Mitt's Taxes and Wednesday Open Thread

I took a quick spin around Grand Teton National Park this morning before my meetings begin.  A pretty impressive landscape I must say. 

It seems to me that as the presidential election moves into its serious phase that Obama has got a powerful critique to make of Mitt the one-percenter.  First, that his entire tax plan is dedicated to lessening the burden on his fellow plutocrats, while imposing further burdens on the 95% if not the 99%.  And two, that Romney is pursuing this policy for his own selfish ends.  It's not a pretty picture.  And I think attacks like the one made by Harry Reid recently, alleging that Romney paid no taxes for ten years is spot on -- and people should keep piling on so that Romney has no choice but to release his tax returns.  Let him disprove what Reid said by showing that he paid 7 or 9 or 11% in taxes.  That will really impress people.

(ABC News' The Note seems disturbed by Reid's wild speculation.   Perhaps they should try and get the answer to the question then and show a little more concern over Romney's utter lack of disclosure.)

Time to go to work.

What's on your minds?

 

Comments

[oddjob]

Why would anyone think someone as aggressively and proudly ignorant as Inhofe would be a good candidate for any public office, let alone for the US Senate?

[joel hanes]

See Hruska, Roman, most famous quotes of

The Republican Party has spent the intervening years generalizing this idea to cover ignorance and overt bigotry, as well as mediocrity.

[kathy a.]

wait wait wait -- a scientist those fools hired to debunk global warming just came out saying that (thanks in part to the $150,000 in koch brother money to fund his research) he has concluded that climate change is caused by humans.

and on the other topic -- hey, i already know i pay a waaaayyyy higher percentage of income in taxes than romney says he does. also a higher percentage of income on basic living expenses, education for kids, health care, blah blah blah. (i'm pretty sure i spend a smaller portion of income on household help, stable maintenance, clothing, entertainment, personal travel, but that is totally because i'm lacking in culture.)

so anyway, yeah, having my tax rate go up to support millionaires is frankly not on my agenda of things to do next year. but meanwhile -- this is what happens when you let girls think -- i'm really curious about whether mitt's 13% tax rate (vs. mine of over 30%, since i am a plebe who can't afford dressage or any number of other investment strategies) is actually like picking the highest score out of X tries.

you know what? i am a patriotic citizen. i am happy to pay my fair share to help our communities and people, even though i do not support the endless wars and some other things. i regularly vote to increase local taxes, too, because this is where i live, and i want it to work. i just do not understand why he's the hero, and i'm the great unwashed.

[Sir Charles]

Is this thing working?

[oddjob]

Yes.

[oddjob]

"Today, immigrants from Asia or Latin America are the targets of demonization and discrimination. One day, our nation will again look back on this period with shame and regret."
- a translation of a part of Rep. John Conyers' opening statement today at a House hearing regarding a proposed bill making English the official language of the USA

Rep. Conyers' statement was made in Spanish.

[nancy]

Captcha still misbehaving? Testing.

[nancy]

There is a piece at Columbia Journalism Review (Brendan Nyhan) making a case equating Mitt Romney's treatment by the press to that of Al Gore in the run-up to 2000 -- "/2012/08/gthttp//cjrorg/swing_states_project/mitt_romney_new_al_gore_page_1.html"> The Gore-ing of Romney . I'm parking this argument in the I'm not buying it column. Am wondering what responses around here are. Seems to me, given the entirety of the Romney 'enterprise', the argument is fraught. I'll admit though, dressage aside, one is pressed at this point to be at all objective with this person.

[Paula B]

Thanks for this, nancy, but gee, I find the press favoring Romney over and over, even in the strangest places. I guess they see him as the underdog team captain in this grand championship football rivalry. Just the other day, when polls showed Obama had the edge in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Wash Post led with something like Romney Struggles to Hold onto Swing Sate Voters. As if Mitt had won the election already, but then that mean old Obama wrapped his bare knuckles with a paddle and, whoops, he lost his grip. What they should have led with was Poll Shows Obama Favored in Three Swing States. That was the story. (Actually, they changed the hed several times during the day, so maybe someone caught the blatant bias.) This is NOT a game and should not be reported as such.

[kathy a.]

my impression is that there's a little more mainstream reporting paying attention to whether what romney says is true, and what romney's points actually mean for people. which is refreshing! but still rare enough to be surprising.

romney seems to be presenting himself as if he is going for an appointed position -- stressing the things he knows his inner circle of supporters regard as strengths. which is a bit of a problem.

[Grung_e_Gene]

It would be irresponsible not to speculate. But, only if you're doing it about evil, evil Democrats!

[Linkmeister]

And now Mitt demonstrates he's got it backwards. He's demanding Harry Reid put up or shut up.

Er, Mitt? If you want this to go away, just release the damned tax returns!

(This advice brought to you by Diogenes, still looking for that honest man.)

[Sir Charles]

Jesus, the notion that Romney is being treated like Gore -- what a crock. Gore was treated like a liar for every little misstep. Romney lies incessantly and the mainstream media largely ignores it.

[nancy]

Sorry for the syntactical imprecision. I was under captcha distress. :) I meant to say objective *about* this person -- Romney -- not Nyhan.

Press coverage of Gore and Romney? Apples and oranges. Or maybe grits and Royal Frosting. (Royal frosting -- the phony sweet inedible concoction that holds a gingerbread house temporarily together at the seams. Ann's help has the recipe.)

Problem is, if the press corps backs off one iota, Mitt's apparatus will find daylight and running room once again.

[kathy a.]

linkmeister -- total theater of the absurd.

camp romney is also complaining that the tax policy study on romney's tax plan is biased and missing things. umm, ok. it is working from romney's plan, which is missing things like details. and it is biased in the sense that they made the assumptions most favorable to romney, and still concluded that the rich will get richer and everybody else will lose.

it's one thing to talk big and hope certain details are overlooked. but it is really bizarre to go on the offensive and attack people who are asking for details, or in any way questioning the rosy picture.

[oddjob]

"It's sad when any governing body thinks it can rewrite the laws of the universe just to meet a political goal."

Hat tip, Sully.

[nancy]

Romney's behavior with Bibi and his performance in Israel last week continue to terrify. To imagine Romney anywhere near the determination of American foreign policy makes for nightmares -- Friedman was direct and brutal this week, for which I'm grateful.

David Seaton's assessment is as much 'chilling' as I can take. We see the 'end times' people converging with 'all eternity' peoples. And massive wealth trying to ensure a bill of sale to all the world.

I don't believe for one minute Mitt understands what the hell he is doing on the global stage. But I'd say Seaton has it right -- Bibi is insanely dangerous. Romney, meanwhile, seem to be merely looking to finance 'it's our turn.' In bad reckless partnership.

Captcha still cranky btw.

[nancy]

"Romney, meanwhile, seems..."

Oh well. Crud. Correction please.

Sir C, mountains majestic, glad you got to spend time there.

[oddjob]

Romney’s culture remark offers peek at worldview
(Often ties culture to nations’ wealth)

An article in the Boston Globe earlier this week.

[oddjob]

We Now Have Our Smallest Government [all levels combined together] in 45 Years

[oddjob]

(Video question to Barney Frank):

As a resident of Massachusetts, what did you make of Governor Romney?