The father of modern capitalism, that’s who:
The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. . . . The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. . . . It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion. -Adam Smith.
Guess who agrees with him about withdrawing US troops from Iraq?
The Iraqi government:
The Iraqi cabinet shot down the draft security agreement negotiated by the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Bush administration, insisting that several of its paragraphs need a change of wording. Bush administration officials say that they are unwilling to engage in yet another round of negotiations. Without cabinet approval, the draft probably would not even be submitted to parliament, much less passed by it. Some of the objections, as I reported yesterday, come from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which is al-Maliki’s chief political partner, the support of which he would need to get the draft through parliament. ISCI is close to Tehran, which objects to the agreement.
Even al-Maliki seemed lukewarm about the draft his office had negotiated, complaining that the US government ‘takes away with one hand what it gave with the other.’
But not to worry, McCain picked up a key endorsement today.