Possibly the best graph . . .

. . . I've ever seen.

tremayne: Things I Learned About Senator Blanche Lincoln With My 'Puter

Via RandomNonviolence in Quick Hits I learned about a budget amendment being cosponsored by Senators Blanche Lincoln and Jon Kyl which would provide a deep cut in estate taxes. I learned, after a digging around awhile and finding this chart, that the rich people in this country are very very very rich and, well, most of us aren't. Hard to see it, but those with annual incomes in the millions are represented by the vertical red line on the left and those making less than a million (i.e., almost everyone) are the horizontal red line on the bottom. Lincoln and Kyle are concerned about the people on the vertical red line. Actually, as the OpEd piece linked above points out, the concern is not for everyone on the vertical red line but only the wealthiest of those wealthy. Why would Lincoln, a Democrat, be so concerned about that tiny and very wealthy segment of the population I wondered. I did some more digging and learned some interesting things.

Arkansas has never struck me as a wealthy state. I checked. Nope, not wealthy at all. In fact, it is the 3rd poorest state, per capita, in the U.S. edged out for last place by only West Virginia and Mississippi. The amendment she and Kyl are proposing would have no affect at all on 99% of the residents of her state. But, are there any rich people at all in Arkansas? Turns out there are. Here are the richest 5 families there: 1. Sam Walton Family (Wal-Mart, inheritance) 2. Witt and Jack Stephens Family (finance) 3. Charles Murphy Family (oil, etc.) 4. Winthrop Paul Rockefeller Family (inheritance money, ha ha) 5. Don Tyson Family (chicken) I wonder, does Blanche Lincoln have any connections to these rich families? Is that why she is so concerned about them she is cosponsoring an amendment that won't help hardly anyone else? Hmmm. A little more Googling around and I found this, the list of the top 5 contributors to Blanche Lincoln's reelection campaign: Stephens Group $34,200 DaVita Inc $32,000 Wal-Mart Stores $25,800 Tyson Foods $24,750 Goldman Sachs $24,000 Very interesting. Let's see if there is any overlap with the above list of rich families. Hey, lookie there: 3 of the top four contributors are also on the top five wealthiest families in Arkansas. How about that? The stuff you can learn with Teh Google.