“It’s unions … that forged the American middle class—that great engine of prosperity, the greatest that the world has ever known,” President Obama has said.
Mitt Romney not only wants to turn his back on America’s middle-class workers, he’s also launching a new attack on their unions.
Take a look at five of the ways Romney is campaigning against the American worker.
One word: VOTE
Remember when the GOP held our federal government hostage and the Democrats worked out a deal with them to avoid a shutdown? A deal that involved a “Super Committee” and that, if the Committee failed, there would be automatic cuts to defense and domestic spending?
[...] Democrats proposed the threat of automatic tax increases to push GOP officials to be responsible, but Republicans refused and offered an alternative: if the committee failed, the GOP would accept $600 billion in defense cuts and Dems would accept $600 billion in non-defense domestic cuts.
Remember, the point was to create an incentive that the parties would be desperate to avoid. Pentagon cuts were Republicans’ contribution to the process. The cuts were their idea.
Six months later, the GOP has decided it doesn’t like its idea anymore.
Republican leaders in Congress have all but reneged on a key agreement they reached with the White House last summer rather than reconsider their unwavering stance against new tax revenue. [...]
“I’ve got concerns about the sequester,” House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Thursday. “I’ve made that pretty clear. And replacing the sequester certainly has value. The defense portion of the sequester, in my view, would clearly hollow our military. The Secretary of Defense has said that, members of Congress have said it. But the question I would pose is, where’s the White House? Where’s the leadership that should be there to ensure that this sequester does not go into effect.”
“Sequester” is budget-speak for across-the-board cuts. But the cuts he’s talking about were part of a deal he recently claimed he’d honor.
Republicans still want the debt reduction; they just don’t want to live up to their end of the bargain. As recently as November, the House Speaker was asked about the agreement he helped strike and he told reporters he would “feel bound” to honor it. That no longer appears to be the case.
Bottomline: not only do those in the GOP not like anyone else’s ideas — they don’t even like THEIR OWN ideas (or they made the deal 6 months ago, knowing they wouldn’t honor it). The simple fact is that Republicans are only able to “honor” major spending cuts to programs / benefits for the poor, working, and middle classes, no new revenue for the government, and more tax cuts for the wealthy.
Exactly who’s supposed to be freeloading off the system in this country again?
According to the WSJ, “U.S. companies are booking higher profits than ever… [while] corporate tax receipts as a share of profits are at their lowest level in at least 40 years. Total corporate federal taxes paid fell to 12.1% of profits earned from activities within the U.S. in fiscal 2011, which ended Sept. 30, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s the lowest level since at least 1972.” And take a look at this:
Soaking the Poor, State by State
You have heard, perhaps, that rich people in America are egregiously overtaxed. And the poor? They’re the lucky duckies! Why, 47 percent of Americans pay no taxes at all!
(This is not true, of course. Many poor and elderly Americans pay no federal income tax, but they pay plenty of other taxes.)
Still and all, it’s true that the federal income tax is indeed progressive. Conservatives are right about that—though it’s not as progressive as it used to be, back before top marginal rates were lowered and capital gains taxes were slashed in half. But conservatives are a little less excited to talk about other kinds of taxes. Payroll taxes aren’t progressive, for example. In fact, they’re actively regressive, with the poor and middle classes paying higher rates than the rich.
And then there are state taxes. Those include state income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and fees of various kinds. How progressive are state taxes?
Answer: They aren’t.
According to this tax rate data, in the median state (Mississippi, as it turns out) the poorest 20 percent pay twice the tax rate of the top 1 percent. In the worst states, the poorest 20 percent pay five to six times the rate of the richest 1 percent.
No wonder Mitt Romney isn’t concerned about the ‘very rich’ — but why isn’t he concerned about the ‘very poor’ or this bottom to top income redistribution scheme, which is currently known as our tax system?
Don’t you think it will be interesting to see if the GOP led Congress, which has sat on its collective ass since the 2010 election, will suddenly spring to life to defend the one percenters and their current tax rate on capital gains?
