Mark Riley @MarkRileyMedia blog: Mitt Romney aka Trouble Man
by Mark Riley,posted Sep 18 2012 11:48AM
By now Mitt Romney's comments about the 47% of Americans he says don't pay taxes are well known (at least they should be). As a window into the soul of a man who wants to represent all Americans, it's indeed a revelation. For the record, this is what he said, courtesy of Mother Jones Magazine and Website:
"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.
My job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
Mind you, he uttered this doggerel in front of a bunch of fat cat donors, including his host Marc Leder, equity titan and party boy extraordinaire. One wonders what his straight laced Evangelical voting audience must think of parties featuring nudity, sex acts, and Russian dancers on platforms (or do they even know?).
All fluff aside, this about a presidential candidate who apparently has no clue that more than one in five of the 47% he spoke of are senior citizens! Fully half of those who pay no federal income taxes are too poor to reach the threshold necessary to have any tax liability. At the other end of the pay scale, there are millionaires who also pay no taxes. That's because they move their assets offshore, and take advantage of tax loopholes the rest of don't even know about.
But you see, that's exactly who Mittens was talking to. When he speaks of entitlements, he's not talking about people who run equity funds and foist pension costs of companies they devour on the government. Some of these clowns are entitled to do so, and they do. But that's not the 47% Mitt's talking about. One would think he'd be a little circumspect in talking about people who pay no taxes, when the American public knows little or nothing about the taxes he pays.
The most entertaining aspect of all this is watching conservative pundits and strategists trying to defend this guy. He wasn't even their first choice, and now they're trying to dig him out of a hole almost as deep as the one George W. Bush put this country in.
There are those who say this latest gaffe puts the nail in Mitt Romney's campaign coffin. I wouldn't want to bet the store on that, not yet, not this far out from November 6th.
Why do so many people vote against their own interests?
There are working class and working poor and lower middle class people who consistant vote Republican.
I just can't figure out why.
It seems that everybody wants to know what's been going on at the NSA. Everybody, that is, except for 53 US Senators. Last week Senators were given a briefing by high-ranking intelligence officials about the surveillance programs. Only 47...
Tea Party senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) says that "restoring faith in government" is "the wrong solution." Well then by all means, keep talking, Senator. Instead, Johnson says "we need to engender that healthy distrust, that healthy...
Senator Elizabeth Warren is fighting hard for government transparency, and it has nothing to do with the NSA. On Thursday, Senator Warren sent a letter to President Obama's U.S. trade negotiations nominee, calling on the Administration to...
While signing a Merry Christmas bill in June, legalizing usage of phrases like 'Merry Christmas' on school property, Texas Governor Rick Perry took the opportunity to appeal to his evangelical base. "I'm proud we are standing up for...
The Supreme Court ruled that human genes cannot be patented, because they are a product of nature. However, the offered a compromise which allowed synthetic, complementary DNA, known as cDNA, to be protected by patent law, because it is not...
Before last week, very few people knew the name Edward Snowden. Not the case now. It seems he's either a hero or traitor, depending on who you talk to and their political ideology. No matter what you think of him, however, we owe him a...
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will do anything to avoid getting any actual work done. As if 37 votes to repeal Obamacare didn't waste enough taxpayer time and money, the House GOP has decided to vote on a...
We need to have a debate over surveillance. Even more, we need to have a debate over exactly who is doing the surveilling. Government surveillance can be worrisome, but it's much more worrisome when the surveillance is being done by private...
Today, the United States Senate will begin debate on the so-called comprehensive immigration plan. Senators will consider the overall legislation, and dozens of amendments, before a final vote can be reached. The debate is likely to last...
Is Edward Snowden a whistleblower or a leaker? This story still has a lot of gray areas. For now, he's something like a whistle-leaker. To some people, Snowden is a hero, to others he is a traitor. To most Americans, he's the guy whose face in...
