What defines Mitt Romney's Republican Party? In his keynote address to the Republican convention, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie argued that this is the party of "hard truths," ready to tackle our debt and deficits. Washington lobbyist and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum proclaimed it the party of life, hailing the platform's pledge to ban abortion with no exceptions, even for the health of the mother, incest or rape (what Paul Ryan calls the "method of conception"). Tea Party zealots celebrated the harsh immigration stance premised on hunting down 11 million undocumented workers until they "self-deport."
But in fact, Mitt Romney's Republican Party isn't passionate about reducing deficits. A candidate that promises to hand out another $900 billion in tax breaks a year by 2015, mostly to the already wealthy, isn't focused on deficits. And telling "hard truths" is not a trait of a candidate who promises to pay for those tax cuts by closing loopholes he won't identify, and pledges deep cuts in spending but refuses to reveal what he would cut. While Tea Party and Christian Coalition activists may be the base of the party, Romney already has walked away from the extreme position on abortion. And a Romney administration won't waste much time or political capital trying to carry out the platform's draconian immigration posture or its anti-abortion promises, knowing Democrats will mobilize to stymie such efforts.
What this Romney-Ryan ticket represents in fact is clear: a preferential option for the rich and a punitive imposition on the poor.
Romney and Ryan don't hesitate to detail the taxes they would cut and the loopholes they would preserve. A 20% tax cut across the board above the extended Bush taxes, will hand millionaires an average $175,000 a year tax break. Corporations will get not only a cut in tax rates, but a "territorial corporate tax" system that exempts companies from U.S. taxes for anything reported as earned abroad, giving multinationals a million dollar incentive to transfer jobs and report profits abroad. They'll abolish the estate tax that applies only to multi-million dollar estates of the top 1%. And they vow to defend the favorite loophole of the wealthy: the 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividends and on "carried interest" (the obscene tax dodge that enables Bain partners and other private equity guys to treat their fees as capital gains rather than income). This is the tax break that enables Romney to pay a 14% tax rate on $20 million in income, and Warren Buffett, one of America's richest men, to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary. Much is still secreted from the voters, but the preferential option for the rich is detailed for donors to see.
Romney and Ryan also pledge to cut government spending dramatically, but won't say what they will cut. They do promise to lard even more on the Pentagon, already burning through more money than it did at the height of the Cold War in comparable dollars. And they put off cuts in Social Security and Medicare for a decade, because they don't want to disturb today's seniors who vote in large numbers. The cuts thus must come almost entirely from the 15% of the budget that pays for the domestic services of government -- everything from education to FEMA, the agency Republican Governors are calling on to assist in response to Hurricane Isaac.
Ryan's budget passed by the Republican House is marginally more detailed than Romney's plan. It reserves the harshest cuts for the programs of the most vulnerable Americans -- particularly Medicaid and food stamps. Medicaid would be cut by 1/3 over a decade. In all the Center for Public Policy estimates that 62% of Ryan's cuts of $5.3 trillion over the next decade would come from programs for the poor -- from child nutrition to aid to schools in poor neighborhoods to Head Start.
So behind the multi-million dollar stage in Tampa, beneath the glittery "reintroduction" of Mitt Romney as a pragmatic business guy, lies this "hard truth." With the US suffering Gilded Age levels of inequality, Romney will fight for more tax cuts for the very wealthy and the corporations. And with record numbers in poverty, Mitt's promise is to savage vital programs for the vulnerable. Forget about the Tea Party's ersatz anti Wall Street populism or the Christian Coalition's war on women. This is the candidate and the party of privilege, intent on lavishing more benefits on the few while savaging the already inadequate support for the poor and the vulnerable. That's the "hard truth" Chris Christie didn't bother to mention.
This post is part of the HuffPost Shadow Conventions 2012, a series spotlighting three issues that are not being discussed at the national GOP and Democratic conventions: The Drug War, Poverty in America, and Money in Politics.
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Ari Melber: Paul Ryan's Debt Talk Contradicts His Entire Career
Have you seen the number of bills that the House has sent to the Senate (including budgets), which have been DOA in Reed's senate?
Why do you think businesses get their tax breaks? Not because they are greedy, but because local and state governments decide that they'd rather have those tax dollars in their area and not have those businesses leave for another area of the country or overseas.
Both government and business know how the game is played. We, as citizens, need to wake up and demand real tax reform. It really doesn't matter who's in charge. Both Democrats and Republicans play the same game (w/different tweaks here and there, but it's the same fundamental game).
We need to demand a tax collection system that's about revenue collection, not a tool for politicians to exploit when they need to win a few brownie points with voters.
Then, again, once you start getting into the details and people realize that their favored tax deduction is on the chopping block....that's not going to get very far. So, here we are. Getting nowhere fast.
Apparently, things are going to have to get a lot worse than they are now......and things are pretty bad.....
The "Left" has taken propaganda to a new level. (... and they do it with a cunning grin!)
I am extremely well informed on politics and economic policies- that is why the liberal dems seem so non-sensical in their adherence to Obama and his empty promises. HE HAS FAILED HIS RESPONSIBILITIES AS PRESIDENT.
Hough and Wahhaj are leaders in the separatist American Islamist movement. While they may be able to get a few thousand Muslims to attend the event, they are NOT going to be mainstream Muslims. Most will likely come from Hough and Wahhaj’s radical networks that have long been entrenched in the Charlotte area. Make no mistake they are part of the Islamist movement.
The leaders of this event – Jibril Hough and Imam Siraj Wahhaj [are not] moderates. They are radicals. These individuals embrace Islamist supremacy and have demonstrated support for radical ideologies.
When an imam like Siraj Wahhaj says “it his duty and our duty as Muslims to replace the US Constitution with the Quran…we need to speak up!”
Romney is so beholden to the 1% and the teavangelicals that he will operate further right than George W. Bush. Each Republican President has taken America further and further to the right. Because no one really likes or trusts Romney, he'd likely get a primary challenger and lose in 2016. But I think his negatives are too high and that he's unlikely to win in 2012. The slate of candidates for 2016 will be more extensive than it was for this election cycle. Republicans need to ask themselves: why suffer through four or eight years of a president they don't really like when they can have a more likable candidate in 2016? Count on seeing Scott Brown, Jeb Bush, John Thune, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, and maybe even Sarah Palin planning their campaigns as soon as Obama's dance at their final inaugural ball.