The irony of the most anti-capitalist industry in America begging for tax credits/incentives/welfare in order to keep pumping out their anti-corporate/American product is just too rich. Nevertheless, from this story, it’s obvious “Machete” creator Robert Rodriguez is very much counting on mucho tax dollars to make his film… And may still receive them:

Oddly, Machete may have been shot in a different state if not for Perry, who signed a bill last year giving his office the ability to grant larger tax incentives to lure filmmakers to shoot in Texas.

Perry signed the bill at an April 2009 ceremony at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios. Rodriguez told The Associated Press at the time that, without the bill, he would have had to move the production of projects including Machete to another state.

“Thanks to this bill, I don’t have to go shoot out of the state,” Rodriguez said.

Just a Couple of Supply-Siders

Progressive liberal Democrat Alec Baldwin sent many heads spinning all over the blogosphere when he recently said this:

I’m telling you right now,” the actor warned, “if these tax breaks are not reinstated into the budget, film production in this town is going to collapse, and television production is going to collapse, and it’s all going to go to California.

Now the rich absurdity of a statement like that coming out of the mouth of Alec Baldwin has been chronicled many places all over the web (most notably in the Wall St. Journal), and the fascinating “why?” of it all is still being sorted out.  Has he had an economic spiritual awakening?  Has he gone insane?   Or is he simply a narcissistic hypocrite who only wants tax breaks for the industry that pays him exorbitant amounts of money for saying words other people write during the two or three grueling, catered days a week that he actually has to go to work?  (more…)