Colbert Defends Mitt Romney's 'Corporations Are People' Statement (VIDEO)

Mitt Romney made headlines Thursday for saying that "Corporations are people" in response to a question about taxes at the Iowa state fair. While many people had a laugh at the gaffe, it was Stephen Colbert who came to Romney's defense on last night's "Report."

See, Colbert gets it. He's been saying for years that corporations are people, going so far as to suggest they remake "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" with an oil rig. Who wouldn't see that?

Watch the segment below to hear Colbert explain the gravity of Romney's comment and how history will paint him as a new age civil rights activist.

WATCH:

International users can watch here

Comments

[ddarkfury]

12:45 AM on 08/16/2011

People create corporations, work in corporations and invest in corporations. When you buy food, or clothing or even when you read this post, you are interacting with a corporation. Even the food you might buy at a roadside stand is likely bought from a corporation. When you donate to a campaign, you are donating to a corporation. I really don't see why this is a story. In context Romney was clearly saying that corporations represent people. They clearly represent the workers, the management, the suppliers and the consumers to name only a few. Across America, many of these corporations are now out-of-business. People are suffering for it but I guess liberals are ok with that as long as more corporations are destroyed?

If Obama's goal is fewer corporations he's doing great! But I don't see how attacking or destroying corporations helps the American people. Looking past the rhetoric, I think you'll find that both republicans and democrat politicians love LARGE corporations. I would love to see how the tax revenue from large corporations compares to tax revenues from small privately held firms. Tax law favors the companies who can donate the most. I bet the smaller companies pay a lot more in taxes! Personally, I wish all American corporations were making more money. There would be more jobs and a better economy. Bankrupt companies don't hire.

[rolor]

05:35 AM on 08/16/2011

Defining corporations as "people" with many of the same rights as people doesn't serve to increase or decrease the number of corporations in existence. What does reduce the number of corporations is the omnipresence of large corporations. Placing limits on the size of corporations would eliminate the downside from the TBTF phenomena, increase the number of corporations, stimulate competition and innovation as well as increase hiring. Otherwise, corporations are merely entities as you indicate, which are already represented by people in various roles - one of the consequent problems being that as those people change, so too do the values that corporation may have once represented which results in amorphous entities without any values beyond profit which also diminishes the value of people impacted by those corporations. Smaller corporations still value their people and their community whereas larger ones don't even value the nation they do business in. This is the crux of the criticisms against the "corporations are people" statement.

[la maqina]

10:42 AM on 08/16/2011

Very well said! We used to have a system that helped balance this problem out. That system helped small businesses start up and developed competition against the large corps. It also controlled spending for our government. 70% of our defense contracts used to have to small business's on a lowest bid basis,these small business's were graded and only high grades were allowed bidding on important contracts. The system worked great until george w. defunded it and started handing out no bid contracts to buddies. The system was called the small business administration! Bring it back!

[ddarkfury]

12:33 PM on 08/16/2011

I really appreciate your response! Let me ask this, is the problem that corporations "get too large?" Or is the problem that politicians get in bed with large corporations at the expense of everyone else? I own a small family business and largely agree with you. I would also say that political parties are also 'amorphous entities without any values beyond power/profit'. The only way I can see to eliminate the corrupt link between government and big business is to take away the politicians ability to do favors. That means smaller government, a simple tax code with no subsidies or loop holes and aggressive oversight of appropriations. This is a slight shift in the conversation, but I think a valuable one. I would like to know what so-called rights people would like to see taken away, or is this thread just a general indictment of large corporations?

[rusty apache]

09:06 AM on 08/16/2011

It's not about bancrupting corporations. It's about not letting them turn us into a slave nation. They have oppressed us to the point that we can no longer bring them the profits they crave. They started class warfare, not us. We just want decent jobs again. Not a handout.

[ddarkfury]

01:13 PM on 08/16/2011

Hey Rusty! I hear your frustration! I'm not sure what you mean by the corporations oppressing us? I DO think that large corporations and government tend to corrupt eachother (look at the housing crisis that tumbled our economy). The large corporations that don't interface with government seem to be ok, and small corporations seem more responsible than larger ones. Any ideas for breaking the link between politicians and the kind of big business that you're talking about?

[sgt pepper]

02:21 PM on 08/15/2011

Corporations are people??? That's a stretch.
What's not a stretch is the converse concept.
Government is people!!! Much more so than corporations!
The fellow that delivers yourmail, your kids teachers, the park ranger that helps put out fires, etc., etc.
THIS is our government!
Not Exxon or BP or IBM!
Romney is a fraud - and alla the right-wing contenders are liars and hypocrites.

[jhpoke]

01:48 PM on 08/15/2011

If corporations are people. How come their not taxed like people. They should be taxed on revenue and not profit. We sure would like to be taxed on whatever is left over.

