Earlier this week, Republican Presidential candidate Willard Mitt Romney delivered a speech framing the 2012 presidential election as a choice between an "entitlement society" and an "opportunity society."
It really takes chutzpa for a guy who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth to rail against an "entitlement society." Here is a guy who got his start in life the old-fashioned way -- he inherited it.
Now I realize that you don't get to choose your parents. He had no role in deciding that he would be born into the family of an auto executive and Michigan Governor -- but at least he should have the decency not to attack "entitlements."
This is not a guy who pulled himself up by his boot-straps. His name, his family connections and -- not incidentally -- his money gave him a real leg up when he decided to go into the investment banking business. And let's not forget that when he did go into business for himself, he didn't make money building things or inventing things -- or designing new products. He made money buying companies, and often breaking them up, or firing employees.
Last Sunday's New York Times reported that Romney continued to make money from his old firm Bain Capital through his time as Governor and his attempts to run for Senate and President. It noted that much of his income is likely taxed at only 15% -- though we don't know for sure since he refuses to release his tax returns.
He is the poster boy for the one percent -- and he is talking about "entitlements"?
If you ask someone on the street which kid in high school Mitt Romney reminds him of, he is likely to tell you it's the kid who drove to school in a Ferrari and got all the socially "in" girls. He was the smug guy who knew he was set for life.
As humorist and political commentator Jim Hightower used to say of the first George Bush -- Romney is a guy who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. And he is lecturing America about the "entitlement society? "
And let's look at what he refers to as "entitlements." Mainly he's talking about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Let's remember that Social Security and Medicare are not "entitlements" at all. They are earned benefits that people pay for through their payroll taxes throughout their working lives.
And Medicaid? It's the program that guarantees that if you're a child who is not lucky enough to be born into the household of an auto executive and Michigan Governor you still get health care. It's the program that assures that if you weren't lucky enough to have a trust fund -- or if some investment banker bought your company and fired you -- that you can still get treatment if you get hit by a bus. It's the program that assures that when you're 80 years old and get Alzheimer's but your 401-K disappeared because a bunch of Wall Street sharpies made reckless investments and sunk the economy -- you can get long-term care instead of being left to die on the street.
Then again that's not something a guy like Mitt Romney would know about. In fact he admitted the other day that he didn't really know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid until he was 55 years old. Guess a guy who has about $200 million in assets doesn't have to worry about such things.
You see, a guy like Romney doesn't have the foggiest that the government initiatives he attacks are precisely the things that actually do create "an opportunity society."
It was the GI Bill that sent the generation of Americans that fought World War II to college. It is Pell Grants and government-guaranteed student loans that allow most middle class Americans to send their kids to college.
It was Medicare and Social Security that rescued American seniors from poverty and provided guaranteed health care and a guaranteed base income for retirement. Romney, of course, wouldn't know how important an average $14,000 annual Social Security benefit is to an everyday senior -- that's an hour's compensation for the high-flying Wall Street types he hung around with at Bain Capital.
No, Romney is much more interested in privatizing Social Security and Medicare so his Wall Street buddies can get their hands on the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds -- even though that would eliminate the guaranteed benefits that are so critical to the health and welfare of America's seniors.
Romney and the Republicans in Washington don't seem to give a rat's rear about the unemployment insurance or payroll tax holiday that will expire in ten days because the House Republicans have refused to pass a two-month extension while the terms of a year-long extension can be negotiated.
Forty dollars a paycheck -- the cost of the increased payroll tax bite that everyday families will experience the first of the year -- may not mean much to a multi-millionaire like Mitt Romney. But to ordinary families, $40 is the electric bill or several bags of groceries -- and after just a few pay periods, it begins to add up pretty fast.
Turns out that when Republicans in Washington talk about taxes, they're not so worried about a $40 increase ordinary people will have to pay in payroll taxes every time they get a paycheck. They're worried about million dollar tax breaks for the gang on Wall Street.
Romney doesn't even seem to have a clue that it is funding for public education and the public infrastructure that allows everyday Americans to have an opportunity to succeed -- or that government has a responsibility to jumpstart the economy so that everyday, middle class people can get jobs.
In fact, he seems to agree with the Republican leaders of the House who say that unemployment benefits discourage people from looking for work. Guess Mitt has never been one of the five people competing for every available job. Oh, I forgot, Mitt says he is "unemployed" too. Talk about out of touch.
No, Romney's view of an "opportunity society" is one where the government does nothing to help prevent foreclosures "so the market can bottom out." It is one where the government stands by while the American auto industry collapses and costs a million Americans their good middle class jobs.
