The Republican Nomination For President: The Race For The Race For The White House

@parados,

Oh yeah, the "I'm just like you" argument. I bet they're all wishing they could get away with showing up for debate with a lunch bucket. Even Joe Biden knew better than to try that one.

1 Reply

@roger,

Wasn't that Palin's intention when hunting wolves from a helicopter?

"I'm just like you!!"

1 Reply

@parados,

Yeah, but I wasn't convinced. Still, she wasn't Obama.

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@realjohnboy,

Quote:

Mitt's tax return thing is, in my mind, little more than voyeurism. He says that he will release stuff after April 15th, which happens to be after most of the primaries. I was amused by his comment that most of his income comes from investments but he added that "...I get speakers fees from time to time, but not very much." From 2/10 to 2/11 it was $360,000.

Not sure it is voyeurism to want to see his tax returns, it is something that has been happening for presidential candidates for more than three decades. Apparently Romney has already admitted that he pays around 15% on his tax returns.

Quote:

However, during a press conference on the campaign trail today, Romney did give a glimpse into his finances, confirming that he pays “closer to the 15 percent rate”:

Q: What’s the effective rate you’ve been paying?

ROMNEY: What’s the effective rate I’ve been paying? It’s probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything, because my last ten years, I’ve, my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past, rather than ordinary income, rather than earned annual income.

source

Quote:

As Center for American Progress Director of Fiscal Reform Seth Hanlon has explained, the latest data shows that “many middle-class families paid much more [in taxes] than the 17.5 percent average paid by the very rich.” When President Obama suggested the “Buffett rule,” aimed at ensuring that millionaires can’t pay lower taxes than middle class families, Romney derided it as “class warfare,” and “the wrong way to go.”

One of the reasons Romney is able to drive his tax rate down so low is that he is still earning money from his private equity firm, Bain Capital, that is likely subject to a pernicious tax loophole. This loophole lets wealthy money mangers like Romney pay the capital gains tax rate on profits they make investing other people’s money, turning the justification for having a lower capital gains tax rate completely on its head.

During the same press conference, Romney said that he only makes some income from speaker’s fees, “but not very much,” which is money that would be taxed at normal income tax rates. From Feb. 2010 to Feb. 2011, Romney earned $362,000 in speaker’s fees.

From the same source complete with links to back up statements.

My point is that Romney opened the door to questions about his income tax when he started talking about "class welfare."

1 Reply

@revelette,

My wife, who doesn't follow politics but does know a thing or two about taxes, asked last night, 'how much money do you think Romney and Bain have been hiding in off-shore accounts, to avoid taxes?'

My guess is, quite a bit. Many of the funds Bain Capital is invested in are located overseas; I would be VERY interested to see how Romney is reporting his income from those funds, and how he has been doing it for the last decade or so.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

Romney should agree to make his tax returns public
right after Obama makes his college transcripts public.

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@Cycloptichorn,

That's another step in the controversy that most people do not understand - or care about. American voters ignore or don't understand most of what happens in the area of taxation; that's the reason why most conservatives a) want corporate taxes to be lowered (even though the US corporations pays the lowest actual taxes), and b) they want to reduce taxes for the wealthy, because they claim it's a shift of wealth from the rich to the poor.

There's no cure for stupid.

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An important consideration in this debate, and in the ones to come, is whether the electorate gives any credit to those staking out the moral high ground.

Or is Orwell correct and that it is the stick rattling in the bucket, as Bill Clinton famously put it although slightly more politely, that racks up the plus percentages?

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Despite desperate pleas from Newt to withdraw before Saturday's primary, Rick Perry will likely stay in for the debate in SC tomorrow night.
He has cut back to about half his number of appearances today, tomorrow and Friday.
His poll numbers are in low single digits.

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Perry is no dumber than Bush, it's just, his Forest Gump luck has run out.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

Getting back to Newt's calling Obama the "food stamp president," I've done a simple search and found that based on the 2009 US Census, white Americans received 38.9% of AFDC benefits - or over 94,787,775. Black Americans received 39.8% of AFDC benefits - or over 15,777,141.

Too bad that conservatives feel that white Americans are the beneficiaries of US government benefits, and Obama is in the wrong.

1 Reply

Exactly as predicted earlier:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/romney-parks-millions-offshore-tax-haven/story?id=15378566#.TxdErvmlO2V

Romney will have a pretty tough time convincing people he's not intentionally hiding assets overseas in order to avoid taxation. I predict that the calls for him to fully disclose his last several years of tax returns will increase in light of this.

Cycloptichorn

2 Replies

@Cycloptichorn,

Romney knew he would have to face the tax return disclosure issue. His people handled it very clumsily, didn't they?

1 Reply

@realjohnboy,

Wouldn't Romney's situation be an aspirational target for most Republicans? I watched Napolitano on The Daily Show and it does seem that it would be 'ironic' for them to turn their back on Romney for reducing taxes on his wealth while the party platform is to reduce taxes on the wealthy (to avoid class warfare).

Reduce taxes on the wealthy so they don't have to offshore their money.

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@Cycloptichorn,

I like the last paragraph where they're quoting Romney:

Quote:

"I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. And then I get speaker's fees from time to time, but not very much."

I wonder how much that "not very much" actually is?

2 Replies

@DrewDad,

I don't know whether you've already heard since you asked, but the word is that Willard made about $374,000 (and some change) in speaking fees from February 2010 to February 2011.

1 Reply

@snood,

Goes to prove Willard doesn't understand the middle class or the poor in this country. His verbiage is that of someone who doesn't remember where he came from or his or this country's past.

Somebody needs to inform him that the US doesn't have kings or "royalty."

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

Sure they do CI. But they now call them billionaires.

1 Reply

@RABEL222,

Actually, some billionaires are very nice people who donate most of their wealth to charitable causes. The two famous ones are Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. In addition to helping people all over the world, they don't act snobby like that guy from MA who thinks he's a "good" human being, and believes he'll make a good president for Ghana.

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@DrewDad,

$360,000.

Yeah.

!!!!

I'd really really not mind getting that annually, but I sure as hell wouldn't call it not very much.

Pretty deadly, hope it gets more play.

0 Replies

The Republican Nomination For President: The Race For The Race For The White House

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