[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
This means the “real streets” that Romney claims to live in must be paved with platinum, not gold:
“According to a calculation from Emmanuel Saez, the economist at the University of California at Berkley, who has become the top expert on top incomes, Mitt Romney’s income of $21.7 million puts him well above the 1%. In fact, his income puts him in about the 99.9975% income bracket. Put another way, Mitt is in the top 0.0025%.” — Wall St. Journal >>
Meanwhile, Mr. .0025% calls the president “detached from reality:”
ORLANDO — Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney offered a tough review Wednesday of President Obama’s State of the Union speech, accusing him of being “detached” from the realities of a still lagging economy. Read full article >>
Maybe if Mr. Romney and his friends had invested all of the money they earned from this country IN this country, and paid more of their share of taxes to our domestic treasury, instead of paying more tax to foreign countries, our economy wouldn’t be lagging so badly? Or am I detached from reality too?
image: socalwayfarer
Here’s a fun game from Slate — enter YOUR annual income to see how long it would take Mitt to sit back and wait for that amount of money to appear in his many bank accounts around the world:
…
OR you could go over to howmuchhasromneymadesofar.com and just watch his money accumulate:
The DNC suggests a new Romney campaign slogan. Via: ryking
From Markos on Gingrich’s current populist and, seemingly, Occupy-Wall-Street-inspired campaign against Romney:
Translation: Republicans in the 99 percent don’t like the guy with the Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island tax shelters.
Newt’s outrage is driven by the polls.
If Newt wins the GOP nomination, will he be able to pull off this sudden interest in populist issues like income inequality and fairness better than a president and his party who have been discussing them all along?
Howard Schweber says,
[T]hese voters don’t care that Gingrich was a Washington insider, or has a record on family values that would give pause to one of the Borgia popes. It’s why they don’t really care that he contradicts himself, or says crazy things. They want crazy. They want to hear their anger and resentment made into a national platform. They are the victims of an evil conspiracy — no one plays the victim better than Gingrich when cornered — and they resent it.
They don’t really care what Gingrich says he will do, or whether it makes sense, or even whether they would approve of his policies or benefit from them. …only Newt has captured the key emotive element that drives the Republican core this year: resentment. The hard right core of the Republican Party is filled with resentment, and they have found just the man to let us all know about it.
But seriously, when Mitt Romney is nominated this summer, here’s an indication of the Reality Shitstorm that has been unleased and will continue through Election Day:
EXCLUSIVE: Romney Profited From Mortgage Lenders Foreclosing On Thousands Of Floridians
In October, Romney suggested that the solution to the foreclosure crisis was “don’t try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.” While that process is bad for Florida homeowners, these investments show it may have been good for the Romneys.
Paul Sancya/AP
Maddow Blog: AP sends this picture of Mitt Romney yesterday at National Gypsum in Tampa, Florida, under a sign that reads “OBAMA ISN’T WORKING.”
That has been a theme of Mr. Romney’s campaign, but not usually on the day Mr. Romney releases his tax returns and shows he made many millions on his investments and puts nothing in Line 7 — the one for wages, the one for money you made while working.
No one, not one person on this earth, is amused by Mitt or his tax returns and income.
Bob Cesca notes,
One week ago Mitt Romney referred to his income garnered from speaking fees as “not very much,” and “not very much” turned out to be $362,000 in 2010 as reported by USAToday
Upon today’s release of Mitt Romney’s tax return, we find out the USAToday report was wrong. “Not very much” was actually $529,000 in 2010.
And this from John Cook,
Rich asshole Mitt Romney released his 2010 tax returns and an estimated return for 2011 [yesterday]. Together they total more than 500 pages, because purposefully structuring your wealth so as to maximally exploit the massive tax loopholes you have lobbied for over the decades is very complicated. The topline: Romney made $45 million in 2010 and 2011, almost exclusively from sitting there and watching his investments belch out money. He paid a tax rate of 13.9%. According the IRS, the 400 wealthiest Americans paid an average tax rate of 16% in 2008.
Get this: Not only did Mitt pay just 14% federal tax on the $21.6 million he earned in 2010 by doing nothing / producing nothing, but Mitt and Mrs. Mitt paid a higher tax rate to FOREIGN COUNTRIES. Let the eagle soar!
