GOING WITH THE best-defense-is-a-good-offense approach, the Romney campaign is accusing President Obama of being a -- gasp! -- redistributionist. In a rather pale replay of 2008's Joe the Plumber spread-the-wealth debate, the GOP dredged up a 14-year-old video. The MSM could have brought it up four years ago. Then it would only have been ten years old, and just as important.
In it, Mr. Obama, then a state senator, said, "I think the trick is figuring out, how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution, because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure that everybody's got a shot." That quote was important because it was a peek at the inside of someone protected by the media.
To tax is to redistribute. To govern is to redistribute. To breathe is to redistribute.
It's indisputable that Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama have diverging views about the danger posed by increasing income inequality and the degree of redistribution in which government should engage. But the Romney campaign's desperate, clownish portrayal of Mr. Obama does this important debate a serious disservice. The Post Editorial Board, I am confident, will do their level best to remedy that and focus on the "important debate".
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/22/2012 10:42 ||
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But the Romney campaigns desperate, clownish portrayal of Mr. Obama does this important debate a serious disservice.
there's serious beclowning going on, but it's not by the Romney campaign
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2012 10:56 Comments ||
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The fundamental difference is redistribution for a public good (e.g. building roads and bridges) and redistribution for private use (e.g. Solyndra loans and food stamps).
The former is a necessary evil. The latter is just plain old evil.
Who had the worst week in Washington? Mitt Romney -- again.
Modern politics has killed at least two things: privacy and context.
Mitt Romney (re)learned that lesson this past week when an amateur video from a fundraiser went viral. It shows him telling a group of well-heeled donors that, among other things, "there are 47 percent who are with [President Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them." That's an opinion. One which I happen to share, mostly. I wonder why no one has done any polls about what that number "really" is? Anybody got any facts to the contrary?
Mitt Romney, for forgetting that the camera is always rolling, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something. Hey! Wasn't there some little dust-up in Libya? Oh, but that had nothing to do with Obama or his policies, that's right.
Have a candidate for the Worst Week in Washington? E-mail Chris Cillizza at chris.cillizza@wpost.com. Hey, Chris, I have one...
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/22/2012 10:35 ||
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At the start of the week Romney and Champ were tied in the polls. At the end of the 'worst week in Washington', Romney and Champ were ... tied in the polls.
Champ should be worried for when Romney has a good week -- say, the first week in November.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/22/2012 10:45 Comments ||
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Maybe off topic here, maybe not. But Sarah Palin is urging R&R to "break through the liberal media filter", which I would assume includes WAPO, so that America can have a come to Jesus moment.
Hey, Mitt, Sarah might be right. Why do you let WAPO frame the debate? Why do you let WAPO tell you that you had a bad week? Tell it like it is and call BS on them.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/22/2012 12:44 Comments ||
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If most of these polls are over-sampling democrats, that means Romney is really ahead in the polls--not even.
Mitt Romney releases tax return for 2011, showing he paid 14.1 percent tax rate
Mitt Romney paid $1.9 million in taxes on $13.69 million in income in 2011, most of it from his investments, for an effective rate of 14.1 percent, according to hundreds of pages he released Friday in a move to quiet political controversy over his personal finances.
The Republican presidential nominee could have paid less in taxes, but he engineered his 2011 returns to overpay the government to ensure that his effective tax rate would "conform" with his statement last month that he had paid at least 13 percent, according to his trustee, R. Bradford Malt. Yes, somehow, that seems ...bad.
Romney did that by not taking full advantage of his charitable deductions. In their joint return, he and his wife, Ann, listed $4.02 million in donations to charity last year -- nearly 30 percent of their income -- which substantially reduced their tax obligation. They claimed a deduction for only $2.25 million of those contributions. But charity doesn't count, because it's anti-socialist and The One dies not give away 30% of his income.
Had the Romneys deducted all of their charitable donations, they would have paid about $467,000 less in taxes for an effective rate of 10.55 percent, according to an analysis by Rebecca Wilkins, a tax lawyer with the Citizens for Tax Justice. Romney can amend his returns at any point over the next three years to take advantage of the potential deductions. Aha! So he plans to refile after he's elected! Proof positive! And if you can't believe a spokesperson at 'Citizens for Tax Justice', who can you believe?
