Just a couple of weeks ago, we were left scratching our heads. When stating his opposition to raising the minimum wage, Rep. Joe Heck (R-Henderson) tried every scare tactic available. And when that wasn't enough, he threw out a potential alternative.
And what was that alternative? He proposed increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). And he's not alone. In recent weeks, other Republican politicians and some conservative economists have signaled support for expanding EITC.
And now, President Obama has included an EITC expansion in his budget proposal. He also included a Republican proposed tax loophole closure to pay for it. So can everyone become friends, hold hands, sing along, and pass this already?
Not so fast. Just last week, House Republican "leaders" proposed a "tax reform" plan that cuts EITC. And this isn't even the first time that Republicans turned hard against EITC. In 2012, G-O-TEA Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney infamously attacked EITC and other parts of the social safety net as "welfare for the 47%". And back then, Rep. Joe Heck agreed with Romney.
So what are we supposed to believe here? Do Republicans support EITC or not? We guess it depends on which day it is... And what President Obama includes in his budget (regardless of whether he's magnanimously including some of their own ideas in it!).
Of course, some prominent conservative thinkers have suggested that EITC is a rather inefficient way to address poverty & economic inequality. But then again, these tend to be the same prominent conservative thinkers who support raising the minimum wage. After all, why have federal & state government subsidize major corporations' decisions to underpay their workers?
And that brings us back to the question Rep. Heck struggled to answer two weeks ago. Raising the minimum wage is likely the most efficient and cost effective way to alleviate the suffering of America's working poor. But if Rep. Heck and other Congressional Republicans are so committed to subsidizing the miserly ways of America's corporate elite, we can at least expand the Earned Income Tax Credit. And if there are enough thinking members of Congress who are willing to find a more creative solution, we can always try a combination of both.
But in a nation crippled by epic economic inequality, nothing is not a viable option. The status quo is failing America's working class. And in an ideal world, our elected officials would be considering far more than either a minimum wage increase or EITC expansion. So really, one of these (or a combination of the two) is the least we can do for those who are hurting the most.
Showing posts with label 99% movement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 99% movement. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Steve Wynn Still Doesn't Get It.
So Ralston interviewed Wynn (again). Here's how it went down.
We've talked before about Steve Wynn and his his irrational view of how government is supposed to work. But now, he's falling to a new low in letting his loathing of President Obama get in the way of facts.
For one, even Wynn himself admitted that Obama inherited a terrible economic crisis from George W. Bush. Yet despite the evidence showing steady job growth and economic recovery since we hit bottom in 2009, Steve Wynn wants us to believe that President Obama is some incompetent boob who knows nothing about the economy. So if Obama really caused some terrible economic catastrophe and can't figure out how to get us out of it, then why have Wynn's corporate profits been looking so good lately?
And while even Steve Wynn himself struggled to defend George W. Bush's economic record, he seemed more than eager to return to the very Bush policies that threw the country into the mess that President Obama inherited in 2009. He even showed a bit of frustration with Bush's tendency to "tax cut, borrow, and spend" his way out of any politically thorny situation, yet he doesn't want to notice how Mitt Romney's economic proposals mostly call for the same thing. In order to pay for all of Romney's favored tax cuts for the super rich and increased military spending, he will either have to raise taxes on the middle class & working poor, slash critical investment in our middle class that's the foundation of our economy... Or do what George Bush did and borrow more money to try to avoid making tough choices.
This is why I just can't take Steve Wynn seriously as an economic policy analyst. While he's been great at building great casino resorts, he isn't as great at realizing the true economic problems of our time (and how to solve them).
We've talked before about Steve Wynn and his his irrational view of how government is supposed to work. But now, he's falling to a new low in letting his loathing of President Obama get in the way of facts.
For one, even Wynn himself admitted that Obama inherited a terrible economic crisis from George W. Bush. Yet despite the evidence showing steady job growth and economic recovery since we hit bottom in 2009, Steve Wynn wants us to believe that President Obama is some incompetent boob who knows nothing about the economy. So if Obama really caused some terrible economic catastrophe and can't figure out how to get us out of it, then why have Wynn's corporate profits been looking so good lately?
And while even Steve Wynn himself struggled to defend George W. Bush's economic record, he seemed more than eager to return to the very Bush policies that threw the country into the mess that President Obama inherited in 2009. He even showed a bit of frustration with Bush's tendency to "tax cut, borrow, and spend" his way out of any politically thorny situation, yet he doesn't want to notice how Mitt Romney's economic proposals mostly call for the same thing. In order to pay for all of Romney's favored tax cuts for the super rich and increased military spending, he will either have to raise taxes on the middle class & working poor, slash critical investment in our middle class that's the foundation of our economy... Or do what George Bush did and borrow more money to try to avoid making tough choices.
This is why I just can't take Steve Wynn seriously as an economic policy analyst. While he's been great at building great casino resorts, he isn't as great at realizing the true economic problems of our time (and how to solve them).
Sunday, September 30, 2012
"The Closing Act" Begins This Week
Today, President Obama will be arriving in Las Vegas to do a rally tonight... Then do debate prep for the following two days.
While there's been much discussion on the importance of this debate, there may be something happening this week that's just as important. Early voting is now happening in many states... Including several key swing states. And even though we're not voting yet here in Nevada, many minds have already been made up.
So with only 37 days to go until "The Last Day of Election Month", this may be the week that sets in stone the narrative of the 2012 Election. This is why President Obama is doing a rally tonight at Desert Pines High School followed by 2 solid days of debate prep in the quieter confines of Lake Las Vegas. And this is why Mitt Romney's surrogates are scrambling to spin what's about to happen this week.