DNC Video: “An Ordinary Swiss Account”:
The numbers on the ‘Politics of Envy’ –
According to 2010 tax returns (PDF) released by the White House, the president paid $454,000 in federal taxes on $1.8 million earned — or about 25 percent of his gross income. Over the same time period, Romney paid about $3 million in federal taxes on gross income of $21.7 million, a rate of about 13.8 percent. Estimates released by the campaign showed that Romney expected to pay $3.2 million in taxes for 2011 on $20.9 million income, an effective 15.4 percent rate. – Romney earned 12 times more than Obama, had nearly half the tax rate
Politics of envy though.
image: BobCesca
Here’s what Mitt thinks:
image: christianbaled
“Again, the point here is not that Romney did something wrong by paying the low rates current tax law lavishes on people like him. It is, instead, that in an election campaign that will be in part about issues of inequality, the likely GOP candidate is a living, breathing, coupon-clipping example of how favorable our system is to the very rich; and he also happens to be advocating policies that would greatly benefit people like him, while hurting the poor and the middle class.
PS: Yes, my tax rate is a lot higher than Romney’s. And I support policies that would raise it further.”
via: randomactsofchaos
Related:
Just so we’re clear: conservatives would rather not provide aid in the form of government assistance or subsidized healthcare or unemployment benefits for hundreds of millions of Americans but have no problem giving tens of millions of dollars to just one man to… help him get a job. A man who has a line of credit at Tiffany’s, no less. Somewhere, whatever God they worship is crying. – inothernews
Gingrich Used Gimmick To Avoid Paying Taxes On Millions In Income | ThinkProgress
[F]urther scrutiny of Gingrich’s own returns from tax experts has revealed that his tax rate should have been even higher. That’s because, according to Forbes, Gingrich dodged “tens of thousands of dollars in Medicare payroll taxes” by classifying most of his income from two companies he owns as profits and dividends, therefore avoiding the payroll tax — a technique the IRS has “consistently and successfully attacked” in the past. Newt and Callista Gingrich classified only $444,327 of their income from Gingrich Holdings and Gingrich Productions as ordinary income. Meanwhile, the other $2.4 million earned was classified as profits or dividends, meaning it was not subject to payroll taxes.
According to tax experts interviewed by Forbes, that means Gingrich is dodging taxes he likely should be paying…
[...] Gingrich’s dodge of Medicare taxes, though, pales in comparison to the tax break he’d give himself should he get to the White House. His tax reform plan calls for a flat 15 percent tax rate, slashing his effective rate to 14.6 percent and giving himself a $540,000 tax break in the process.
Like Mitt’s own self-enrichment tax plan, Newt’s plan is to increase his personal wealth too — above and beyond Bush’s ridiculous tax cuts. And there would have to be enormous spending cuts to balance out the government’s loss of revenue. These two are true patriots. The GOP is dead to me.
Related:
The larger question is: why will working and middle class conservatives vote again and again against their own best interests by voting for someone like Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates who favor such tax laws? The answer might be: numerous psychological issues.
But this is a good question — why do we have laws that tax capital gains at a lower rate than income earned from a job? And if it were up to Mitt Romney, he’d reduce the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans (and himself) even further.
From the Maddow Blog:
Chart: Economic Policy Institute
Taking Mitt Romney’s own estimate that he pays a tax rate of 15 percent, this chart compares what he owes the IRS to what an average American family would pay. Ethan Pollack of the Economic Policy Institute, who posted the chart, writes that this is a matter of long-term policy choices by our government:
Why is the government favoring Romney’s income over that of most Americans? After all, it’s not like he’s been working recently—he’s been running for president for the better part of five years. And even if he did have the time to actively manage his investments, he’s not able to because they’re in a blind trust. As for the risk factor, sure he’s risking his capital, but he’s not bearing any more risk that most households in this economy face. So tell me again, why is it so important for the government to subsidize rich people like Romney at the expense of average American households?
Mr. Romney seems to like the general drift of American tax policy just fine. Under Mr. Romney’s plan, the richer you are, the more likely you are to get a smaller tax bill.
Remember that Mitt said he hasn’t released his tax returns because he wants to beat Obama. Take that as you will.
