The billionaires' president

With little public debate or attention from the oligarchic media, the lower chamber of Parliament gave final legislative approval on Sept. 10 to a change to the income-tax law for entirely exempting sales of companies from taxation. Only five MPs voted against the bill: The four Pirates and Chair Josef Bernard (STAN) of the budget committee, who isn't running for reelection. Petr Fiala, Marek Výborný, Vít Rakušan, Andrej Babiš and Tomio Okamura were conveniently absent for the vote. MP Olga Richterová of the Pirates said that it's a 0% tax for a few dozen super-rich people every year. In his New Year's address this year, Pres. Petr Pavel said that he of course sees that not everyone in the country is doing well. "There are households that struggle on a daily basis to overcome life's obstacles," he said. He vowed to use all his constitutional powers to help these people. As if to emphasize this, he visited with children in a hard-hit area of the Pardubice region yesterday. Now he'll sign the billionaires' bill.