Then again, maybe Mitt's idea of an "opportunity society" is having the "opportunity" to win the lottery -- or maybe that would be a $10,000 bet. Doesn't everyone make those?
Robert Creamer is a long-time political organizer and strategist, and author of the book: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, available on Amazon.com. He is a partner in Democracy Partners and a Senior Strategist for Americans United for Change. Follow him on Twitter @rbcreamer.
Follow Robert Creamer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rbcreamer
Utah Governor Herbert pulled the winning contract bid out from under the winning contractor for the Core I-15 project, an Obama stimulus funded project, and gave it to one of his favored contractors, then gave a $13 M consolation prize to the contractor he just jilted... for nothing.
The Utah DABC (Dept of Alcoholic Beverage Control), the state entity that is the owner of all the liquor stores in Utah was caught giving preferential contracts to suppliers that were related to the chairman of the DABC.
Then there's the matter of UTA (Utah Transit Authority) and their greatly inflated salaries and real estate deals with foreknowledge of expansion to capitalize on certain development plans.
Utah's AG could never prosecute a polygamist and instead let Texas take care of Warren Jeffs. Now many women and children are being pushed out into the streets for the holidays because Jeffs is excommunicating them. A call has gone out to foster homes for these people.
If you liked the partial privatization of Medicare, known as the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan (Part-D) by Bush appointee, HHS Chair and long time former Governor of Utah, Michael Leavitt., then you'll love phase two of the same plan.
Four years later, the Holson Burns Group Inc. — the company controlled by Romney’s Bain Capital LLC — closed the factory and laid off about 150 workers. Some jobs were sent north, where months later many of those were also eliminated. Other operations went overseas.
But Bain walked away with millions in profits.
Although Holson Burnes’ sales nearly doubled from 1987 to 1991 — to more than $110 million— it posted consecutive operating losses!
Where did all that money go?
South Carolina officials lured the company to Gaffney with more than $5 million in industrial bonds and $200,000 in utility upgrades.
Then Romney declared bankruptcy and stiffed a supplier for $1.9 million in IOU payments.
If elected that is how Romney would run this country.
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I'm not surprised Romney doesn't have time to think about the realities of life. He's been really busy pulling himself up by his 433,333 boot straps. Ah....the "opportunity society" as seen from the top.
What I think he is hiding is he is probably gifting larges amount of his wealth to his children, which blows apart another mythos the rich and their middle class dupes in the right want to procreate.
Facts is these people are BARELY affected by the inheritance tax now, they just want it removed so they can avoid the inconvenience of these transfers.
It also show, this mythos that the wealthy are Job Creators, when in fact, Dynastic Wealth is passed down and mostly NEVER goes back in the economy in some form of Job Creation.
These people don't spend their own wealth to create jobs; they leverage loans out of banks and use networks of investments, never their own money. More tax breaks for them will do NADA to increasing jobs in the US.
There will always be rich people who will always have tremendous advantages.
The question is, WHO pays for the advantages?
http://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-Legal-Campaign-Rich-Everybody/dp/1591840694/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
Also, TeePeers: Romney speaks French. He spent several years in France on a mission when he was a young man.
He probably thought the pension funds he gutted under bankruptcy "restructuring" were also wasteful entitlements, rather than legitimate and contractually obligated earnings accrued over years (or often decades) of employment for the company, almost invariably quoted as part of the pay package during recruiting.
A question: Did you ever see any of those corporate raiders in plundered companies offer to gut their OWN severance packages to help the company before they take their plundered loot and run for their next target?
we the people have to start fighting as group for our benefits, we pay for all our benefit and if republicans want to end it. they have to pay back all that we have paid into it. we pay for SS, Medicare and mediaide, we pay for UI insurance. lets start fighting and changing the debate about this. WE PAID FOR IT.
Think about it: if you were a time-traveler, where would you go? Idyllic times? Or would you want to watch the Fall of Atlantis? And if the only way to watch was to be born into that time and live it?
No one is entitled to anything? There is nothing about entitlements in the constitution and there never should be.
Censorship is evil.
Entitlements such as Social Security are very different, we paid into the system all our working lives, and are truly entitled to the money. It is deserved. That is what entitled means.
A choice between an "entitlement society" and an "opportunity society."??? No, it is just about opportunistic pillaging of hard working Americans entitlements by the undeserving!
In the old , real, America we all had the "opportunity" to become wealthy ourselves and even when that didn't happen we could all look forward to our children doing better than we did and so on.
The Middle Class was prosperous and our incomes were growing - and then the socialist agenda of Reagan's redistribution of wealth from the achievers took hold and the achievers were punished while the idle were enriched beyond all reason.
The rich are no longer whining - they are cannibalizing Democracy.