Loopholes for thee but not for ye

Silicon Valley high tech industry leaders are shocked…. absolutely shocked that the man they voted for would target them for more tax revenue.

The executives pleaded their case at a 2 1/2-hour dinner with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein at the Source, Washington's hottest new restaurant. They discussed strategy with Sen. Barbara Boxer, who arranged a special meeting with President Obama's top economic adviser, Larry Summers, that lasted nearly an hour.

And the Silicon Valley executives made clear to all that Obama's hunt for revenue to finance his ambitious agenda, from green energy to health care, should leave them alone.

More than 50 executives of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, upon arriving for their annual pilgrimage to Washington on Monday, were stunned to hear Obama's announcement that he wants to change tax rules on corporate income earned overseas, where many technology companies operate extensively.

We need to be very careful as to how we say this because we’ve been admonished by political savant, Bill Maher, that we shouldn’t be writing or talking about what the President is “planning” to do. But since the gap between incoming revenue and “anticipated” future expenditures is continuing to yawn at astronomical rates and the President keeps getting rebuffed whilst scrounging for more jack, could we possibly “preclude” that the President's only recourse is to raise our taxes? We know, we know - it’s completely wild and rampant speculation and irresponsible blogging but we just had to ask the question.

Besides, Ben Bernanke tends to agree with us.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned lawmakers Tuesday that they should be consistent. "If you want to increase spending, then you have to be willing to accept the tax increases and the consequences that may have for growth and efficiency," Bernanke said. "If you want to have low taxes, then you have to be willing to accept and find program cuts that will match the two."

It’s only a matter of time, folks