Swing and a miss, Mitt
Mitt Romney attended a high dollar fundraiser at a country club recently and said this:
“We’re accused, by the way — in our party — of being the party of the rich. And it’s an awful moniker, because that’s just not true. We’re the party of people who want to get rich. And we’re also the party of people who want to care to help people from getting poor. We want to help the poor.
Can we just back up a minute and take a look at what Republicans really stand for?
First of all, yesterday, House Republicans filibustered the DISCLOSE Act, preventing it from being voted on. The DISCLOSE act would force independent groups to disclose the names of contributors who give in excess of $10,000 for political campaigns. In other words, they want to empower wealthy donors to have a larger and secret voice in our elections.
Score one for the rich folk.
Second, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is holding tax relief for the un-wealthy hostage, demanding that the Bush tax cuts on the rich be extended, too, as ransom. Pretty much everyone agrees that the tax cuts for the un-wealthy should be extended. But that’s not good enough for Republicans. They won’t allow that extension to go through unless their wealthy benefactors are rewarded, too.
Score another one for the rich folk.
And, finally, Republicans, led by their presumptive presidential candidate Mitt Romney, want to completely eliminate taxes on income American corporations make overseas. The upshot of this, according to a recent study by Professor Kimberly A. Clausing, is that it will create 800,000 jobs in other countries.
Here’s a handy graphic to show you who would benefit from such a move:
Notice what’s missing from that list? You got it: America. Our workers will see their jobs move overseas if Mitt Romney and the Republicans get their way.
Score a third one for the rich folk.
I was on a national conference call yesterday with Harvard Professor Jeff Liebman to talk about this study. Prof. Liebman said that the current US system of taxing multinational corporations has a huge loophole for companies that earn income abroad. That income doesn’t get taxed until it is brought back home. The result is that it encourages them to invest and operate overseas rather than bring the money home. He also said that firms find ways to game the system. For example, they often report activities that take place in the US as having taken place overseas to avoid paying taxes.
Sounds like a certain presidential candidate I know of.
President Obama’s approach is exactly the opposite. He’s proposed eliminating the tax deduction for companies that move operations overseas, using the savings to create a tax cut for those who bring jobs back. He’d also tax overseas profits immediately, not when they bring the money back to the US.
The Obama Truth Team has a good explanation of the differences between the Republicans’ approach and President Obama’s approach HERE.
Mitt Romney did give a shout out to the poor people serving the rich folk their lunch:
“I know that people in this room are probably doing relatively well, relative to folks across this country. But not everyone in America is doing so well right now, it’s tough being middle class in America right now,” Romney said. “The waiters and waitresses that come in and out of this room and offer us refreshments, they’re not having a good year.
It’s so touching that he acknowledged the waiters and waitresses serving the rich folk their refreshments. Laura Clawson at Daily Kos put it this way:
So basically [Romney said]: “Oh, look here at these little people, you see. (Smacks lips.) They feel pain. (Dabs away drool with another smack of lips.) And we’re going to win this election because of their pain!”
Ouch.
I’m not sure how anyone thinks of the Republicans as helping the poor. So far as I can tell, the only ones they are looking out for are the rich and powerful.
But, then, we already knew that, didn’t we?
Mitt Romney lives in a world where, as OFA Communications Director Brent Colburn put it on the conference call yesterday, there are “two sets of rules – one for himself and others at the top, and another for everyone else”.
Maybe that’s why he won’t release more than one year of his tax returns.
On that topic, here’s the latest television ad from the Obama campaign. It’s nearly as brutal as their last one, “Firms”, which has had nearly 1,200,000 views in just three days.
“Makes You Wonder”
[Romney image credit: Anne C. Savage]
