In an unusual move, Arkansas investment banking big wheel Warren Stephens, chairman/CEO of Stephens Inc. and co-chair of the Arkansas for McCain campaign, takes to the bully pulpit to warn of the dire effects of higher taxation under a possible Barack Obama administration:
Warren Stephens
Our system could hardly be more weighted to having the wealthy pay more, yet that is precisely what Senator Obama proposes. I will reluctantly accept (for now) that in our society the top wage earners will pay more (in percentage terms) in taxes, but if Senator Obama wants to raise taxes, he should say so… Senator Obama’s plan is a redistribution of income from those who pay taxes to those who do not. It is nothing more than the granddaddy of all welfare plans and voters need to know it. For Senators Obama and Biden to couch this issue as one of fairness and a “patriotic duty” is an attempt to deceive the American public as to the facts.
Stephens points are well-taken, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that maybe a billionaire investment banker isn’t the ideal proponent for that message right now, even if he is one of our state’s leading corporate citizens.
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