If the Romneys had not taken any charitable deductions, their rate would have been 18.8 percent, said Wilkins, who studied the returns and used accounting software to determine their effective rates.The slimeball! Who put those allowances for charity in the tax code? Who? The Congress? Oh.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/22/2012 08:28 ||
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Romney did that by not taking full advantage of his charitable deductions.
It's called audit-proofing. I guarantee Romney's tax returns have been audited by the IRS at least once. An agent walks in and may find something - you respond with deductions and writeoffs you didn't put on the tax return. Stalemate. I don't have the stats right in front of me but seven figure AGI's are audited about 10 percent of the time by the IRS; the Mass. DOR's probably been on his ass more than that.
#3
Romney didn't take full tax advantage of deductions because he'd pledged to keep his taxes at 13.something %. He'd have been way below that if he'd taken them all.
And yes, he's no doubt audited often. But PriceWaterhouseCooper is a heavy hitter in the tax accounting arena. I doubt the IRS finds anything, and I don't think the Dems thinks so either.
What they want is to paint a horrible picture with people who don't stop to think about issues like, "why is it good for us all if the wealthy invest their after-tax earnings, and pay lower rates on the resulting new earnings?".
#5
so what tact does alleged Pederast Harry Reid take now? OH! "he's hiding something! He's hiding something!"
How about you release yours, Harry, to show how a bureaucrat politician can become a multi-millionaire? Also, please prove that the Pederast allegations aren't true?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2012 14:22 Comments ||
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Harry, how about those sweet land deals you got? Hillary still hasn't explained her sweet deals where she made a lot of money in questionable deals such Porkbelly Gate and Whitewater Gate. What is it with you guys and gals(?).
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) owes at least $8 million to a bank owned by one of the largest unions in the country, according to the committee's most recent financial report.
The DNC initiated an $8 million loan with the Amalgamated Bank of New York on Aug. 10, the report shows, accounting for the majority of the committee's overall debt of $11 million.
Amalgamated Bank, often described as "America's Labor Bank," is a national entity, the majority of which is owned by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a politically active union with deep ties to the Democratic Party. The SEIU is also involved with the Democracy Alliance, a shadowy group of wealthy left-wing donors founded by billionaire investor George Soros.
How exactly does a public employee union come to own a bank?
The bank announced in an August press release that the DNC had "moved its primary banking relationship" to Amalgamated Bank, which would handle the committee's "day-to-day banking needs."
The DNC had previously done most of its banking with Bank of America, which helped finance the Democratic convention in Charlotte.
DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz hailed the transition to Amalgamated Bank, and noted the longstanding political and financial ties between the two organizations. The committee, she said, had a "fiduciary responsibility to those who invest in our party."
"It is critical that we honor their efforts to strengthen our infrastructure and build our organization by partnering with an institution that shares our commitment to standing with America's working families and small businesses," she said in a press release.
The SEIU is one of the most active political interest groups in the country, and a top financial backer of the Democratic Party. The union has given at least $200 million in direct contributions to candidates and committees since 1990 and has spent at least $14 million on lobbying since 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The SEIU spent more than $80 million in 2008 in support of Obama and other Democratic candidates, an investment that has reaped numerous political dividends.
Former SEIU president Andy Stern was the most frequent visitor to the White House in the first year of Obama's presidency and was later nominated to serve on the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission. Stern was spotted poolside at a lavish Democracy Alliance summit in May held at the historic Biltmore Hotel near Miami.
The group's international president, Mary Kay Henry, sits on the Democracy Alliance (DA) board of directors. The DA funnels millions of dollars in secret donations to Democratic candidates and causes.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
09/22/2012 01:14 ||
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So, unbreakable leg meets unstoppable thug?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/22/2012 13:37 Comments ||
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DNC franchise - Owned and Operated by SEIU et al
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2012 14:19 Comments ||
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Cheeky relationship of Obama administration and SEIU: "Greased palm meet greased palm."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) owes at least $8 million to a bank owned by one of the largest unions in the country, according to the committee's most recent financial report.
