While They Prosper, We Suffer

Today, the RGJ reminded us of the poverty many Nevada families are suffering under. As we discussed yesterday, many see a crisis of income inequality... But Newt Gingrich saw an opportunity to rally teabaggers by attacking poor people of color...



While Mitt Romney sang the praises of vulture capitalism, which he calls "free enterprise":



Hey, don't look at all those unemployed workers!



And don't look at all that government backed corporate welfare!

It's all "free enterprise" and it's all good, so long as the likes of Mitt and Newt continue to prosper, even as the rest of us suffer.

As time goes on and primary season comes to a close at some point, Mittens will try to cover up his record... But he can't. He can't act like it never existed.

During his tenure, Bain acquired numerous companies, often through debt leveraging, then liquidated a number of them, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs for American workers while bringing in hundreds of millions in profit for Romney and Bain’s other investors.

Several other GOP candidates, especially Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry have lept at the chance to attack the front-runner, aggressively attacking Romney’s time at Bain as an example of “looting” companies and “vulture capitalism.” The rift has not only split the Republican Party at the highest ranks, but also seems to be sparking a minor crisis of identity within Republican ranks over the party’s relationship with capitalism itself. At the very least, as numerous commentators are acknowledging, the dust-up now has the GOP candidates doing the Obama campaign’s opposition work for it.

This is the "tea party", radical right philosophy that we can't simply ignore. There's a reason why Mitt Romney calls what he did at Bain Capital "free enterprise", then attacks those who question his lofty (and false) job creation claims. Take a look at what Bain was really out to do, then notice how Romney wants to slash taxes for the top 1% while shifting the tax burden even more to working class families. Even though America's wealthiest are doing just fine, and even though poverty in America has reached levels we haven't seen since The Great Depression, Mitt Romney and the G-O-TEA want to take us back to the policies and "ideas" that created this catastrophe in the first place.

Yes, income inequality is a real problem and it really does hurt our overall economy. We can't ignore it. We can't relegate it to "quiet places". We can't laugh about making poor kids work as janitors. And we can't allow future generations to suffer.