MyDD :: Bill Maher and the Judas Cow

Bill Maher and the Judas Cow

by Joseph Hughes, Sat Apr 30, 2005 at 02:50:34 PM EST

Watching "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO last night - we liberals have to go to premium cable to find that vaunted liberal media - viewers were confronted with a real-life Judas Cow (as well as yet another out-of-touch Republican), Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. A frequent guest of Maher's and a good sport in the face of constant - and justified - questioning, Steele lost complete touch with reality on last night's show.

Speaking about myriad topics, the panel (Steele, NPR's Farai Chideya and comedian Martin Short) debated "average" Americans and the rich. Steele, in a did-he-just-say-that moment if there ever was one, asked Maher if an "average" American family with two wage earners making a combined $300,000 a year was rich or not. Steele asserted not, to the shock of the panel and the audience.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more out-of-touch answer from a politician, especially coming from a prominent African American legislator and rising star like Steele. This coming from a man who told Maher he "spent a lot of time" in Ohio during the last election cycle. Perhaps he didn't pick up a paper the day it was announced that Cleveland was America's poorest big city. If he had, he would have read that Cleveland's poverty rate was 31.3 percent, compared to the national overall rate of 12.7 percent.

In the spirit of non-partisan research, I decided to take Steele at his word, as I'm sure many Republican viewers did last night (as they lit a large Cuban cigar with a $100 bill). I went right to the source, the U.S. Census Bureau. After I found my way to the Median Family Income (In 2003 Inflation-adjusted Dollars), I discovered something shocking: Steele is full of shit.

So full of shit, in fact, that his fullness and shititude is truly amazing. If he would have done his research, as I did, Steele would have discovered a median family income of $52,273 nationwide, nearly $250,000 less than his projection. Were his "average" Americans wealthy? Of course they were, when compared to the cold, hard facts. Perhaps Steele was looking at the facts through rose-colored glasses, as his home state's median family income ranked third, at $69,087. For the purposes of comparison, New Jersey ranked first at $70,263, Ohio twenty-third at $51,522 and West Virginia fifty-first (including the District of Columbia) at $38,568. See for yourself. You'll discover, like I did, that Steele is, in fact, full of shit. (He also assumed the average family consisted of a father and a mother, which is a dangerous assumption.)

Steele, continuing his virtuoso performance, painted Maher as a liberal, evoking the latte-drinking frame. As Casey asked, exactly what the hell does drinking coffee with milk have to do with someone being an elitist, a liberal, as described by Steele? Is there some beverage line in the sand that is only crossed by we liberals? A straight cup of Joe is fine but the moment one adds milk, they lose their accent, put on shoes and gain a liberal arts education? A 70 oz. coffee tub from Sheetz is fine but a small espresso is not? I'm sorry, but I'd rather be painted elitist for normal activity than live in constant fear of change and views different than mine.

So how can Republicans continue to follow people like Steele up the chute to the slaughterhouse knowing how completely ignorant of reality they are? Are they really the "party of the people," if they consider an average family to be a husband and wife earning nearly six times the median family income nationwide? And if you continue to support such wanton ignorance, doesn't that also make you as ignorant - if not more - than your elected leaders? I think it does. But as long as we keep listening to the whimsical musings of people like Steele, we'll keep moving toward the ownership society not as described by President Bush, but the one described by President Lincoln.

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Median vs. average (none / 0)

Median is (sort of) equivalent to the 50th percentile. It is not the same as average or mean. According to the US Commerce and Census Bureaus referenced in this report, www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/research/ casden/research/data_folder/us_faincsize.pdf, the Median income in 2001 was $51,407 while average was $65,773.

Take the following set of numbers: 1, 1, 5, 7, 8, 12, 15, 78, 100, 313, .

The average is 54. But the median, the number at which half the numbers are below it and half are above it, isn't as obvious. Some people average the two "center" numbers, which would make the median 10. Some might pick 9 as the median and some might pick 11.

