Now, here's where trickle-down economics works. People will say, oh, well, that's no big deal, he's got enough money, he's got this, he's got that, blah, blah, blah, blah. I just want to think of the people that we employ. First of all, I have the entire radio staff. Then I have a stage staff. This is all they do. They just work to produce these shows. We have a Broadway director, we have three composers, we have a conductor, we have eleven people in the orchestra, we have a singer, we employ all of the people at the stages, at the union houses that are going to turn on the lights. They are going to open up and sell the tickets and clean the theater and run the stage show. All of these people all across the country will not be employed next year. Now, these how trickle-down economics works. The unions will scream because they've got to have more money but they price themselves out of business because people can't afford to go and put the show on and if they can't afford it, they will just say, well, we'll pass it on to the consumer, but the consumer then can't afford to buy the ticket. It's already happening.

I mean, in this stage show, because it's being produced in New York, all the unions have to be involved. I've got -- currently I've got a situation where I can't have -- we've hired the stage manager from Cirque du Soleil to do this show. I can't get the stage manager involved because her union contract says she can't work certain times. We all say, "Okay, well, we really need her to do this now." We can't have her do this now. We can only have her do certain things at certain times and when those certain times come -- this show is unique -- we don't need her to do those things. But she's got to do them. It's insanity. I have to hire certain people to do certain things that I don't need which increase the cost of the tickets which increase the cost of the production which, after taxes and everything else that are coming our way, which increase the odds that I can't hire any of these people. Okay, that's how trickle-down economics works. You hurt the guy at the top and then nobody has a job.

Explain how trickle-up economics works. We're talking now about getting rebate checks. We're talking now about getting people to get a rebate, which is the most insane thing I've ever heard, a rebate check. Think about this. Would it be easier just to lower taxes? Would it be easier just to say, hey, don't pay taxes, "Hey, you don't have to send this money in," or is it better to have all that money sent in, then have this giant machinery and this apparatus go through all the paperwork, figure out who it belongs to, who it should go back to, find out their address, have them fill out applications so they can get the money, print those checks, send those checks. How much money is being wasted on rebate checks? It's not about doing the right thing. It's about buying constituents. That's what that's about. Because the logical thing to do would be to reduce taxes on those people who pay taxes, but this is again about the redistribution of wealth. Because you can't reduce the taxes on the people who have already paid taxes. You need to give money to people who don't pay taxes. Well, again, I ask, is the number of people who don't pay taxes going to get larger or smaller? Once you've hurt the people at the top. It only makes sense that it's going to get larger. How many people will we not employ next Christmas? A ton. What do those people do? They get their money from the government. They become slaves. They get free money for not working and they get it from Uncle Sam or Uncle Obama. It doesn't make any sense. It's never going to work and that's why Obama needs capitalism to heal, before he implements socialism. You immediately go and redistribute the wealth. You immediately take the wealth -- the first thing you would do in office is raise those income taxes, make sure you get money from those people. Quick, it's the thing we've got to do. They wouldn't be having a stimulus package. They wouldn't be talking about bailouts. The first thing we would do is talk about talk about taxes, if higher taxes helped. That's the first thing they would have on their agenda. But it's the last thing on their agenda because they know it hurts.

Now, at the same time Bloomberg and cities all over the country -- did you know that California, California, a state that actually asks the United States government for a bailout, do you know what the people of California just voted for? New York City, New York City, a city that just said that they are going to have to raise all of those taxes, they are going to have to bring everything up by 15%. Is this the same city that just spent $249 million, a quarter of a billion dollars on hybrid buses? And it wasn't just to help congestion. It was for global warming. So the same guy who says we're out of control, we've got -- they don't cut the spending. Oh, sure, they are talking about cutting a little spending. You know what they're talking about cutting? They are talking about cutting police officers. Oh, in New York City, cutting police officers. That's brilliant.