See Biscuit

Am I the last one in the world to see “Seabiscuit” – or are you? If it’s you, please withdraw $10 from your money market fund . . . the after-tax interest on which this year would net you only a nickel anyway . . . and see it. It’s a wonderful movie.

Set in a time when the contrast between rich and poor was particularly stark (because poverty had come to those who had not expected it), it is a movie about underdogs. Does anyone go to see it and root for War Admiral to beat Seabiscuit? Or for Mr. Riddle, War Admiral’s wealthy owner, to get a tax cut?

See it, and consider the governor of Alabama, Bob Riley, who is being run out of the Republican Party for daring to suggest that his state’s 5% top income tax bracket be raised to 6%. He would use this increase to close Alabama’s budget deficit . . . to increase Alabama’s worst-in-the-nation education funding . . . and to make the tax more progressive. Currently, a family of four begins paying Alabama income tax when its annual income reaches $4,600. Governor Riley would raise that threshold to $17,000. ‘It’s been incredibly awkward,’ Saturday’s New York Times quoted the state Republican chairman, Marty Connors, ‘but what am I supposed to do? Throw away 20 years of Republican ideology for something like this?’

Yes, well that would be a good start.

Tomorrow: Another Movie