Excerpt: "The 'we are V.I.P.' crowd has fully captured the modern Republican Party, to such an extent that leading Republicans consider Mr. Romney's apparent use of multimillion-dollar offshore accounts to dodge federal taxes not just acceptable but praiseworthy."
Portrait, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, 06/15/09. (photo: Fred R. Conrad/NYT)
Who's Very Important?
13 July 12
Is there a V.I.P. entrance? We are V.I.P.” That remark, by a donor waiting to get in to one of Mitt Romney’s recent fund-raisers in the Hamptons, pretty much sums up the attitude of America’s wealthy elite. Mr. Romney’s base — never mind the top 1 percent, we’re talking about the top 0.01 percent or higher — is composed of very self-important people.
Specifically, these are people who believe that they are, as another Romney donor put it, “the engine of the economy”; they should be cherished, and the taxes they pay, which are already at an 80-year low, should be cut even further. Unfortunately, said yet another donor, the “common person” — for example, the “nails ladies” — just doesn’t get it.
O.K., it’s easy to mock these people, but the joke’s really on us. For the “we are V.I.P.” crowd has fully captured the modern Republican Party, to such an extent that leading Republicans consider Mr. Romney’s apparent use of multimillion-dollar offshore accounts to dodge federal taxes not just acceptable but praiseworthy: “It’s really American to avoid paying taxes, legally,” declared Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. And there is, of course, a good chance that Republicans will control both Congress and the White House next year.
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Do I need to point out that Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman-Schul tz aren't running for president? Or that it's practically certain that neither one is hiding anything close to the a ount Moneybags Mitt is?
I invested money 3 decades ago out of this country and I disclosed all of it on my tax returns and federal financial disclosure forms. People should not run for office if they are unwilling to give us full disclosure about their financial picture and positions on issues. No one should vote for anyone who refuses to reveal themselves to voters fully. No pigs in a poke for me.
This is just another case of liberal class warfare against those that have been successful in life.
Yes, it's entirely legal to invest in other countries *IF* you pay taxes on those earnings, but it's apparent that Romney has NOT paid all the taxes he owes. His refusal to show tax returns from previous years is a HUGE red flag. He hopes to run out the clock, so that tax professionals will not have time to fully investigate his offshore holdings before election day.
Romney's father was an honest man. Mitt - not so much. The elder Romney felt compelled to show 12 YEARS of his own tax returns because he wanted to show that he had nothing to hide. Mitt's complusive secrecy points to a great deal that's being hidden.
How did Mitt make his money? He ran a finance company that looked at companies like the one his father made, figured out complex and arcane ways to strip them of profitability and sell off their assets and pay themselves millions even if their plans blew up the company and left thousands jobless.
That is the metaphor for the US economy since the go-go eighties and the Boesky's and Michael Milkens of the world became something other than the kind of people reviled in the 1930's.
Please identify the flavor of koolaid you drink so that the rest of us can avoid it.
Romney does pay taxes on his offshore accounts, the only outstanding question is he paying the full amount owed under the law. That is for the IRS to decide, not by a bunch Corporate reporters looking to attach an angle of fraud and deception to every story. There are enough questions being asked for the IRS to investigate and report back to the American people.
The part I don't get is that you believe Barack Obama personally managed your 401K or IRA? I had no idea he had a side job, and it sounds to me that he is doing very poorly at it. I bet it was in great shape when he took it over from his predecessor, W. Who is picking on success? Professor Krugman is picking on greed and hubris. Many, many, many people are successful and don't think they deserve to be treated as royalty.
So, let's start talking about unemployment. Do you support any plans that can be demonstrated historically to actually create jobs. Did you know that President Obama and the Democrats have submitted many, many jobs creation bills. Each one of them was not even addressed by the Republicans with anything but steps to block them.
And last of all, the people you call "job creators" are only scared of hiring people that will not enhance their businesses bottom line. Taxes and regulation are phony excuses to make more money. They are lying to you.
[quote name="phantomww "] No. This is a case of demanding a level playing field. "Those that have been successful in life" have an inordinate advantage in a system that is set up to cater to them. Krugman is just elucidating how brazen this catering has become.
We do business loans and commercial lones, we don't finance residential properties unless they are non owner occupied, so the Thumbs down merely says you are not informed!
Also, why buy a second or third home in the US if you can get some of your money out of the US and buy a nice place somewhere else (Costa Rica is nice).
What happens IF we have hyperinflation like Germany did or we devalue the dollar like Mexico did to the peso.
Sorry, I think putting money somewhere else is smart, if you are capable of doing that. Just so long as they pay taxes on any earnings, it is fine and legal.
People against that are just envious and believe in class warfare against the successful. Once it was a goal of people to be rich in America, now thanks to progressives it has become a dirty word.
The GOP just cut 1.8 million people from food stamps. No environmental regulations.
No jobs.
More outsourcing.
No health care and they would pirvatize our entitlements.
Why do you think corporations are throwing tens of millions at Romney and the limos are lining up in the Hamptons? They know that Romney is them.
Romney with a majority in the house will dig a hole so deep for the people of this nation there will be no light at the end of the tunnel.
Do you think it's because they want more for Main St.
Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot.
Suggestion...
Let the Bush cuts lapse...don't sign anything Mr. President that allows them to continue for the rich.
Then a two point program.
1. Minimum wage increases to $10.00 per hour...
2.A National 1% tax on all actual income (no decductions) for 30 years..."the We are all in this together tax" to pay down and only to be used as paydown for existing debt...the nation regains the giveaways of the last ten years over the next 30.
Yes ...no one likes taxes, but are we all citizens and shouldn't we all contribute? Being across the board it is no longer "class warfare" and wouldn't be "Un-American and Un-Patriotic to complain about a common cause?
Vote Obama/Dems all the way OR the 99% will pay more and get less while the Bummers/Rummers and friends will live like KINGS
We are always off topic: Topics are change tax laws (fair to all=no loop HOLES) and remove RATS from Supreme Court who are politically/mon ey connected on their "decisions"
Romney and friends don't believe the rules are for them. Because of all the benefits that they think they bestow upon ordinary Americans, they are too important to pay taxes. In fact, taxes should be paid to them.
Thinking and believing that, however is still not the problem.
The problem is that in a direct conflict with the US Constitution's ban on any form of royalty, millions of Americans, as many as 175 Million have allowed the very rich to bestow to themselves all the trappings of royalty.
The election of Mitt Romney has the potential of becoming the first step of installing a defacto (sp?)Royal Aristocracy as the rulers of America. This takeover will mark the tragic end of the American experiment in self rule.
Obama may court those people's money, and he may even bend to their will, but as an African American that grew up middle class, he will never be one of them.
What the middle class undecided will judge is the DETAILS of his vocation and wealth accumulation.
Sharks like Romney have made thousands of sad family stories, and the D's could run one tear jerker story after another every hour of every day until the election, made by REAL people and not actors.
Romney would be afraid to go outside his mansion when all the dirty details come out of just what his values are.
Since these slime own SCOTUS and DOJ, there is NO legal redress. Therefore it follows that the only redress will be extra-legal. That is, REAL patriots, at the level of Washington himself, the great rebel leader against tyranny...rise up, run a surprise raid, and MAKE the billionaires buy back the bodies and heads of the "VIP" parasites...
FDIC insurance is chump change for him. What if US banks he has his money in failed? He would be out a boatload of cash.
"How long do the "Job Creators" need to have these extraordinary tax cuts, tax breaks and tax havens before they actually "Create Jobs"?"
ha ha - I have a bridge to sell anyone who believes they will EVER create jobs in the USA
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