We're finally in the home stretch now. There are few truly undecided voters left. And there is very little time left to sway them. And unless we see some epic "game change" this week, it's almost time to declare game over.
So it's nice to see Southern Nevada play host to the opening of the closing act. ;-)
While there's been much discussion on the importance of this debate, there may be something happening this week that's just as important. Early voting is now happening in many states... Including several key swing states. And even though we're not voting yet here in Nevada, many minds have already been made up.
So with only 37 days to go until "The Last Day of Election Month", this may be the week that sets in stone the narrative of the 2012 Election. This is why President Obama is doing a rally tonight at Desert Pines High School followed by 2 solid days of debate prep in the quieter confines of Lake Las Vegas. And this is why Mitt Romney's surrogates are scrambling to spin what's about to happen this week.
We're finally in the home stretch now. There are few truly undecided voters left. And there is very little time left to sway them. And unless we see some epic "game change" this week, it's almost time to declare game over.
So it's nice to see Southern Nevada play host to the opening of the closing act. ;-)
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Why #MittpocalyseNow? (Maybe Mittens Just Can't Campaign.)
Yesterday, Mitt Romney returned to Las Vegas to attack President Obama... And try to "reset his campaign" yet again. After all, this hasn't been a great week for Mitt Romney.
Well, Mitt just got worse here yesterday.
And it just highlighted Romney's continuing difficulties in delivering a coherent message. Greg Sargent thinks Romney is losing because he lost his key argument on the economy. Jonathan Bernstein thinks Romney is losing because he's trapped in "the tea party echo chamber" and that's keeping him detached from reality. And while both of them have good points, I'm wondering if perhaps there's a simpler reason why it's all going downhill for Mittens and his G-O-TEA.
Go ahead and take another look at that video above. Notice the message being delivered by the Obama supporters, then notice the message being delivered by Romney supporters. Now, take a look at what Rachel Maddow has to say below.
And herein lies perhaps the biggest reason why Romney's campaign has taken such a turn for the worse. OFA and Democrats have been making the case that Mitt Romney doesn't want to take action to save America's middle class. Yet while Democrats make this case, Romney and his fellow Republicans... Well, they confirm it!
And with early voting now starting in several states, and with so little time left before the final day to vote, they don't really seem interested in even hitting the ground to campaign and deliver their own message. This is a serious problem. And as long as this continues, Republicans have no one else to blame for their own loss.
Well, Mitt just got worse here yesterday.
And it just highlighted Romney's continuing difficulties in delivering a coherent message. Greg Sargent thinks Romney is losing because he lost his key argument on the economy. Jonathan Bernstein thinks Romney is losing because he's trapped in "the tea party echo chamber" and that's keeping him detached from reality. And while both of them have good points, I'm wondering if perhaps there's a simpler reason why it's all going downhill for Mittens and his G-O-TEA.
Go ahead and take another look at that video above. Notice the message being delivered by the Obama supporters, then notice the message being delivered by Romney supporters. Now, take a look at what Rachel Maddow has to say below.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
And herein lies perhaps the biggest reason why Romney's campaign has taken such a turn for the worse. OFA and Democrats have been making the case that Mitt Romney doesn't want to take action to save America's middle class. Yet while Democrats make this case, Romney and his fellow Republicans... Well, they confirm it!
And with early voting now starting in several states, and with so little time left before the final day to vote, they don't really seem interested in even hitting the ground to campaign and deliver their own message. This is a serious problem. And as long as this continues, Republicans have no one else to blame for their own loss.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Brian Sandoval's Arithmetic Problem
Apparently when not acting as Mitt Romney's "Unofficial Official Hispanic Ambassador", Brian Sandoval claims the title of Nevada Governor. And when he's not trying to spin away Mittens' many political woes, he's trying to spin away the state's stubborn fiscal dilemma. So far, it looks like his spin isn't working for either case.
Last March, Governor Sandoval really thought he could magically balance the budget with gauzy rhetoric and cutesy politics. And while his big move made good political sense six months ago, it makes no fiscal sense now. Because our state's population continues to grow while our state's revenue sources do not, we're running into what's often called "The Structural Deficit". Because our state has been unable to collect the revenue necessary to fund all our state's needs, we keep running deficits over and over and over again.
And unless new revenue is added into next year's budgetary equation, cuts will have to be made. And those cuts will have to be made at the worst possible time, right when Nevada needs strong schools the most. As we've discussed before, good public education is absolutely necessary for diversifying and healing our state's troubled economy. Yet because we've shortchanged our public schools so often before, they are just struggling to survive now. And if more revenue isn't added to the state budget soon, we'll see even more horrific cuts to our schools.
This is where The Education Initiative steps in. If passed, it will stabilize Nevada's revenue stream and give us the ability to fully fund public education simply by asking the giant multinational corporations that are currently (mis)using our tax code to avoid paying taxes elsewhere to pay something closer to their fair share, and do it so we can actually build the foundation of a better economic future for all of Nevada.
For some reason, Brian Sandoval continues to fear The Education Initiative. But since his budget proposal has (again) been weighed and found wanting, the initiative just looks increasingly like the first step of our only way out of this structural deficit and toward a lasting solution for both the state's fiscal health and for public education.
“It will take more than the revenue growth that we’re seeing to make significant restorations to salaries and benefits and to keep education whole,” said Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, who was chairwoman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and heads the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee. “I’m anxious to see the governor’s budget.”
The Sandoval administration has released few details about his budget-writing process. So far, he has instructed state gencies to submit “flat budget” requests. He also has announced that since July 1, 2011, tax revenues have come in $70 million over initial projections. [...]
Last week, Sandoval doubled down on his promise not to cut education in an interview with the Reno Gazette Journal’s editorial board.
