Updated Twice: Crushing Right Wing BS
Update:
This goes out to Mike Hayden, a loyal follower.
The GOP is a party divided floundering for a message:
The Republican message machine is trying hard to accuse President Obama of increasing taxes on middle-class Americans after the Supreme Court’s ruling that the health care mandate is valid as an exercise of the government’s taxing power.
But the party is doing so without the help of Mitt Romney, whose own health plan in Massachusetts contained an almost identical mandate.
On Monday, Eric Fehrnstrom, Mr. Romney’s senior adviser, strayed wildly from the coordinated comments of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill and other party strategists by saying Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, agrees with Democrats that Mr. Obama’s health care mandate is not a tax.
Update #2: The Koch Brothers must have called. Mitt’s now “on message.”
WOLFEBORO, N.H. — Mitt Romney on Wednesday said requiring all Americans to buy health insurance amounts to a tax, contradicting a senior campaign adviser who days ago said the Republican presidential candidate viewed President Barack Obama’s mandate as anything but a tax.“The majority of the court said it’s a tax and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There’s no way around that,” Romney told CBS News. “You can try and say you wish they had decided a different way but they didn’t. They concluded it was a tax.”
Romney’s comments amounted to a shift in position. Earlier in the week, senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney viewed the mandate as a penalty, a fee or a fine - not a tax.
If you are convinced that the “penalty” is a “tax,” it is not the largest tax increase in American history.
Not everyone is convinced that the game is rigged. Certainly not, Scott Brown & Mitt Romney.
LAUER: When you said that we already have a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy, I’m curious about the word ‘envy.’ Did you suggest that anyone who questions the policies and practices of Wall Street and financial institutions, anyone who has questions about the distribution of wealth and power in this country, is envious? Is it about jealousy, or fairness?
ROMNEY: You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare. When you have a president encouraging the idea of dividing America based on the 99 percent versus one percent — and those people who have been most successful will be in the one percent — you have opened up a whole new wave of approach in this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God. The American people, I believe in the final analysis, will reject it.
Mitt is SO convinced that the “tired,” ” poor,” “huddled masses,” &” wretched refuse” pine longingly for what he has, that he has opted to stash chunks of it away where we can’t see.
For nearly 15 years, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s financial portfolio has included an offshore company that remained invisible to voters as his political star rose.
Based in Bermuda, Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. was not listed on any of Romney’s state or federal financial reports. The company is among several Romney holdings that have not been fully disclosed, including one that recently posted a $1.9 million earning — suggesting he could be wealthier than the nearly $250 million estimated by his campaign.
The omissions were permitted by state and federal authorities overseeing Romney’s ethics filings, and he has never been cited for failing to disclose information about his money. But Romney’s limited disclosures deprive the public of an accurate depiction of his wealth and a clear understanding of how his assets are handled and taxed, according to experts in private equity, tax and campaign finance law.
July 4th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
As the nation knows more about Romney, they will come to understand that it is his ilk that are waging the class warfare, by using the power of money to shape the laws that allow them to further confiscate the wealth generated by hard-working Americans.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/mitt-romney-keeps-30-million-tax-free-cayman-islands
July 4th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
One can only hope that Mitt Romney’s zeal for predatory capitalism will ultimately expose the truth, Joe.
My hope is dimmed by the insistence of some to prostrate themselves before the false idol “Reaganomics” and the delusions that carrying the elites on the backs of the middle class will prsent us some scraps to forage from.
July 4th, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Speaking of prostration, what about Lord Keynes?
Regards — Cliff
July 4th, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Cliff,
I’ll leave you to argue it out with Naomi Klein:
Watch the documentary HERE.
July 5th, 2012 at 11:20 am
Another book behind. I am not sure which side of the war the reviewer is referencing. For sure the Argentine Junta wanted to change the subject, but wasn’t their’s a sort of mixed economy? So Maggie repulsed the invasion as a way of pursuing her plans to privatize?
I guess I need to read the book, but first I have to get back to packing out the Grandchildren’s bedroom for tomorrow’s move.
Regards — Cliff
July 5th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Jack,
Romney has corrected his spokesman and said it is a tax as decreed by the SC.
Obama campaign spokesman,Ben LaBolt, today said “it’s a penalty”. When is Obama going to admit it is a tax? Isn’t the SC the final arbiter?
July 5th, 2012 at 6:05 pm
This is confusing, Publius, because the Supreme Court cannot rule on a tax issue until AFTER the tax has been levied and challenged.
The penalty is collected via income tax returns. If you are a freeloader and are expecting a tax refund, then you get less back. I suppose you can opt to not have your taxes withheld, but that opens another can of worms.
I’m not sure how to console those that want something for nothing. Conservatives aiding and abetting freeloaders. What next?
Mitt used to be in favor of the “personal responsibility principle,” but then he flip-flopped.
July 6th, 2012 at 7:25 am
From Jet Ski to power boat, the life of the 1%!
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/mitt-and-ann-take-speedboat-for-a-whirl/
July 6th, 2012 at 8:47 am
Actually, link through my name to find that ACA is a major tax CUT!
July 6th, 2012 at 7:13 pm
When is Obama going to admit it is a tax?
Probably never. More likely, Obama is going to allow his opponents to waste a few weeks discussing at length the incredibly important semantic distinction between a tax and a tax penalty (yawn), while he stays on his message about the difference between a middle-class-based economic vision vs. a trickle-down one.
July 10th, 2012 at 9:23 pm
The tax issue is a red herring and is already forgotten. The act was unconstitutional and everyone with any sense knows it. Roberts wimped out. One can only pray it will galvinize the great majority of those in this country who oppose and will reflect such at the ballot box. As for Joe S. assertion that wealth will be confiscated from hard working Americans by the power of money. It is already in motion. Barack Husein Obama has the gall to speak in positive tones of the dissmal jobs creation of 82,000 last month. One only needs look at the fact that 85,000 filed for disability to realize that money is already being stolen from hard working Americans by deadbeats who claim disability due to alcoholism or drug addiction or even more questionable mental issues. Welcome to Obamaville.
July 11th, 2012 at 4:47 pm
“The act was unconstitutional and everyone with any sense knows it.”
You do know the definition of “constitutional,” right? That this is determined by, ultimately, the Supreme Court? Ergo, it’s constitutional. And yes, that means that until overturned/amended, segregation and all the horrid stuff of our past history was constittuional, too.
Like or not like the law, but stop lying or misleading.
PS - any normal, ie NOT Enterprise Institute - constitutional scholar will tell you, this was so constitutional, likely under BOTH the tax and commerce clauses - as to be a no-brainer.
Good luck with that galvanizing though…of what, 25-35% of voters? Clearly a majority think this is such an important issue to oppose…not.