The aristocratic old grandpa state

by Jen Sorensen

 

Romeny says corporate money is speech, union money is not.

Romney: Campaign Funding Okay For Corporations, Not Teachers

By karoli

Mitt Romney appeared on NBC's Education Nation Tuesday morning to give a pitch for private schools and charter schools. During the question and answer session with Brian Williams, he was asked about the Chicago teachers' strike, and whether he thought teachers should be allowed to go on strike.

His response was quite remarkable. While he believes teachers should have the right to go on strike (or so he says), he was quite adamant that teachers and by extension, teachers' unions, should not have the right to donate to campaigns or purchase advertising in the same fashion that corporations do.

If Citizens United ruled that money is speech, then why isn't teachers' money speech? They're citizens, they vote, and they also happen to be public employees.

According to Mitt Romney, "in the case of the Democratic Party, the largest contributor to the Democratic party is the federal teachers' unions." He went on to say that "if they elect someone, then that person is supposed to be representing the public, vis a vis the teachers union, but actually most of their money came from the teachers' union." He wrapped it all up by declaring it an "extraordinary conflict of interest."

I'm going to do my best to first sort out what Mitt Romney actually said, without regard to whether he's factually correct. As I understand it, he says elected officials represent the public, but their campaigns are funded by some thing that's not the public called a union and therefore there's a conflict.

I don't think I did that very well. Or perhaps he didn't say it very well, because it's just a silly argument. Teachers are citizens. They vote. They contribute to a union which then contributes to candidates and clearly discloses that they have made that contribution. When a union pays for an independent expenditure, it's clearly understood that union members paid for that. When a corporation pays for an independent expenditure, it's not even disclosed.

Mitts Tax Plan Would Transfer Wealth From The Hard Working Middle And Lower Class To The True Moochers, The Government Dependent Idle Rich!

How Romney’s Economic Plan Redistributes Wealth To The Wealthy

By Pat Garofalo 

Mitt Romney yesterday attempted to turn attention away from the fallout of his comments regarding the “47 percent” by pointing to a video from 1998 in which President Obama, then a state senator, says, “I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure everybody’s got a shot.” The video was aggressively pushed by the Drudge Report and was detailed in a Romney campaign memo today.

This video doesn’t show much of anything new: President Obama has consistently advocated for higher tax rates on the rich, a position most Americans support, and more support for low-income Americans.

Romney’s response also ignores that his own economic plan would redistribute wealth too — Romney would just redistribute it to the already wealthy.

According to a Tax Policy Center analysis, Romney’s plan would increase after-tax income for those making more than $200,000 annually, while lowering it for everyone else:

The upshot of Romney’s plan is that “taxpayers with incomes over $1 million would see their after-tax income increased by 8.3 percent (an average tax cut of about $175,000), taxpayers with incomes between $75,000 and $100,000 would see somewhat smaller increases of about 2.4 percent (an average tax cut of $1,800), while the after-tax income of taxpayers earning less than $30,000 would actually decrease by about 0.9 percent (an average tax increase of about $130).”

This analysis made the most generous assumptions about Romney’s plan, factoring in that he would eliminate tax deductions and loopholes in the most progressive way possible in order to finance his tax cut. And still, it would constitute a dramatic shift in income to the already wealthy.

According to the latest data from the Census Bureau, income inequality increased last year, despite ongoing government efforts to combat the Great Recession. Romney’s plan would make that trend even worse.

Romney Tells His Fat Cat Donors What He Thinks Of The Real Hard Working Americans. They Are Moochers!

Romney demands that seniors take 'personal responsibility'

by Armando

 

Romney promises tough choices for you, but not for him and his rich friends.

 

Most of today's seniors, who worked hard, played by the rules and paid their taxes, have retired. Most seniors do not pay federal income taxes.
Mitt Romney says about them:

My job is not to worry about those people [...]’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

In his press conference last night, Romney said:

I recognize that among those that pay no tax, approximately 47 percent of Americans, I’m not likely to be highly successful with the message of lowering taxes.

Romney's message is that in order to lower taxes for his wealthy friends he will demand that retirees who worked hard, played by the rules, saved for retirement and counted on the promise of Social Security and Medicare, "take personal responsibility" and pay higher taxes, receive less in Social Security and trade in the promise of Medicare for Ryan's Vouchercare, ending Medicare as we know it.
Tax cuts for the rich. Tax hikes and benefits cuts for seniors and the undeserving rest of us.
That's the Romney promise. That's Romney's idea of personal responsibility.

Class warfare, anyone?

Adelson's $100 Million Election Investment Should Return About $2.3 Billion. A 2,200% Return On Investment. And We get A $2000 Tax Increase To Pay For It.

How One Mega-Donor Could Save $2.3 Billion Under Romney’s Tax Plan

By Travis Waldron

The $100 million that billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson pledged to donate to Mitt Romney will turn out to be a good investment if the Republican nominee wins the presidential election in November, a new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund found. Thanks to Romney’s tax proposals, which call for massive tax cuts for the rich, corporate tax reforms that will encourage the offshoring of profits, and the elimination of certain investment taxes, Adelson could personally save more than $2 billion in taxes, according to CAPAF Director of Fiscal Reform Seth Hanlon.

Romney’s tax plan would help Adelson in the following ways:

• Cut top tax rates, saving Adelson approximately $1.5 million on his annual compensation as chief executive of his casino company.

• Maintain the special low rates on dividends, potentially saving Adelson nearly $120 million on a single year’s worth of dividends, more than enough to recoup his political donations.

• Maintain the special low rates on capital gains, allowing Adelson to make back his political donations in capital gains tax cuts just by selling a fraction of his stock.

• Provide a tax windfall of an estimated $1.2 billion to Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands Corp., on untaxed profits from its Asian casinos, as well as a tax exemption for future overseas profits. Adelson’s casinos already enjoy a special foreign tax exemption from the Chinese administrative region of Macau, and Gov. Romney would make those foreign profits exempt from U.S. taxes as well.

• Eliminate the estate tax, potentially providing a staggering $8.9 billion windfall to Adelson’s heirs.

Romney’s corporate tax reforms would also provide Adelson’s casino company approximately $1.2 billion in tax breaks on overseas profits and $565 million from Romney’s proposed shift to a territorial tax system. Adelson’s share of that, the report says, would be upward of $900 million, nine times what he pledged to spend to get Romney to the White House.

While Romney’s tax plan would further enrich billionaires like Adelson, it would have to raise taxes on middle class families by as much as $2,000 if Romney were to keep his plan to maintain current levels of revenue.

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Credit: Under the Mountain Bunker

Deval Patrick Forcefully Tells Dems To Get Their Act Together.

Deval Patrick: ‘It Is Time For Democrats To Grow A Backbone’

By Annie-Rose Strasser

 Sep 4, 2012 

In making the case for the re-election of President Barack Obama Tuesday night at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick called on Democrats to “grow a backbone.”
“We are Americans,” Patrick said to roaring applause, “We shape our own future”:

My message is this — it is time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe. Quit waiting for pundits or polls or Super PACs to tell us who the next President or senator or congressman will be. We are Americans. We shape our own future.