"I meant it when I said we are not going to cut K-through-12 or higher education anymore," he said.
For education, however, a flat budget would mean budget cuts.
“It wouldn’t be enough,” Washoe County Superintendent Pedro Martinez said. “We all have cost increases we have to deal with, one way or the other.”
Martinez said he expects to ask the state for as much as $14 million to cover increased costs.
Last March, Governor Sandoval really thought he could magically balance the budget with gauzy rhetoric and cutesy politics. And while his big move made good political sense six months ago, it makes no fiscal sense now. Because our state's population continues to grow while our state's revenue sources do not, we're running into what's often called "The Structural Deficit". Because our state has been unable to collect the revenue necessary to fund all our state's needs, we keep running deficits over and over and over again.
And unless new revenue is added into next year's budgetary equation, cuts will have to be made. And those cuts will have to be made at the worst possible time, right when Nevada needs strong schools the most. As we've discussed before, good public education is absolutely necessary for diversifying and healing our state's troubled economy. Yet because we've shortchanged our public schools so often before, they are just struggling to survive now. And if more revenue isn't added to the state budget soon, we'll see even more horrific cuts to our schools.
This is where The Education Initiative steps in. If passed, it will stabilize Nevada's revenue stream and give us the ability to fully fund public education simply by asking the giant multinational corporations that are currently (mis)using our tax code to avoid paying taxes elsewhere to pay something closer to their fair share, and do it so we can actually build the foundation of a better economic future for all of Nevada.
For some reason, Brian Sandoval continues to fear The Education Initiative. But since his budget proposal has (again) been weighed and found wanting, the initiative just looks increasingly like the first step of our only way out of this structural deficit and toward a lasting solution for both the state's fiscal health and for public education.
NV-Sen/NV-03: #RomneyShambles Hits Nevada Republicans
This Friday, Mitt Romney will be returning to Las Vegas for his campaign's funeral "a victory rally". Yet while Romney plans his return to Nevada, Republicans here are in full panic mode.
Why? Let me explain.
Throughout this year, Dean Heller has been assuming that he could win his Senate race by lying about his record... And lying about Shelley Berkley. He had never previously assumed that his complete embrace of Mitt Romney's G-O-TEA agenda would come back to bite him. But now, all of a sudden, Dean Heller wants us to believe that he's "different" from Romney.
However, he did let this slip.
The fact of the matter is that Dean Heller is inextricably tied to the hip of the Romney-Ryan G-O-TEA agenda. In particular, he's the only Member of Congress to have voted for Paul Ryan's budget both in the House and in the Senate. This is why he's had to lie so much about Medicare and the Affordable Care Act lately.
We really have four peas in a pod here. Wait... What? Oh yes, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Dean Heller, and Joe Heck have been pursuing the same "tea party" approved agenda for some time. And perhaps Heck has been the most forthcoming of the pod when it comes to their true agenda.
This is why Heck has had to attack his opponent, John Oceguera, and his record... As a firefighter.
You see, Joe Heck can't actually practice what he preaches. While he touts "AUSTERITY!" to working class Nevadans, he has regularly been collecting his government funded checks. This is why he has to project his problem onto his opponents. And this is what makes his continuing loyalty to Romney & Ryan even more appalling.
The problem for Joe Heck is that Mitt Romney's tax policy is all about making the middle class and working poor pay more while the super-rich pay less. And this is just worsened by Romney's glaring inability to understand the struggles of the 99%. This is why Dean Heller is now running away from Romney the candidate, even if he still agrees with Romney on policy. Yet while Heller runs further away, Heck seems determined to stay the course with Romney.
It's bad enough for Heller and Heck that Nevada Republicans' field operation has been awfully lackluster compared to what Nevada Democrats have. But now that Mitt Romney continues his slow motion campaign implosion, Heller & Heck are more vulnerable now than ever before. Steve Kornacki explained this morning just why this is so.
And herein lies another key reason why Republicans may fail quite miserably in their quest to turn Nevada Red again.
Why? Let me explain.
Throughout this year, Dean Heller has been assuming that he could win his Senate race by lying about his record... And lying about Shelley Berkley. He had never previously assumed that his complete embrace of Mitt Romney's G-O-TEA agenda would come back to bite him. But now, all of a sudden, Dean Heller wants us to believe that he's "different" from Romney.
Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said he has a "very different view of the world" than the one Mitt Romney expressed at a private fundraiser, a sign of how dangerous the now-famous "47 percent" comment is to a swing-state senator facing reelection.
"I have five brothers and sisters. My father was an auto mechanic, my mother was a school cook," Heller told reporters outside the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon. "I have a very different view of the world and as a United States senator I think I represent everybody. And every vote is important. Every vote is important in this race. I don't write off anything."
However, he did let this slip.
Heller refused to comment on how he thought Romney's campaign was doing in his home state. When told it sounded like he thought Romney was losing Nevada he pursed his lips and didn't disagree. He also wouldn't weigh in on whether he was worried Romney could drag him down if the GOP nominee loses the state, though he stressed he ran ahead of the GOP ticket in his congressional district in 2008.
"I don't want to answer that question," he said with a laugh when asked if he thought Romney could hurt him.
[...] He said he would continue to work to help Romney in the state because "If Governor Romney wins Nevada, I win the state."
When asked if Romney was doing enough to win there, he curtly said "you'll have to ask him."
The fact of the matter is that Dean Heller is inextricably tied to the hip of the Romney-Ryan G-O-TEA agenda. In particular, he's the only Member of Congress to have voted for Paul Ryan's budget both in the House and in the Senate. This is why he's had to lie so much about Medicare and the Affordable Care Act lately.
