ThinkProgress reported Wednesday that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) has profited from thousands of Florida foreclosures through a Goldman Sachs investment fund.

Here’s what Romney had to say about that during the debate:

ROMNEY: First of all, my investments are not made by me. My investments for the last 10 years have been in a blind trust, managed by a trustee. Secondly, the investments they’ve made, we’ve learned about this as we made our financial disclosure, have been made in mutual funds and bonds. I don’t own stock in either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. There are bonds the investor has held through mutual funds. And Mr. Speaker, I know that sounds like an enormous revelation, but have you checked your own investments? You also have investments through mutual funds that also invest in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

[...] Later in the debate, Romney was asked about the $3 million he kept in a Swiss bank account before it was closed in 2010. Again, Romney attempted to brush aside the question, saying, “I have a trustee” who manages a blind trust.

Romney’s reliance on blind trusts is interesting, considering it was he who called them “a ruse” when running against former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) in 1994. And as ABC News noted, the trusts are “not so blind,” since they have been noted on his financial disclosure forms. The trusts are also maintained by Romney’s personal lawyer and don’t meet federal standards for elected officials. Romney’s original investments into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, meanwhile, were never in a blind trust.

— Confronted At Debate, Romney Does Not Dispute He Profited From Foreclosures In Florida

image: say10.com

via: kottke.org

[T]he New York Times noted today…plans to raise tax rates are unlikely to move through Congress before the 2012 elections. What that conventional wisdom ignores, however, is that Congress doesn’t have to do anything to raise the tax rate on capital gains. Doing absolutely nothing, in fact, would raise Romney’s taxes by a significant amount.

This is because the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are scheduled to expire January 1, 2013, bumping the capital gains tax back to 20 percent. An obscure provision that limits deductions for high-income earners is set to return on the same day. The Affordable Care Act also enacted a tax on high-income taxpayers that will raise the rate on capital gains. Those changes require no Congressional action — rather, they require Congressional inaction — and would raise the capital gains rate significantly, as the Tax Policy Center pointed out:

Put it all together, and the top tax rate on capital gains is scheduled to increase from 15% today to 25% on January 1.

Romney, meanwhile, would ask Congress to pass a tax cut that would cut his tax bill by millions of dollars. As ThinkProgress has noted, Congress could actually wipe out most of the country’s deficit by doing nothing.

John Boehner has no problem threatening to allow the payroll tax cuts to expire for random political issues. Let’s see what happens in the next few months over the expiration of capital gains tax cuts.

image: socalwayfarer

“Well, the United States has a huge budget deficit, so taxes are going to have to go up. And I certainly agree that they should go up more on the rich than everyone else. That’s just justice. Right now, I don’t feel like people like myself are paying as much as we should.” — Bill Gates in an interview with the BBC Wednesday

“President Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial. In the last few days, we have seen some desperate Republicans join forces with him. This is such a mistake for our party and for our nation. This country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy. We must offer an alternative vision.” — Mitt Romney

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there, good for you. But, I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory and hire someone to protect against this because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.” — Elizabeth Warren

The math / the “envy:”

According to an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, the average tax cuts received by the richest 1 percent of Americans under the Republican candidates plans would be 270 times as large as the cut received by the middle class (via: Think Progress):

The share of tax cuts going to the richest one percent of Americans under these plans would range from over a third to almost half. The average tax cuts received by the richest one percent would be up to 270 times as large as the average tax cut received by middle-income Americans.

Using a current policy baseline, millions of middle class families would see a tax increase under Romney’s plan.

Fun fact: if he was Latino and a Democrat, he’d be called an anchor baby. (via: socalwayfarer)

Behold These Angry Floridians Shouting at Each Other During a Newt Gingrich Rally – This lady shows up and heckles Gingrich monotonously and without interruption for minutes — the first couple of which Gingrich engages her — while she staves off everyone calling her a moron, an asshole, and so on, until the camera is swatted away.

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Takeaway: hee!

Source: sandandglass

Related:

• Romney worries about the banks and how, like you, they’re “scared to death”

cognitivedissonance:

Ron Paul says we should have the right to live our lives how we want

My uterus agreed.

Stupid uterus, he’s not talking about you!

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image: topherchris
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image: leftish
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The committee to re-elect President Obama:

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Where we’re going if any one of these guys is elected POTUS…

image: ahhhorror

Gingrich promises moon base that could become 51st state

Speaking to Republicans on Florida’s Space Coast…

[...] “I said when we got — I think the number is 13,000 — when we have 13,000 Americans living on the moon, they can petition to become a state.”

“By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American,” the candidate insisted. “We will have commercial near-Earth activities that included science, tourism and manufacturing.”

“I accept the charge that I am an American and Americans are instinctively grandiose because we believe in a bigger future!” he exclaimed. “I want you to help me both in Florida and across the country so that you can someday say you were here the day it was announce that of course we’d have commercial space and near space. Of course we’d have a man colony on the moon that flew an American flag.”

Newt intends to set up an open marriage type of society for his moon colony, because a bigger future should also mean bigger vows and bigger families — grandiose personal lives!

image: businessinsider

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