Romney Hood: stealing from the Middle Class to give to the rich
At a campaign stop in Stamford, Connecticut yesterday, President Obama referring to Mitt Romney’s economic plan, the one that pays for historic tax cuts for the super wealthy by increasing taxes on average Americans, renamed Mitt Romney “Romney Hood”. He’s a reverse Robin Hood, said the president, stealing from Middle Class Americans to give to the very rich in our country.
It was brilliant.
[T]he entire centerpiece of Mitt Romney’s economic plan is a new $5 trillion tax cut. And we’ve known for a while that a lot of this tax cut would go to the wealthiest 1 percent of all households. But just last week, an independent, non-partisan organization crunched the numbers. They went through what would it mean to add a $5 trillion tax cut. Just to give you a sense of perspective here — our entire defense budget is about — it’s over $500 billion a year, but it’s less than $600 billion.So you’re talking about each year, a tax cut that’s equivalent of our defense budget for the next 10 years. And what this policy center did was — it just ran the numbers — if you wanted to actually pay for that, what would that mean. And they determined that Governor Romney’s plan would effectively raise taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000 — to pay for this tax cut. Not to reduce the deficit. Not to invest in things that grow our economy, like education or roads or basic research. He’d ask the middle class to pay more in taxes so that he could give another $250,000 tax cut to people making more than $3 million a year.
It’s like Robin Hood in reverse. It’s Romney Hood.
And if this sounds like an idea that’s difficult to explain or sell to the American people, you’d be right! So there were all kinds of different gymnastics being performed by the Romney campaign last week. They have tried to sell us this trickle-down, tax cut fairy dust before. And guess what — it does not work. It didn’t work then; it won’t work now. It’s not a plan to create jobs. It’s not a plan to reduce our deficit. And it is not a plan to move our economy forward.
President Obama’s approach is decidedly different:
I’ve got a different plan for America. Four years ago, I promised to cut middle-class taxes — that’s exactly what I’ve done, by a total of about $3,600 for the typical family. So I want to keep taxes exactly where they are for the first $250,000 of everybody’s income. If your family makes under $250,000 — like 98 percent of Americans do — you will not see your income taxes increase by a single dime next year.And if you’re fortunate enough — as many of you are, as I am — to be in the other 2 percent, you still keep the tax cut on the first $250,000 of your income. All we’re asking is that, after that, you contribute a little bit more so we can pay down our deficit and invest in things like education that will help us grow.
Fox News has done some of those gymnastics that President Obama mentioned. Media Matter caught them displaying this absurd and intentionally dishonest chart:
Why is it dishonest? Look at the range of the Y-axis. It doesn’t start at zero. They lopped off the top 1/6th of the chart to make the change look much more dramatic. Won’t someone please think of the poor rich people???
Here’s what an honest chart looks like, also courtesy of Media Matters:
Not so impressive when you tell the truth is it? When you tell people we’re only raising taxes on income OVER $250,000 by only 4.6%, taking it back to the level during the boom times of the Clinton administration, it just doesn’t have the same impact as when you blatantly deceive people about it.
Gymnastics.
When you take a look at the difference between the Obama economic plan and the Romney Hood economic plan, you begin to see how devastating it is to middle income Americans. Here’s a video of some folks using the Tax Calculator at RomneyPlan.org to run the numbers.
We are still saving a ton of taxes under Obama and we are going to be really screwed under Romney.
The Obama campaign is hosting events in key battleground states throughout the week to highlight this discrepancy and to show how President Obama is “Fighting for the Middle Class”. Just today they’ll have events in Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Colorado.
[Today] and throughout the week, OFA will hold events in key battleground states to tell Americans how the Romney Tax Hike would impact middle-class families and small businesses. These events will also highlight how President Obama is “Fighting for Middle-Class Security” by calling on Congress to immediately prevent a tax hike on the 98 percent of Americans who make less than $250,000, to extend tax cuts for 97 percent of small businesses, and by supporting small-business policies that encourage drive and ingenuity so our nation’s entrepreneurs can start and grow their businesses.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is desperately trying to show he’s an “Average Guy”. Yesterday, he went grocery shopping. Here’s how the International Business Times described it:
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney engaged in arguably the most blatant “I’m a regular guy, just like you” campaign stunt Monday. The “Best Pandering to Date” award of the 2012 season was won by the GOP’s standard-bearer by using a rare day off from the trail to go shopping at his local hardware and grocery store in Wolfeboro, N.H.Just how “everyman” is Romney?
Like you and me, Mitt Romney gets chauffeured to the store in a tinted-out black Chevy Suburban, Secret Service agents in tow. Much like the rest of us, he procures his ears of corn and tools with a press gaggle dutifully snapping pictures.
We can all relate to the totally-not-strange practice of carrying our hardware store purchases in a bucket. And wouldn’t you know it, Romney’s motorcade blocks in other shoppers’ cars too. If only we had a dollar for every time that happened! Plus there’s the annoying post-shopping press frenzy over the excursion.
Here’s hint, Mitt: Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is buying the act. Give it up. With your multiple homes, car elevator for your many Cadillacs and other cars, your Swiss bank accounts and tax sheltered investment income in the Cayman Islands, there isn’t a person in the U.S. who thinks you’re just an Average Guy.
We know who is truly fighting for the Middle Class and we will reelect him to be our president in November. That man is not you, Mitt. That man is Barack Obama.
[Obama graphic by Anne C. Savage, used with permision]