We really have four peas in a pod here. Wait... What? Oh yes, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Dean Heller, and Joe Heck have been pursuing the same "tea party" approved agenda for some time. And perhaps Heck has been the most forthcoming of the pod when it comes to their true agenda.
This is why Heck has had to attack his opponent, John Oceguera, and his record... As a firefighter.
You see, Joe Heck can't actually practice what he preaches. While he touts "AUSTERITY!" to working class Nevadans, he has regularly been collecting his government funded checks. This is why he has to project his problem onto his opponents. And this is what makes his continuing loyalty to Romney & Ryan even more appalling.
“It is not about making some pay more, it’s about making more pay some,” Heck, a Romney campaign co-chair for Nevada, said in a statement Tuesday. “Every American benefits from the man or woman in uniform standing a post somewhere around the globe keeping us safe, and I believe every American wants to be supportive."
The problem for Joe Heck is that Mitt Romney's tax policy is all about making the middle class and working poor pay more while the super-rich pay less. And this is just worsened by Romney's glaring inability to understand the struggles of the 99%. This is why Dean Heller is now running away from Romney the candidate, even if he still agrees with Romney on policy. Yet while Heller runs further away, Heck seems determined to stay the course with Romney.
It's bad enough for Heller and Heck that Nevada Republicans' field operation has been awfully lackluster compared to what Nevada Democrats have. But now that Mitt Romney continues his slow motion campaign implosion, Heller & Heck are more vulnerable now than ever before. Steve Kornacki explained this morning just why this is so.
Romney was never going to be much of a help to his party in these races, but he absolutely can be a liability. The more unpopular he becomes in blue states and swing states and the more attention he receives, the harder it becomes for Republican candidates to separate themselves from him and to encourage ticket-splitting by voters.
To have any realistic chance of winning back the Senate, national Republicans badly need Brown to hang on to his Massachusetts seat, and he’s been falling behind in the most recent polls. A victory by Heller, who was appointed to his seat after John Ensign’s resignation last year, is equally critical for Republicans. The GOP has also been hopeful of pulling off an upset in Connecticut, where McMahon’s heavy personal spending has made her race with Democrat Chris Murphy competitive, and (at least earlier in the cycle) held out hope for Lingle too. [...]
This could also be a function of Democrats coming home in the wake of the party’s successful Charlotte convention, and not so much a result of Romney’s struggles. But to win back the Senate, Republicans will need to earn the votes of many people who are voting for Obama at the top of the ticket. At the very least, this week’s developments won’t make that task any easier.
And herein lies another key reason why Republicans may fail quite miserably in their quest to turn Nevada Red again.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
NV-03: Joe Heck Values Mitt Romney's Political Career... Over Your Family's Survival.
Yesterday, we witnessed yet another new low for Mitt Romney's campaign. But surprise, surprise, guess who (again) is backing up Mittens! Oh yes, indeed, Joe Heck tried to make it all go away for his dear BFF Mittens.
Really, we should not be surprised by this. Just like his BFF Mitt Romney, Joe Heck continues to double down on slashing and burning the very foundation of America's middle class just so he can bail out 1% plutocrats like Romney just a little more. What we discussed two weeks ago still very much applies today.
Last night, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, Howard Fineman, and Krystal Ball pinpointed why Mitt Romney is on track to lose the Presidential Election.
Believe it or not, this is what Joe Heck is defending!
And now, it looks like Joe Heck is hellbent on following Mitt Romney into that political downward spiral. And he's doing it because of terrible policy and a downright disgusting & condescending attitude toward Nevada's working families. One can't simply spit on 47-60% of Americans like this.
Yet for some reason, BFFs Mitt Romney and Joe Heck continue to do this. Again, our social safety net is absolutely necessary to build and sustain our middle class. But because they insist on being "penny wise and pound foolish", Mitt Romney and Joe Heck want to dismantle the entire social safety net, smash their wrecking ball into everything from Medicare to Pell Grants, and do so just to write more "billionaire bailouts" into the federal tax code.
It's becoming increasingly clear that Joe Heck values Mitt Romney's campaign far more than the well being of Nevada's working families. We now have to wait and see how willing he is to stay on board Romney's Titanic of a political campaign.
@RepJoeHeck says react to Romney is overblown. More people would pay taxes except "fewer have the chance" due to Obama "failed policies."
Really, we should not be surprised by this. Just like his BFF Mitt Romney, Joe Heck continues to double down on slashing and burning the very foundation of America's middle class just so he can bail out 1% plutocrats like Romney just a little more. What we discussed two weeks ago still very much applies today.
It's one thing to pay for glitzy TV ads that show happy looking seniors, smiling students, and gauzy rhetoric about "protecting the middle class". It's another to actually match one's rhetoric with one's record. And so far, Joe Heck has failed to do that. Without Medicare, Social Security, Pell Grants, unemployment insurance, SCHIP (children's health care), and so much more of the American social safety net, America's middle class couldn't exist.
Without Medicare & Social Security, many seniors would be thrown into dire poverty. Without Pell Grants and low cost federally backed student loans, many young Americans would be forced to relinquish their dreams of finishing college and embarking on a brighter economic future. And again, without the social safety net that makes America's middle class possible, we wouldn't have a middle class and we wouldn't have any hope for a stronger economy. If Joe Heck really valued that, he'd reflect those values in his (bills targeting the federal) budget.
Last night, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, Howard Fineman, and Krystal Ball pinpointed why Mitt Romney is on track to lose the Presidential Election.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Believe it or not, this is what Joe Heck is defending!
And now, it looks like Joe Heck is hellbent on following Mitt Romney into that political downward spiral. And he's doing it because of terrible policy and a downright disgusting & condescending attitude toward Nevada's working families. One can't simply spit on 47-60% of Americans like this.
