Beck and Palin: Determinedly Uninformed

I’m watching the Glenn Beck interview of Sarah Palin, and it’s really leaving me speechless that two people who are so woefully and determinedly uninformed have such an impact on the national discourse.

Beck just asked Palin if she’d heard about the Federal Reserve’s record profits for last year, and then bemoaned that “nobody’s having hearings on the Fed, nobody is looking for a windfall profit tax on the Fed, we can’t even open the Fed’s books.” Palin responded by thanking Beck for “bringing this to light,” adding: “I don’t know anybody else who is.”

There’s a very simple reason why no one else is talking about taxing the Fed’s profits or having hearings or even discussing this — because people who care to know what they’re talking about already know that 100 percent of the Fed’s profits go to the Treasury. Every single cent. There is no talk of a windfall profits tax because it’s already effectively at 100 percent.

Perhaps if Beck put his crack research staff on the case, or if Palin spent a little less time lying on Facebook, they would know basic facts like these before making (greater) fools of themselves on national television.