Arrogant Reporter Threatens to Kill Civil Congressman

Oops, I made a mistake.

Actually, it's Representative Pete Stark (D-CA) who threatened to throw the reporter out the window. However, that's only a detail and not worth a headline. In this 4 minute interview, which ended with Stark yelling an obscenity at reporter Jan Helfeld and threatening to throw him out the window, the headline is Stark's unmitigated arrogance. The sub-head is his complete separation from reality while pontificating on economics.

Stark's position, repeated throughout the interview, is that the size of the federal debt is an indication of national wealth. According to Mr. Stark, who has served for decades on the Ways and Means committee in the House of Representatives,

The larger the national debt, the wealthier we are.

The more we owe, the more we're worth is, according to the congressman, a law of economics that applies to federal governments but not necessarily to others. He obviously really believes this, which explains how our government reached the point it has.

I'll bet Mr. Stark does really, really well in his town hall meetings.

Mr. Stark was almost single-handedly responsible 20 years ago for the repeal of the Kennedy-era Investment Tax Credit, an action he took after learning his dentist had benefited from the credit.