Yet for some reason, BFFs Mitt Romney and Joe Heck continue to do this. Again, our social safety net is absolutely necessary to build and sustain our middle class. But because they insist on being "penny wise and pound foolish", Mitt Romney and Joe Heck want to dismantle the entire social safety net, smash their wrecking ball into everything from Medicare to Pell Grants, and do so just to write more "billionaire bailouts" into the federal tax code.
It's becoming increasingly clear that Joe Heck values Mitt Romney's campaign far more than the well being of Nevada's working families. We now have to wait and see how willing he is to stay on board Romney's Titanic of a political campaign.
Why Romney Is Losing (It's the Middle Class, Stupid)
Today, the G-O-TEA media spinners are doubling down on their lies about what President Obama did here in Las Vegas last week. I guess that's really all they have left to talk about. After all, Mitt Romney imploded in my mailbox yesterday.
And today, Mitt just keeps getting worse. After he (rather bizarrely) requested that his full presentation at the now infamous Boca Raton (Florida) fundraiser be posted, Mother Jones' David Corn happily obliged.
And when looking at the full context... Well, Mitt just gets worse. And Ezra Klein explains why.
As we've discussed before, Paul Ryan's budget is nothing less than a full assault on America's middle class and the working poor aspiring to become middle class. And not only has Mitt Romney fully embraced Paul Ryan's "vision" of a middle class busting budget, but he also wants to undo decades worth of BIPARTISAN economic policy meant to boost the ranks of the middle class. And in pursuing this false dichotomy of "the makers versus the takers", he's actually attacking upwards of 60% (!!!) of Americans along with these bipartisan decades old policies meant to build and sustain America's middle class.
This is the real poison of what Mitt Romney said at that Boca Raton fundraiser. Mitt Romney revealed that he's more than willing to undo the foundation of America's middle class just so he and his fellow 1% plutocrats can pay even less in taxes. Heh, I guess Harry Reid has been right all along.
And this is why the teabaggers are reverting to screaming about what President Obama supposedly did or did not do in Las Vegas last week. Despite all their howls suggesting otherwise, perhaps even they are starting to realize this is a losing issue for Mitt Romney. Perhaps they are finally realizing that Mitt Romney is losing this election. One just can't attack 60% of Americans and expect no blowback.
Already, Romney has been looking at some daunting numbers.
So he couldn't afford any more "embarrassing moments". Too bad for the Romney campaign that their candidate just delivered the epitome of "embarrassing moments".
And today, Mitt just keeps getting worse. After he (rather bizarrely) requested that his full presentation at the now infamous Boca Raton (Florida) fundraiser be posted, Mother Jones' David Corn happily obliged.
And when looking at the full context... Well, Mitt just gets worse. And Ezra Klein explains why.
The big surprise at this point in the election is not that Mitt Romney is turning out to be such a bad candidate. His weaknesses were always well known, and even now, they’re likely overstated. He’s proven an able campaigner, an extraordinary fundraiser, and more than capable of uniting his party. But if he is, in some ways, a better candidate than many expected, he’s also proving to be a much more conservative candidate than anyone expected.
What Romney actually believes is an unusually tricky question fraught with metaphysical and epistemological uncertainty. But in terms of the recent comments and decisions that have gotten him in trouble, some of them are campaign missteps, but most of them are an unexpectedly doctrinaire application of the conservative worldview — the sort of stuff that gets a standing ovation at CPAC, but that gets Republicans into trouble among more general audiences. [...]
Perhaps Romney’s biggest and most ongoing problem is his tax plan, which seems to require either a tax hike on the middle class or a huge increase in the deficit, and has gotten him fairly accused of cutting taxes on the rich. It’s often forgotten, but this is actually Romney’s second tax plan. His initial tax proposal — which you can still see in his jobs plan – was simply to extend the Bush tax cuts and give Americans making less than $250,000 a cut on their capital gains rate. That would’ve been a much easier proposal to defend in the general election. [...]
Similarly, Romney chose [Paul] Ryan to be his vice president, yoking himself to Ryan’s budget and to the House GOP. In one day, Romney took the basic strategy of the campaign, which was to make this election a referendum on Obama’s leadership, and made it a choice election, with Romney standing side-by-side with the architect of the chief governing document of contemporary conservatism.
As we've discussed before, Paul Ryan's budget is nothing less than a full assault on America's middle class and the working poor aspiring to become middle class. And not only has Mitt Romney fully embraced Paul Ryan's "vision" of a middle class busting budget, but he also wants to undo decades worth of BIPARTISAN economic policy meant to boost the ranks of the middle class. And in pursuing this false dichotomy of "the makers versus the takers", he's actually attacking upwards of 60% (!!!) of Americans along with these bipartisan decades old policies meant to build and sustain America's middle class.
This is the real poison of what Mitt Romney said at that Boca Raton fundraiser. Mitt Romney revealed that he's more than willing to undo the foundation of America's middle class just so he and his fellow 1% plutocrats can pay even less in taxes. Heh, I guess Harry Reid has been right all along.
And this is why the teabaggers are reverting to screaming about what President Obama supposedly did or did not do in Las Vegas last week. Despite all their howls suggesting otherwise, perhaps even they are starting to realize this is a losing issue for Mitt Romney. Perhaps they are finally realizing that Mitt Romney is losing this election. One just can't attack 60% of Americans and expect no blowback.
Already, Romney has been looking at some daunting numbers.
Fueled by increased optimism about the economy and nation’s direction, President Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by 5 points among likely voters and now sees his job-approval rating reaching the 50 percent threshold for the first time since March, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
The survey – which was conducted after the two party conventions and the political firestorm over last week’s U.S. embassy attacks, but before Romney’s controversial comments about the 47 percent of the country “who are dependent on government” – shows the percentages believing that the country is headed in the right direction and thinking that the economy will improve at their highest levels since 2009. [..]
