It's not just his giant income or the low tax rates he pays on it. And it's not just the videotape of him berating almost half of America, or his endless gaffes, or his regressive budget policies.
It's something that unites all of this, and connects it to the biggest underlying problem America faces -- the unprecedented concentration of wealth and power at the very top that's undermining our economy and destroying our democracy.
Romney just released his 2011 tax returns, showing he paid $1.9 million in taxes on more than $13 million of income last year -- for an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent. (He released his 2010 return in January, showing he paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent.)
American has had hugely wealthy presidents before -- think of Teddy Roosevelt and his distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt; or John F. Kennedy, beneficiary of father Joe's fortune.
But here's the difference. These men were champions of the working class and the poor, and were considered traitors to their own class. Teddy Roosevelt railed against the "malefactors of great wealth," and he busted up the oil and railroad trusts.
FDR thundered against the "economic royalists," raised taxes on the wealthy, and gave average working people the right to form unions -- along with Social Security, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, and a 40-hour workweek.
But Mitt Romney is not a traitor to his class. He is a sponsor of his class. He wants to cut their taxes by $3.7 trillion over the next decade, and hasn't even specified what "loopholes" he'd close to make up for this gigantic giveaway.
And he wants to cut benefits that almost everyone else relies on -- Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and housing assistance.
He's even a warrior for his class, telling his wealthy followers his job isn't to worry about the "47 percent" of Americans who won't vote for him, whom he calls "victims" and he berates for not paying federal incomes taxes and taking federal handouts.
(He mangles these facts, of course. Almost all working Americans pay federal taxes -- and the federal taxes that have been rising fastest for most people are Social Security payroll taxes, which aren't collected on a penny of income over $110,100. Moreover, most of the "47 percent" whom he accuses of taking handouts are on Medicare or Social Security -- the biggest "entitlement" programs -- which, not incidentally, they paid into during their working lives.)
Money means power. Concentrated wealth at the top means extraordinary power at the top. The reason Romney pays a rate of only 14 percent on $13 million of income in 2011 -- a lower rate than many in the middle class -- is because he exploits a loophole that allows private equity managers to treat their income as capital gains, taxed at only 15 percent.
And that loophole exists solely because private equity and hedge fund managers have so much political clout -- as a result of their huge fortunes and the money they've donated to political candidates -- that neither party will remove it.
In other words, everything America is learning about Mitt Romney -- his tax returns, his years at Bain Capital, the video of his speech to high-end donors in which he belittles half of America, his gaffes, the budget policies he promotes -- repeat and reenforce the same underlying reality.
So much wealth and power have accumulated at the top of America that our economy and our democracy are seriously threatened. Romney not only represents this problem. He is the living embodiment of it.
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage," now available in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
Follow Robert Reich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RBReich
Terry O'Neill: The Romney-Ryan Budget: Who Are the Real Moochers in Their Medicaid Scheme?
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Your argument about the 47% 'discussion' does not hold water. Now can you point to ANY right-wing media that is not wildly biased? Fox? Complete distortions, not even subtle like MSNBC (which is biased, I agree). Talk shows? Tell lies as truths and skeptical listeners/viewers swallow whole, but balk at believing anything from CNN.
All in all there is a balance and anyone like yourself can obviously get the truth if they work for it - or are all OTHER Americans too stupid to do what you have obviously done?
I don't agree, and I will vote a straight Democratic ticket.
The middle class is being screwed (to use a crude expression) and they are hurting. If the discussion can be directed to the real issue of whether taxation in its present form is necessary at all, then some good might come out of Romney's run for the White house. I suspect that some of his Banker Mates in the Private Equity business are smarting already at the publicity that has already been directed at the way in which Bain et al have and continue to conduct business and the way executives such as Romney can manipulate their income to avoid imposts that the average person must pay. The heat needs to be kept on.
That is all good stuff and the next chapter should be to keep asking questions such as why Bernanke of the Fed can find (means create from nothing) $40 billion per month to buy "toxic assets" (called mortgage backed securities) to refinance his banker mates, but cannot find a means to inject a similar amount every month directly into the pockets of consumers to really kick start the economy.
Surely, we all know that the cumulative result of monopolistic practices is a singular, highly concentrated ownership of all wealth. In today's world, we, as a society have generated powerful tools to provide a rapid, and rewarding experience for monopolists of all kinds. The question is: are the caps that were placed on individual and corporate monopolies, and on inheritance during the depression reasonable and adequate to maintain a health, productive society, or is there some alternative that makes more sense given what we know now? Certainly, the idea of unlimited wealth for some, and poverty for the many based on the 'luck of the draw' is not a reasonable answer.................or is it?
"...Our great President Dwight D. Eisenhower has counseled us further: "In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with people's money, or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative."
While jealously guarding the free institutions and preserving the principles upon which our Republic was founded and has flourished, the purpose of the Republican Party is to establish and maintain a peaceful world and build at home a dynamic prosperity in which every citizen fairly shares.
We shall ever build anew, that our children and their children, without distinction because of race, creed or color, may know the blessings of our free land.
We believe that basic to governmental integrity are unimpeachable ethical standards and irreproachable personal conduct by all people in government. We shall continue our insistence on honesty as an indispensable requirement of public service. We shall continue to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears.
We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs—expansion of social security—broadened coverage in unemployment insurance —improved housing—and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people..."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25838
Republican Party Platforms: Republican Party Platform of 1956
and repost
US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: "We may have democracy in this country, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both."
FNC on a good night has 3 million people watching . . .
You're the one who needs to wake up.