Yep, Alberta Darling's really that clueless

In a gaffe along the lines of John McCain's attitude of "I'm just a normal lifestyle kind of guy, even though I have five houses," Alberta Darling said people who make $250,000 a year were "small business and not wealthy." Well, that seems ridiculous on its face for those of us in the real Wisconsin, but given that Bertie Dahhh-ling is from the North Shore suburbs of Milwaukee, maybe it's not that much in that district.

SO I went to the Census Bureau American Community Survey to see how a $250,000 income measures up in Bertie's neck of the woods. And indeed, $250,000 is around normal in River Hills, where the median household income is estimated at an insane $207,031 (median = half above, half below) . But then take a look at the rest of that district:

Median household income (2009 dollars)
Whitefish Bay $106,500
Mequon $101,385
Fox Point $100,000
Bayside $81,164
Germantown $71,647
Menomonee Falls $67,506
Glendale $63,770
Brown Deer $61,097
Shorewood $60,272
Thiensville $54,449

So anyone making $250K would be making more than twice the typical income of a household in Whitefish Bay, Mequon, or Fox Point, and nearly FOUR TIMES much of the rest of that district. So who the hell does Darling hang around with where she thinks a $250,000 income isn't all that much? Apparently, she doesn't get out of her gated community and country club very much, and that alone should eliminate her from serving that area any more.

But it goes further than that. I'm reminded when McCain tried to insinuate in one of the 2008 presidential debates that a "Joe the [Fake] Plumber" type wasn't rich because he made $250,000. But what he was doing was confusing revenues with profits, and probably on purpose. $250,000 in revenues isn't all that much, but $250K AFTER EXPENSES is a ton, and chances are quite high that your business isn't all that small if you're able to keep $250 large for yourself.

Darling seems to have the same convenient "confusion". From the article:

"I just went to a woman today and she said, 'Do you believe, you know, why are you giving tax breaks to the wealthy?' I said 'What do you consider wealthy?' She said '$250,000 and above' and I said 'that is small business.' Those are small business people. Those aren’t wealthy people. We are not interested in raising taxes on the quote 'rich.' We are interested in growing the economy."

On Monday, Darling said she was trying to make a distinction between wealthy people and small businesses. Yes, she said, any family with an income of $250,000 or more is wealthy.

But that may not be necessarily true for a small business. A small business may be worth $250,000 or more, but it might have a small number of employees. That kind of business is not wealthy, she said. And a small business that gets taxed, she said, can kill jobs.

Oh, maybe by "small business owner" she means CEO, as the median Wisconsin CEO made $2.5 million in 2010, and only the bottom folks made anything in the neighborhood of that piddling $250,000. Guess that makes sense, rich oligarchs are an ALEC puppet like Darling's REAL constituency.

But a person making a salary of $250,000 being a typical Wisconsin worker that just wants to live the American Dream? I got two words for that "clarification". BULL and SHIT. Insulting or ignorant? You make the call.