'So by the time I feed my family I have, maybe, $400,000 left over,' he tells MSNBC host Chris Jansing
Rep. John Fleming, R-Minden, came under attack from liberal bloggers this week after going on MSNBC to urge defeat of President Barack Obama's plan to increases taxes on millionaires like himself. MSNBC host Chris Jansing asked Fleming, who owns a chain of Subway sandwich shops and United Parcel Service stores, about a Wall Street Journal report that he had gross income of around $6.3 million.
View full sizeRep. John Fleming on MSNBC"The amount that I have to invest in my business and feed my family is more like $600,000 of that $6.3 million," said Fleming, a physician, businessman and conservative tea party member. "So by the time I feed my family I have, maybe, $400,000 left over to invest in new locations, upgrade my locations, buy more equipment."
Jansing asked Fleming whether he understood "that the average person out there who's making maybe $40(000), $50(000), $60,000 out there, when they hear you only have $400,000 left over, it's not exactly a sympathetic position. You understand that?"
Fleming, who had said that the money remaining was for investment in his businesses, responded: "Class warfare never created a job. ... This is about creating jobs, Chris, this is not about attacking people who make certain incomes. You know in this country, most people feel that being successful in their business is a virtue, not a vice, and once we begin to identify it as a vice, this country is going down."
In a later appearance on Fox News, Fleming said that when taxes go up on business owners, they have less money to hire new workers. What's needed, he said, is not a special tax on millionaires, but a closing of tax loopholes and lowering of tax rates so that companies feel that they can invest in projects that will produce jobs.
But on liberal blogs, Fleming was portrayed as insensitive to millions of working Americans who are struggling to meet expenses in the face of high unemployment and stagnant wages.
"Add Louisiana Congressman John Fleming to the list of anti-tax Republicans who whine that getting by on a six- or seven-figure income isn't as easy as you five-figure folk may think," wrote Leslie Savan on the Nation Magazine blog.
"How dare this guy complain about 'only' making 400K per year when families of 4 are living on $12,000 a year?" wrote ABL on the Balloon Juice Blog.
But on the Drudge Report blog, Fleming had some supporters.
"So what you have here is a guy who is creating jobs and putting money back into the economy but that is not enough you want his money. Jealousy is an ugly part of human nature and what's worse is that it is promoted now," wrote blogger OldWhiskeysour.
Bruce Alpert can be reached at balpert@timespicayune.com or 202.450.1406.
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