When Stuart Varney Says Stuff, It Sounds Cool

Expat Stuart Varney deigned to appear with Imus today, but showed little interest in Imus’s review of Colin Quinn’s show “Long Story Short,” choosing instead to leaf through the newspapers in search of something relevant.
 
Which wasn’t very difficult to do, considering President Obama and the Republicans compromised yesterday on extending the Bush-era tax cuts for another two years, and also on extending unemployment benefits for 13 months.
 
“I think it’s a win for the President,” said Varney, the host of Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co. “I think he’s going to look like a moderate, looking like he’s moving to the center, prepared to give way on his ideological position in the interest of prosperity.”
 
Varney, who is no fan of the President’s, believes the economy is about to expand, and that Obama will leverage its growth next year and into 2012. In the short term, however, Varney thinks Obama has ticked off the left wing of his Party.
 
Forgetting ideology, if that’s possible, Varney insisted he was against repealing the tax cuts for purely economic reasons. Many of the people making more than $250,000 a year, the income bracket that would have faced higher taxes, are small business owners, a population that historically creates new jobs. Raising taxes on them, “at a time like this, when you’ve got 9.8 percent unemployment, you would have sent the economy down, not up,” Varney said.
 
During an interview with Rep. Anthony Weiner yesterday, Imus admitted he wouldn’t mind paying more taxes, which prompted a scathing e-mail from Neil Cavuto demanding to know why the I-Man would to pay more for a crappy product.
 
Varney obviously agreed with his boss, and observed that the 80 or so well-known millionaires who signed a petition saying they would be willing to pay higher taxes missed the point.
 
“You do not tax wealth in this country,” he said. “If you’ve accumulated $100 million, you’re not taxed on that $100 million. We tax income, and that’s the problem.”
 
But Varney’s overall outlook on the economy is surprisingly upbeat. “Last month’s Republican sweep, I think that does a lot to restore confidence in private enterprise,” he said, adding that he sees more jobs on the horizon, too. “If you could instill confidence in the private sector, some of that money that’s on the sidelines comes in, you start to expand, you start to hire, the economy starts to grow.”
 
Proud of himself for actually listening to a guest for the duration of an interview, Imus said, “You’re either really right, or just nuts. I think you’re really right.”
 
-Julie Kanfer