Among a wider sample of registered voters, the president’s lead is 6 points, 50 percent to 44 percent – up from Obama’s 4-point edge last month, 48 percent to 44 percent.
“It’s clear to me that Barack Obama has moved a … step ahead,” says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster BillMcInturff.
So he couldn't afford any more "embarrassing moments". Too bad for the Romney campaign that their candidate just delivered the epitome of "embarrassing moments".
Mitt Romney Just Imploded... Into My Mailbox
He did it again. No really, Mitt Romney sent me another campaign mailer. This time, he feigns his "concern for the middle class".
And yes, believe it or not, this mail piece arrived yesterday... Just as this was unfolding.
Here's what makes the mailer so awkward.
Herein lies Romney's problem, which is the same problem he's had all along. Basically, Mitt Romney continues to reveal himself as an out-of-touch plutocrat who just doesn't care about the middle class and working poor. And no matter how many glossy mailers he sends to me and to other Democratic households, he can't convince us to vote against our best interest. In fact, he keeps making sure of that whenever he opens his mouth and goes "off the cuff"!
The growing Beltway consensus seems to be that this may very well be "The Beginning of the End" for Romney's campaign. Well, at least I got a memento in my mailbox. I got some shrapnel from the Romney campaign's implosion.
And yes, believe it or not, this mail piece arrived yesterday... Just as this was unfolding.
Here's what makes the mailer so awkward.
During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don't assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. [...]
Here was Romney raw and unplugged—sort of unscripted. With this crowd of fellow millionaires, he apparently felt free to utter what he really believes and would never dare say out in the open. He displayed a high degree of disgust for nearly half of his fellow citizens, lumping all Obama voters into a mass of shiftless moochers who don't contribute much, if anything, to society, and he indicated that he viewed the election as a battle between strivers (such as himself and the donors before him) and parasitic free-riders who lack character, fortitude, and initiative. Yet Romney explained to his patrons that he could not speak such harsh words about Obama in public, lest he insult those independent voters who sided with Obama in 2008 and whom he desperately needs in this election. These were sentiments not to be shared with the voters; it was inside information, available only to the select few who had paid for the privilege of experiencing the real Romney.
Herein lies Romney's problem, which is the same problem he's had all along. Basically, Mitt Romney continues to reveal himself as an out-of-touch plutocrat who just doesn't care about the middle class and working poor. And no matter how many glossy mailers he sends to me and to other Democratic households, he can't convince us to vote against our best interest. In fact, he keeps making sure of that whenever he opens his mouth and goes "off the cuff"!
The growing Beltway consensus seems to be that this may very well be "The Beginning of the End" for Romney's campaign. Well, at least I got a memento in my mailbox. I got some shrapnel from the Romney campaign's implosion.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
NV-03: Your Budget, Your Values
So DC's local gossip rag caught Joe Heck's new ad. Supposedly, this his big move to "get ahead of likely attacks on Social Security and Medicare". At first, that sounds all fine and dandy.
However, there's a catch. Joe Heck's words don't really match his actions. Remember this?
And remember this?
So yes, this is something to remember when Joe Heck talks about Medicare. However, it doesn't actually end there. In addition to their shared goal of privatizing and "voucher-izing" Medicare, Joe Heck and Paul Ryan share an overall desire to rip to shreds the very social safety net that has made America's great middle class, as well as our economy built upon that foundation, possible.
Remember when Joe Heck actually jumped to the right of even Paul Ryan by introducing his "Destroying America's Trust in Our Economy Act"?
Remember all of this when Joe Heck declares his love for public education, military veterans, Social Security & Medicare, or pretty much anything else that requires some kind of public investment. Remember that in the end, one values what one pays for and one's values can be revealed in how one budgets. So when we look at Joe Heck's record on setting and influencing the federal budget, we see that he doesn't actually value that middle class foundation of America's economy as much as he claims to in his ads.
Also remember to contrast Joe Heck's empty rhetoric with what John Oceguera has said and done about that middle class foundation. Here's what he told the audience at the Henderson Democratic Club last night about how he demonstrates his values.
It's one thing to pay for glitzy TV ads that show happy looking seniors, smiling students, and gauzy rhetoric about "protecting the middle class". It's another to actually match one's rhetoric with one's record. And so far, Joe Heck has failed to do that. Without Medicare, Social Security, Pell Grants, unemployment insurance, SCHIP (children's health care), and so much more of the American social safety net, America's middle class couldn't exist.
Without Medicare & Social Security, many seniors would be thrown into dire poverty. Without Pell Grants and low cost federally backed student loans, many young Americans would be forced to relinquish their dreams of finishing college and embarking on a brighter economic future. And again, without the social safety net that makes America's middle class possible, we wouldn't have a middle class and we wouldn't have any hope for a stronger economy. If Joe Heck really valued that, he'd reflect those values in his (bills targeting the federal) budget.
However, there's a catch. Joe Heck's words don't really match his actions. Remember this?
And remember this?
Paul Ryan's budget dumps another $187,000 tax cut on the lap of every multi-millionaire and billionaire. Yet while the ultra-wealthy are getting another "bailout", the working poor suffer as 62% of Ryan's proposed budget cuts hit programs like Medicaid and Pell Grants that are meant to lift Americans out of poverty. Oh, and let's not forget the centerpiece of Paul Ryan's budget, which is his "RyanCare" plan to end Medicare as we know it and force seniors to pay up to $5,900 more for health care. Even retired military officers have come out against Paul Ryan's budget because of his proposed cuts to international programs meant to keep America safe. [...]
