A QUIZ FOR THE HOWLING RIGHT-WINGERS

The right is, predictably, flipping out in response to President Obama's plan to get the federal budget under control, which relies to a large extent on an uptick in taxes for the wealthy.

Quick quiz, righties (a question I'd love to get, say, Zogby or aome other pollster to pose to folks at one of these wingnut "tea parties," just the way Zogby asked those question of Obama voters on behalf of that self-styled documentarian):

If the Obama plan goes through and remains in force throughout an eight-year presidency, which of the following presidents will have had the highest top tax rate, on average, during his years in the White House?

A. Ronald Reagan
B. Bill Clinton
C. George W. Bush
D. Barack Obama

Answer: Ronald Reagan. You could look it up.

The top rate would be 39.6% under Obama's plan, which is what after Clinton's tax plan passed. Under Bush, it went down to 35%

For most of Saint Reagan's years, it was 50%. Fifty percent! Somehow, we survived. Somehow, Ayn Rand didn't roll over in her grave at the fascist-confiscatory jackbootedness of that horribly punitive rate for the poor, suffering rich.

(And go look up the rates under, say, that commie Dwight Eisenhower. Stratospheric. And yet the fifties were rather capitalist and prosperous -- no?)