Pinheads and Patriots by Bill O'Reilly

that’s not my statistic—
    O’Reilly: Here, here is—
    Obama: —that is from—
    O’Reilly: Here is what I got—
    Obama: —from independent analysts.
    O’Reilly: And, and, and it’s not all about me, believe me.
    Obama: Go ahead.
    O’Reilly: Twenty percent more revenue coming in under Bush than Clinton, all right? And he cuts taxes, people invest more. And he cuts the capital gains. And the government gets 20 percent more than under Clinton. You want to raise it back up—it doesn’t make sense. Secondly—
    Obama: Well—
    O’Reilly: Secondly—
    Obama: Okay, go ahead.
    O’Reilly: The payroll tax—over to 50? You are gonna hike it to infinity—
    Obama: I am not.
    O’Reilly: What, what’s the cap?
    Obama: That’s not true—
    O’Reilly: What’s the cap?
    Obama: And all, all—
    O’Reilly: Hold it! What’s the cap?
    Obama: [ Laughs. ] All I said—[ Laughs. ] All I said is that after—
    O’Reilly: Yeah?
    Obama: Right? Then we could raise the cap. Not—
    O’Reilly: That we could, or we will?
    Obama: What I have said is, is that if we have got a set of options to stabilize Social Security—which I think is important—and I think you do, too, because there are millions of seniors out there—
    O’Reilly: I do. Right.
    Obama: —who depend on it. And we have got a couple of options. We could raise the retirement age—and I just left—talking to a whole bunch of guys who have been working—
    O’Reilly: Look, I have no beef on this—
    Obama: All right. So you don’t want to do that. Number—or number two, we could cut benefits. Try living on Social Security right now; that’s no fun if you are a senior. Number three, we could just do nothing, in which case Social Security will be—
    O’Reilly: So—
    Obama: And let me finish—and let me finish my point, Bill. Uh, in the upcoming years, it’s gonna be essentially, uh, a reduction in benefits. We could raise the payroll tax on everybody—
    O’Reilly: Don’t do that.
    Obama: Of course.
    O’Reilly: Don’t do that.
    Obama: But there is no free lunch.
    O’Reilly: But what I—
    Obama: So my only point is—
    O’Reilly: No, there is a free lunch.
    Obama: What is the free lunch?
    O’Reilly: The free lunch is that—you are taking the wealthy American—the big earners, okay?
    Obama: Okay.
    O’Reilly: You are taking money away from them, and you are giving it to people who don’t have. That’s called “income redistribution.” It’s a socialist tenet.
    Obama: No. Bill— O’Reilly: Come on, you know that. Obama: Bill, Bill—
    O’Reilly: You went to Harvard—
    Obama: Teddy Roosevelt supported the “progressive income tax.” Uh, look—
    O’Reilly: Not at the level you do.
    Obama: Bill, well, here is my point—listen, you, you are—you are making it out like I am talking about going back to 70 percent marginal rates—
    O’Reilly: You are above 50—
    Obama: No, I am not.
    O’Reilly: For me, you are.
    Obama: No, I am not. What I have said is you go—you go up to 39, all right? That’s what it was under Clinton—
    O’Reilly: I am 39, and I am payroll-taxed.
    Obama: But that—
    O’Reilly: —until you decide I am not.
    Obama: But, but, but potentially, we have got to explore a raise in the capital gains—
    O’Reilly: No—
    Obama: But I have made a commitment—
    O’Reilly: I think it’s “income redistribution.”
    Obama: Here, here is—here is, here is the—uh, here is the general point that I have got to make. Look, I don’t like paying taxes. What, you think I like writing a check? Why would I like to write a check any more than you do?
    O’Reilly: Because you love your country.
    Obama: Uh…. What