If even Paul Ryan's own constituents can't stand what he's trying to do to our country, what makes Joe Heck think he can get away with this here in Nevada? Between his own "Destroying America's Trust in Our Economy Act" and his constant votes for Paul Ryan's dangerous austerity agenda, Heck is sending us the message that he cares more about pleasing Paul Ryan and the rest of the House G-O-TEA leadership than doing what's right for Nevada's working families. All Heck is doing is proving Mr. Gleaner's point that he's nothing more than a G-O-TEA tool.
So yes, this is something to remember when Joe Heck talks about Medicare. However, it doesn't actually end there. In addition to their shared goal of privatizing and "voucher-izing" Medicare, Joe Heck and Paul Ryan share an overall desire to rip to shreds the very social safety net that has made America's great middle class, as well as our economy built upon that foundation, possible.
Remember when Joe Heck actually jumped to the right of even Paul Ryan by introducing his "Destroying America's Trust in Our Economy Act"?
Nowhere in Heck's "Restoring America's Faith and Trust Act" does it address the Bush tax rates, war spending, or economic health. Instead, Heck wants to slash federal investment in our people to 2006 levels and fire more public sector workers! Even though we have more miltary veterans in need of VA care, college students in need of Pell Grants, working poor families in need of Medicaid and food stamps, retirees in need of Medicare and Social Security, and unemployed workers in need of unemployment insurance, Heck refuses to acqknowledge this reality and instead has introduced this bill that would plunge our economy into double-dip recession if enacted!
If we were to slash all these programs and more, we would all pay the price of further suffering. Without unemployment insurance, those without work can't survive. Same goes for seniors on Medicare, working poor families on food stamps and Medicaid, students with Pell Grants, and veterans using VA assistance. If they can't even buy food and basic supplies, let alone purchase anything else, our economy would take a massive hit. Oh, and in the longer term the budget deficit would only worsen as tax revenue plunges because of even more people losing their jobs.
Remember all of this when Joe Heck declares his love for public education, military veterans, Social Security & Medicare, or pretty much anything else that requires some kind of public investment. Remember that in the end, one values what one pays for and one's values can be revealed in how one budgets. So when we look at Joe Heck's record on setting and influencing the federal budget, we see that he doesn't actually value that middle class foundation of America's economy as much as he claims to in his ads.
Also remember to contrast Joe Heck's empty rhetoric with what John Oceguera has said and done about that middle class foundation. Here's what he told the audience at the Henderson Democratic Club last night about how he demonstrates his values.
It's one thing to pay for glitzy TV ads that show happy looking seniors, smiling students, and gauzy rhetoric about "protecting the middle class". It's another to actually match one's rhetoric with one's record. And so far, Joe Heck has failed to do that. Without Medicare, Social Security, Pell Grants, unemployment insurance, SCHIP (children's health care), and so much more of the American social safety net, America's middle class couldn't exist.
Without Medicare & Social Security, many seniors would be thrown into dire poverty. Without Pell Grants and low cost federally backed student loans, many young Americans would be forced to relinquish their dreams of finishing college and embarking on a brighter economic future. And again, without the social safety net that makes America's middle class possible, we wouldn't have a middle class and we wouldn't have any hope for a stronger economy. If Joe Heck really valued that, he'd reflect those values in his (bills targeting the federal) budget.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
The Bain of Romney's Campaign
It's here. OFA launched RomneyEconomics.com earlier this week, reminding America of what Mitt Romney wanted us all to forget when his G-O-TEA primary opponents stumbled upon Romney's history of job destroying "vulture capitalism".
Remember that? Remember Bain Capital? Romney was hoping you'd forget, but his record can't stay hidden or forgotten altogether. After all, Romney's fellow Republicans were first to point out Romney's record of destroying American businesses and taking away Americans' jobs.
But now, Mittens' Bain scandal is looking even worse. Rural Northern Nevada can be added to the growing list of communities hit hard by Bain.
Stone then added that this was just "capitalism" and no one should expect "welfare". Actually, no one there was. However, what consumers were hoping for was another option for clothes shopping. And what local workers were hoping for was an employer willing to treat them right and simply reward them for the hard work they put into those stores. It looks like Bain did neither when it bankrupted Stage Stores and forced it to close Stage's Nevada locations.
As Desert Beacon has said before, the "capitalism" that Romney practiced at Bain Capital is not the kind of capitalism our Founding Fathers wanted for America. Rather, Romney practiced "financialism" that enriched himself and fellow Bain executives while impoverishing formerly middle class American workers. While Bain had one of the "best track records" in making Wall Street plenty of money, it's also had one of the "best track records" in giving workers the shaft.
Do these workers look like they're after "welfare" and "handouts"? No. They just did a good job... And they lost their jobs as soon as Bain lost interest and moved onto other companies to pump up to destroy. And no matter how hard Mitt Romney tries to hide this from the American people, he can't change the facts and he can't make history go away.
Remember that? Remember Bain Capital? Romney was hoping you'd forget, but his record can't stay hidden or forgotten altogether. After all, Romney's fellow Republicans were first to point out Romney's record of destroying American businesses and taking away Americans' jobs.
But now, Mittens' Bain scandal is looking even worse. Rural Northern Nevada can be added to the growing list of communities hit hard by Bain.
[...] Between 2000 and 2002, Stage Stores, a clothing chain, shut down three stores in rural Nevada as part of a bankruptcy.
The stores’ closures came after Bain Capital had sold off its interest in the company in 1999. Obama’s campaign said the chain had been saddled with debt after an aggressive expansion under Bain, and after Bain made $170 million profit from the investment.
Nationally, 5,795 workers at Stage, which sells name-brand clothing in small to mid-sized cities, were laid off between 1999 and Feb. 2002, according to the Obama campaign.