Via TPM: How does [Romney] stack up to the rest of us, most of whom are regular wage earners? When you account for the fact that most people also pay payroll taxes, and don’t enjoy enormous deductions, credits or other benefits, you see that Romney’s making out about as well as a taxpayer who makes $50,000 a year. Not bad for a man whose net worth is estimated to be in the neighborhood of a quarter billion dollars.
Related:
How does the Mormon Church play into Romney’s income and taxes?
In Bain deals, Romney gave stock to Mormon church
A stock donation to the Mormon Church during the 1990s – when Romney was in charge at Bain Capital – shows how the donor might have booked significant tax savings.
In the transaction, the church received 93,668 shares of Wesley Jessen VisionCare Inc, a contact lens company.
The church sold the shares for $22.325 each, after an underwriting commission, according to a Wesley Jessen prospectus dated August 19, 1997. The shares had appreciated more than 50-fold since being acquired by Bain Capital Funds two years earlier at a cost of 43.4 cents a share, according to data in a Wesley Jessen prospectus filed with the SEC on February 13, 1997.
If Romney or another Bain partner or employee had cashed in the shares, they would have been taxed on the $21.89 per share gain, or $2.05 million.
Instead, the donor of the shares to the Mormon church avoided tax on the substantial capital gain and would have been able to count some or all of the $2.09 million of stock given to the church as a tax-deductible charitable contribution.
And how does Romney’s proposed ‘tax plan’ play into Romney’s income and taxes?
Romney’s tax plan would cut his own taxes by nearly half, new analysis finds
The revelation that Mitt Romney pays a tax rate of around 15 percent opens the door to another question: How much would his own taxes fall under the tax plan he would pass if elected president?
Here’s the answer, according to a new analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice that was provided to me this morning. Under his plan, Romney in 2013 would see his taxes cut by nearly half of what they would be if you use current law as a baseline.
Another way to put this: If Romney, whose wealth is estimated at as much as $250 million, is elected president and gets his way on tax policy, he would pay barely more than half as much in taxes than he would if Obama is reelected and gets his way — and the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy expire and an additional Medicare tax as part of the Affordable Care Act kicks in.
Mitt Romney 2012: Life begins at incorporation.
FIVE shocking things you may not know about Mitt’s tax plan:
source: thinkprogress
Shocking, of course, because the mainstream media doesn’t actually report on facts like this. It’s not like they’re the truth vigilantes. Both sides do it!!
Think Progress reports on a press conference Romney gave 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.
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.
Remember that Romney has said he “isn’t worried about rich people:”
…and that his tax plan is “focused” on the middle class. In fact, he’s absurdly claimed that he’s not proposing any tax cuts for the wealthy at all. But as it turns out, he would lavish even more tax breaks onto the rich than did George Bush, even after Bush’s tax cuts were a significant factor leading to today’s large budget deficits.
[His] plan also gives nearly 60 percent of its benefit to the richest 1 percent of Americans, while preserving the loopholes that let the wealthy pay less than middle class families.
…
And Romney’s plan would INCREASE taxes on HALF the middle class families with children!
Essentially the rest of us pay more federal taxes than Romney on OUR incomes, but Mitt would like to pass legislation that would require him and his fellow millionaires / billionaires to pay even LESS than they do now.
But whatevs, right? Why not? Let the eagle soar!
Greg Sargent on the GOP ideal of slashing public sector jobs,
…it’s also important to realize that perhaps the most important reason that people believe the economy stinks — and make no mistake about it, they do — is the devastating job losses decreed by state and local governments and enthusiastically supported by Republicans in Washington, including Romney and the other GOP candidates.
Matt Yglesias has the numbers for 2011 — 280,000 government jobs lost. And of course it’s not just the actual jobs lost that hurt the economy; it’s also every teacher who didn’t take a summer vacation because she was worried that she would be laid off and every cop or firefighter who decided against buying a new home after hearing about the state budget.
The local, state, and federal workforce are / were a large part of the American middle-class. Try selling your [enter any small business goods / services here] to people who no longer have a paycheck.
Vote GOP and these are the kinds of jobs / self-employment opportunities we’ll all be scrambling for in the future:
We’ll be making minimum wage — if we’re lucky — with no government services or benefits, while the wealthiest Americans will have even more tax cuts. It’s important to balance priories with this kind of sound budgeting.