If Bill Gates walks into a homeless shelter, the average income in the building is still in the billions of dollars. Income disparity has risen greatly in the last couple of decades. I'd be curious to know what would happen if the top and bottom 1% of incomes were removed from the statistics.

by jd142 on Sat Apr 30, 2005 at 03:37:23 PM EST

Steele was desperate (3.00 / 2)

I watched Maher last night and had the very same reaction Huges. It's possible Steele really believes what he was saying, but his rushed speaking and overbearing attempt to dominate the conversation were telling. There were several shots of Short just looking at Steele and patiently letting him finally wind down his filibuster.

I've commented before that there is no necessary connection between complexion and ideological opinion. There is no reason I can think of that a Jew could not admire Hitler. We describe them as self hating Jews and blacks like Steele as oreos. I don't understand it. It's a puzzling pheomenon to despise your own ethnic group or race.

I don't know how to evaluate people like Steele or Coulter. Do they genuinely believe the things they say, or is it an act? I have to assume they are sincere. Steele has studied the right wing theme that affirmative action harms blacks and the black community. They pretend that legislation like the Civil Rights Act is an impediment to black progress.

Steele demonstrated the lengths that are required to adjust facts to fit your beliefs when he argued that a couple earning $300,000 was not wealthy. Compared to the Forbe 400, they are not wealthy. By any rational standard, $300,000 is an extremely high income.

Check out this income chart from the Census Bureau. There are only 1,547 families in America with an income over $250,000. There are only 126 non-white families in America with an income over $250,000. Of course, the average income for those 1,547 families is $424,693.

I couldn't find exactly how much income it took to rank in the top 1%, but $300,000 is close. Charts 2 and 3 from Inequality.org, show that Steele was claiming the richest 2-3% of families in America are not rich. Absolutely bizarre.

I'm going to watch again tonight and recommend everyone else watch to see for themselves what a man who questions his own sincerity looks like. I watched Ron Silver on CSPAN a little bit ago. I wish I understood what made intelligent people believe the stupidest things.

by Gary Boatwright on Sat Apr 30, 2005 at 09:41:42 PM EST

Re: Steele was desperate (none / 0)

I watched again and Steele actually presented himself well, but he is still a moron. His facts and his opinions are just wrong. He has the conservative frames down pat. He had the spiel about creating a "level playing field" and opportunity that appeals to the American lottery jackpot fantasy.

When he tried to argue that snake people who think they can survive a poisonous snake bite are not well balanced mentally, he looked like a fool. When he tried to argue that families with a $300,000 income are not rich, he looked like a fool. He bungled the usual talking point that families with a $100,000 income are not rich, at least in many metropolitan areas.

by Gary Boatwright on Sat Apr 30, 2005 at 11:58:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

The numbers didn't seem right (3.00 / 1)

I just did a cut and paste from the census page without thinking it through. I had a niggle in the back of my mind and went back to look at the table.

The numbers are in thousands. There are 1,547,000 families in America who earn over $250,000.

I found another census data table that gives this breakdown:

The top 20% income bracket starts at $147,000.

The top 5% income starts at $253,000.

by Gary Boatwright on Sun May 01, 2005 at 01:18:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I was watching Maher. . . (none / 0)

And I thought Steele just looked stupid. Researching for a paper I was writing on Social Security, I found that if you get rid of the 90 thousand dollar cap that it would only affect the top 6% of earners.

So by conclusion someone that makes 150 thousand of income with 300 thousand household income has to be in the top 2 or 3% of earners.

Although someone like that is still just by a little bit in the 33% marginal tax bracket.

And I thought the median income was about $40,000.

Councilman Bill Painter

by Painter2004 on Sat Apr 30, 2005 at 11:10:46 PM EST

Re: I was watching Maher. . . (3.00 / 1)

Here's the data from the census bureau:

2003 family household data by quintile:

(This is mean income per quartile)

$9,996 $25,678 $43,588 $68,994 $147,078

It seems to me the median income would be closer to $35,000. It would have to be somewhere approximately in the middle of the means of the second and third quintile.

That would also square with numbers I saw in one article that the bottom 20% of American families earned under $20,000.

by Gary Boatwright on Sun May 01, 2005 at 01:26:16 AM EST
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