[Flymetothemoonies]

06:40 AM on 08/15/2011

Corporations may or may not be people but the 'net is supposed to transcend borders. Keep using Hulu (and locking out us Irish, which is probably racist btw) and we will have to get our information elsewhere, thank you!

[MadMoll]

10:57 AM on 08/15/2011

Colbert has no say over hulu. complain to Comedy Cnetral and Viacom

[TommyMcCarthy]

01:05 AM on 08/15/2011

Does it make me humorless, narrow, and provincial....that I just can NOT get into Stephen Colbert?

I'm an edgeuhmacated feller....I understand irony, sarcasm, parody...working in charachter...the whole nine yards

A couple of minutes of Colbert.....and I'm just annoyed


Do I need professional help?
tm

[ReasonOverRant]

03:36 AM on 08/16/2011

Yes, and probably yes. Less than a minute of you and we are all bored.

[TommyMcCarthy]

10:06 AM on 08/16/2011

Thanks for the diagnosis "rant"
tm

[lotsofbucks]

01:43 PM on 08/16/2011

Probably, but no more than Steve Doocy of Fox or the man himself Mitt Romney. But look at it this way, it could be worse you could not understand irnoy, sarcasm, etc. and be just plain unable to comprhend just like Rick Perry.

[TommyMcCarthy]

02:28 PM on 08/16/2011

Don't know who Doocy is ...but it is good to know I'm no woerse than Mitt Romney.
Thank you (I think).

Mr. Rant (above) suggests I'm merely universally boring.....a shortcoming I'm not unaware of...you see....I have three children.
tm

[girldog]

11:34 PM on 08/14/2011

I find it very hopeful that a couple of people yelled out "corporations" when Romney mentioned raising taxes. Maybe that means that even those who would stand and listen to GOP rhetoric are figuring out that corporations own our government and are sick and tired of it.
When Romney answered "corporations are people my friend" maybe the people he was addressing started to realize he is far from being their "friend".

[Renee Gian]

07:55 PM on 08/14/2011

Dear HuffPo, Please stop using hulu to upload your videos. Your international readers would appreciate it.

[decolonizeme]

11:40 PM on 08/14/2011

Being outside the US pretty much ends my time using Huffpo if they keep up the Hulu nonsense.

[spc5]

12:57 PM on 08/14/2011

DES MOINES - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is worth between $190 million and $250 million, his campaign said yesterday after filing a personal financial disclosure statement with the Federal Election Commission........So when Romney said corporations are people, he must have been talking about himself.........This guy is part of the elite rich establishment that thinks little of middle class. They are merely overhead for these individual corporations. This guy is out of touch with the majority of American people (non-corporations).

[The Platzner Post]

11:58 AM on 08/13/2011

Funny!!! : )

[Gary Bowden]

10:07 AM on 08/13/2011

Analysis of the Colbert SuperPak ads not running in Iowa at http://ecologicalsociology.blogspot.com/2011/08/stephen-colberts-superpak-promotes-rick.html

[thundermummy]

04:38 PM on 08/14/2011

Spam.

[Arkam]

09:28 AM on 08/13/2011

Why is anyone shocked at Romney's assertion? The laws already support what he said. In fact corporations have more rights than the average person. If I murder someone I will either be murdered by the state or kept in confinement for the rest of my life. Most corporations get away without even paying a penny in recompense.

I don't see anyone checking their power. So I hope you're ready for the OMNITERRACORP that sci-fi writers have been foretelling for the last 4 decades.

[anoldgrouch]

10:27 AM on 08/13/2011

Agreed, not happily. If corporations were people, BP and Halliburton (to name only two) would be serving life sentences. Instead, they continue to grow rich, and the people who made the decisions which cost lives get millions of dollars in bonuses. They are also potentially immortal, as well as actually amoral.

[johnmorgan]

01:49 PM on 08/14/2011

True. But even more, I would say that corporations are sociopathic. They don't care about anyone else and feel nothing for anyone else. A lot of CEOs are sociopaths too.

[mrnormal]

09:12 AM on 08/13/2011

Good one SC! Next Republican right wing radicals will push the Supreme Court to let pets contribute $$ 2 campaigns & give them the right 2 vote. Then bestiality becomes legal, & normal 2!

[SimianNation]

09:00 AM on 08/13/2011

Romney just said what they all believe.

[nitwitsRus]

08:10 AM on 08/13/2011

please pass this on ok Stephe don'ts know abouts ALL her ideas but Burn Your Bra Day wasa pretty GOOD one?

[gorgol]

04:42 AM on 08/13/2011

"Corporations are People"...And so said the Supreme Court. Strange when the Devils give the Details, many still kiss their feet.