"We need to tax... his in-laws!" (Jack Bog's Blog)

This is not a joke setup, but it could be: Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley, Earl Blumenauer, and Kurt Schrader are out on a boat together on the Willamette River in Portland.

The comedy writers among you could take it from there, but the true story from yesterday is pretty amusing in and of itself. They're all out there putting on their best "just one of the guys" looks, but in Wyden's case it comes out looking as if he's channeling Al Bundy from "Married With Children."

It's not the same without David Wu's spacey one-liners. The four of them stand gaping over the rail like they're just realizing that a bazillion dollars later, the Willamette in Portland is still pretty much a toilet. Even the brain-devouring amoebas aren't interested in swimming in it. And gosh, these four brave horsemen would clean it up if only there were money for it. But of course, there's only money for MAX trains and streetcars... so they just keep staring at the nasty brown.

This gets boring after a while, and so a reporter who is along for the ride starts chatting them up about the deficit and taxes. And funny thing -- they're "not quite on the same page":

Wyden is pushing a bill to eliminate tax breaks in favor of lower overall tax rates.
"It won't take care of the entire $1.5 trillion, but it sure could make a significant dent in it," he said.

And beyond tax reform, Blumenauer and Merkley both are looking for tax increases on the richest Americans.

"There's a real consensus that programs for the wealthy and well-connected have to be on the table," Merkley said.

The story doesn't say, but at that point we hope they both gestured over toward old Gatsby Wyden and winked. He doesn't wear that baseball cap in the Hamptons, does he?

Comments (9)

It took Merkley, Blumenauer, Schrader, a reporter and cameraman to remind Wyden what a Willamette River is and where it is located (they don't have one of those in NY)

Posted by phil | August 18, 2011 6:17 AM

Is it me, or does the photo look like a bad remake of a U2 album cover.

Posted by Jack Foley | August 18, 2011 7:28 AM

Why is Ronnie wearing a coat that looks like he is preparing to go to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, when everyone else is in shirt sleeves? I guess NY is a lot warmer than Portlandia???

Posted by portland native | August 18, 2011 7:48 AM

Does anyone else get this sinking feeling seeing this group on a ship?

Posted by clinamen | August 18, 2011 9:38 AM

And just who are the "wealthy and well-connected?" Wyden is certainly both. Schrader kind of. But I'd say they are all "well connected."

And where's Merkley and Earl's buddy DeFazio?

Posted by dg | August 18, 2011 10:44 AM

"Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley, Earl Blumenauer, and Kurt Schrader are out on a boat together on the Willamette River in Portland."

Wyden: Are you sure this is not the East River? I think I can see my kids' school from here.

Posted by Steve | August 18, 2011 11:17 AM

The Teahadis are after the home mortgage deduction. Nobody wants to actually name that mystery "tax expenditure" any more than they want to say that what they need it to pay for is the trillions they raided out of the SS trust fund. Like the booming voice says, "Do not look behind the green curtain!"

Posted by dyspeptic | August 18, 2011 2:42 PM

As for the tax the rich strategy, well, you can throw out those Gini coefficients.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512501087811480.html?mod=googlenews_wsj&fbresult=add

Posted by Newleaf | August 18, 2011 2:59 PM

I will reiterate a sinking feeling because these Senators and Reps. are cruising around
in a boat looking at a dirty river instead of doing their job to protect our drinking water and the pocketbooks of businesses and citizens of our community.

On July 20th, 2011 NY Senator Schumer sent out a press release and a letter to ask EPA to abandon that LT2 rule for their reservoir, working well for over 90 years without a problem and that the cost of $1.6 billion would be too costly for that community.

It has been nearly one month now and not one word out of any of our congressional Senators or Reps. about doing the same for us.

Do they think that a billion dollar debt for a public health problem that does not exist
is fine for our community?

http://schumer.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=333556

Posted by clinamen | August 18, 2011 3:23 PM

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Thursday, August 18, 2011

"We need to tax... his in-laws!"

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