Apr 5, 2012 | By ThinkProgress War Room
Mitt Romney, Part 1: Of, By, and For the 1 Percent
No matter how hard he shakes his Etch A Sketch over the next seven
months, Mitt Romney won't be able to erase the fact the he and his
policies are of, by, and for the wealthiest one percent of Americans —
policies that will come at the expense of the other 99 Percent.
Here's the rundown on millionaire Mitt Romney, Mr. 1 Percent.
Millionaire Mitt Romney Would Slash Taxes for the 1 Percent, Raise
Them on the Poorest Americans
Romney's first tax plan was bad enough. It proposed $6.6 TRILLION in
tax cuts, heavily weighted toward the wealthy and corporations. Each
of the Koch Brothers alone would net at least $8.7 BILLION from just
one part of the plan. It cut Romney's own taxes nearly in half, but
raised taxes on nearly half of middle class families with children.
Romney's current tax plan is even worse. It cuts taxes on the
wealthiest Americans another 20 percent on top of the Bush tax cuts —
that's an additional $264,000 tax cut for each and every one of the
wealthiest 0.1 percent of Americans. In total, each of the wealthiest
0.1 percent of Americans would get more than a $1.1 MILLION annual tax
cut under the Romney plan. Shockingly, the poorest 20 percent of
Americans would actually receive a tax increase under Romney's plan.
By any objective measure, the plan — which is four times costlier than
the Bush tax cuts — would add TRILLIONS (around $10 TRILLION in total)
to the deficit, despite ending Medicare, slashing Social Security, and
implementing draconian cuts to everything else except defense spending
in order to offset some of the cost of trillions in tax giveaways to
the wealthy.
Millionaire Mitt Romney Gives up His Medicare, Wants to End it For
Everyone Else
Mitt Romney recently turned 65, but he declined to enroll in Medicare
because he says he can afford his own health care. Unfortunately,
Romney thinks the rest of us can afford to pay more for our own health
care as well. His plan to end Medicare as we know it would not only
eliminate the guarantee of Medicare benefits, it would shift thousands
of dollars in annual health care costs off the government's books and
onto seniors. The Republican budget plan that Romney eagerly embraced
doesn't reduce health care costs, it just doubles the costs of the tab
seniors have to pay each year.
Millionaire Mitt Romney's Campaign Complains About His $100 Million
Retirement Account, Wants to Slash Social Security for Everyone Else
Through special deals available to only an elite few in the
already-elite financial industry, Mitt Romney was able to amass an
Individual Retirement Account worth $100 MILLION. (The average working
person in their sixties has $144,000 in their 401k.) While most people
would be very, very glad to have $100 MILLION socked away, a Romney
campaign official actually complained to the Wall Street Journal that
all of this money had created a "tax problem" for Romney, adding, "Who
wants to have $100 million in an IRA?"
The "problem," according to the Romney campaign, is that Romney will
have to pay regular income rates on this money when he withdraws it,
rather than the ultra-low 13.9 percent tax rate he currently pays
thanks to various unfair tax loopholes. Romney's tax plan, of course,
would help solve the "problem" of him having to pay his fair share by
slashing income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans by another 20
percent on top of keeping the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
Meanwhile, Romney's fiscal plan would slash Social Security by
hundreds of billions of dollars, resulting in dramatic benefit cuts
for those who can least afford it.
Millionaire Mitt Romney Amassed His Quarter-Billion Dollar Fortune by
Closing Factories, Laying Off Thousands of Workers
As has been well-publicized during the primary, Romney amassed his
quarter-billion dollar fortune through his work at Bain Capital. Under
Romney's leadership, Bain walked away with billions in profits while
workers were often left with nothing after Bain closed their factory
or bankrupted their company.
Romney's confidentiality agreements with Bain allow him to hide where
much of his fortune is currently invested, though we do know he's
profited from companies in China (including those involved in the
government's extensive surveillance apparatus) and from banks
foreclosing on homeowners. We also know that he's socked away some of
his fortune in a range of notorious tax havens like the Cayman Islands
and, until recently, had a previously undisclosed Swiss bank account.
Millionaire Mitt Romney Uses Special Tax Loopholes to Pay a Lower Tax
Rate Than Millions of Middle Class Workers
Romney kept his tax returns hidden for the better part of two decades
and when he finally released just one year's worth of full returns
(breaking with the precedent set by his own father, just one
additional year will be released in two weeks), it was clear why he'd
kept them under wraps.
Romney takes advantage of a variety of unfair tax loopholes, including
some available only to hedge fund and private equity manages, to pay
the shockingly low tax rate of just 13.9 percent — a rate lower than
that of millions of middle class workers. For example, a typical
worker making $60,000 in wages in 2011 would have paid a tax rate of
29.9 percent — more than double that of Romney's.
Naturally, Romney strongly opposes the Buffett Rule — a plan the
Senate will vote on in two weeks that guarantees that millionaires
like Mitt Romney and the billionaires bankrolling his campaign pay a
minimum tax rate of 30 percent. Romney dismissed the Buffett Rule as
"class warfare" and told the 99 Percent to stop being jealous, as
wealth and income inequality are only to be discussed in "quiet
rooms."
IN ONE SENTENCE: Millionaire Mitt Romney and his policies are of, by,
and for the wealthiest 1 Percent.
More:
ThinkProgress.org
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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