Kvetching, always kvetching about liberal domination of Hollywood.
But take a closer look for once.
It’s a more ideologically diverse community than you might suppose.
Take Kevin Spacey, star of Netflix’s “House of Cards,” the digitally-distributed series that struck a historic blow for the Web as an entertainment medium last month, when it collected nine Emmy nominations.
Did you know the Oscar-winning actor is an ardent supply-sider?
Oh, yes, he has embraced the creed behind the Reagan economic boom in full: Business tax cuts are engines of job creation, economic growth and an expanded revenue base.
In fact, Mr. Spacey was spreading the laissez-faire gospel as recently as Friday — in the homeland, fittingly enough, of Adam Smith.
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Mr. Spacey bore personal witness to the power of supply-side stimulus, specifically entertainment production tax credits.
“House of Cards” shoots on location in Baltimore “because [it] has fantastic tax breaks and we can make it look like D.C.,” Mr. Spacey explained, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“What we bring to the state of Maryland in terms of jobs and economy is extraordinary,” he gushed. “We employ thousands.”
Of course, these credits are selective tax breaks targeted at an entertainment industry that boasts enormous political clout. So it sure does look like D.C. (Deft work, Kev, deft work.)
But don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not like Mr. Spacey is some kind of apologist for crony capitalism, let alone a direct beneficiary of it. How could he be? After all, “House of Cards,” in which he stars as a score-settling Southern congressman, is an unsparing dissection of money and power and special pleading in Washington, one that lays bare the culture of corruption that infects the nation’s political system.
• Daniel Wattenberg can be reached at dwattenberg@washingtontimes.com.
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