It’s unknown how many workers were laid off in the Nevada stores in Winnemucca, Elko and Fallon.
In Winnemucca, 166 miles northeast of Reno, Rich Stone, owner of a dry cleaner next to the former Stage Store, remembers the retailer as a fine fit for the community.
Since it closed, residents of the small town of 8,900 and surrounding Humboldt County can’t buy non-Western-themed clothes there. They have to travel to Reno or shop online, Stone said.
“It’s a void,” said Stone, who is also a city councilman and a Republican. “We lose a lot of sales tax revenue.”
Stone then added that this was just "capitalism" and no one should expect "welfare". Actually, no one there was. However, what consumers were hoping for was another option for clothes shopping. And what local workers were hoping for was an employer willing to treat them right and simply reward them for the hard work they put into those stores. It looks like Bain did neither when it bankrupted Stage Stores and forced it to close Stage's Nevada locations.
As Desert Beacon has said before, the "capitalism" that Romney practiced at Bain Capital is not the kind of capitalism our Founding Fathers wanted for America. Rather, Romney practiced "financialism" that enriched himself and fellow Bain executives while impoverishing formerly middle class American workers. While Bain had one of the "best track records" in making Wall Street plenty of money, it's also had one of the "best track records" in giving workers the shaft.
Do these workers look like they're after "welfare" and "handouts"? No. They just did a good job... And they lost their jobs as soon as Bain lost interest and moved onto other companies to pump up to destroy. And no matter how hard Mitt Romney tries to hide this from the American people, he can't change the facts and he can't make history go away.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Alas, The Buffett Rule "Only" Raises Some Revenue & Brings About Some Tax Justice.
Yesterday, ProgressNow Nevada and PLAN were on the sidewalk just outside the Sunset Post Office (across Sunset Road from McCarran Airport). Why? They figured "Tax Day" would be the perfect day to highlight the many problems hidden in the federal tax code.
Here's the problem.
This Tax Day, a significant majority of Americans think that the rich are getting off easy compared to middle- and working-class Americans. According to the latest CNN poll, “68% of respondents said the current tax system benefits the rich and is unfair to ordinary workers, compared with 29% who disagreed with that view.” The poll’s respondents have good reason to think the rich pay less: Many millionaires pay a lower effective tax rate because their income comes from capital gains or other low-tax investments, instead of wages. Yet Senate Republicans blocked the Buffett Rule last night, which would have helped address this problem, even though it too has strong support from the public.
That's right. "The usual suspects" blocked The Buffett Rule. And they whined about "raising taxes" on the 1% who hardly pay any.
Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada has long supported the idea of the Buffett Rule and this bill. But Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican, voted against it Monday evening -- dismissing it as a “campaign gimmick,” anticipating the attacks Democrats will be lobbing his way with an answer.
“While Nevada struggles with high unemployment, the president and Senate Democrats have chosen to focus on a measure that will not create a single job,” Heller said in a statement. “They have ignored rising gas prices, have not passed a budget in more than three years, and shoved job-killing government health care on small businesses across the country. Now, the best they can do is push a tax hike designed for nothing more than a campaign press release. It’s no wonder the American people are so frustrated with Washington.”
Reid's statement following the vote stated: “Today Senate Republicans again put millionaires ahead of the middle class. Currently, most hedge fund managers pay a lower tax rate than many of their middle-class employees – but while the incomes for the wealthy have ballooned in recent years, middle-class wages haven’t kept pace with the price of a college education or a secure retirement. The measure that Republicans blocked today would have restored fairness to our tax code and reduced the deficit without asking middle class families or seniors to sacrifice any more than they already have."
Oh, jeez. Where has Dean Heller been? Oh yes, that's right. He's been busy attacking women's health care. I guess he just hasn't had time to actually do his job and propose any real solutions for the problems our country faces.
Meanwhile, Joe Heck has been busy trashing The Buffett Rule on Twitter. I guess he has to do whatever he can to have his BFF's back. After all, Joe Heck's BFF, Willard "Mr. 1%" Romney, only paid a 13.9% tax rate on his $21.6 million 2010 income. He certainly wouldn't want "job creators" like Mittens to pay what they're supposed to be paying in taxes.
Certainly, we've been hearing plenty of spin from the G-O-TEA this week on The Buffett Rule and federal taxes. Here are the facts. Our current federal tax code essentially makes the 99% subsidize the 1% by way of the massive loopholes that the super-rich use (and abuse) to avoid paying taxes. The big corporations that spend the most on lobbying pay the least in taxes. The very wealthiest Americans living in the highest income zip codes in the country pay less in taxes than the working poor living in low income zip codes. Notice a pattern here? Inequality in our federal tax code is real, and it penalizes working class families while continuing to provide "Billionaires' Bailouts".
Oh, and for all the G-O-TEA's whining on budget deficits, they're not proposing any real solutions to close that deficit. They may be whining that the reforms present in "The Buffett Rule" only raise about $47 billion in revenue, but their budget plans actually add to the deficit! So Joe Heck and Dean Heller claim The Buffett Rule is useless because it may "only" raise about $47 billion (which, by the way, is their figure!), yet their preferred policies only worsen the budget deficit while continuing to promote massive inequality. Funny enough, Heck, Heller, and Romney have gone so far to the radical right in opposing common sense tax reform that they even oppose their supposed idol!
And even at Mittens' recent campaign "roundtable", he couldn't stop participants from pointing out some inconvenient truths.
Whoops. So why again is The Buffett Rule such a bad idea? And did the ProgressNow and PLAN supporters rallying outside the Sunset Post Office near McCarran yesterday look so "crazy" after all? I guess they're not alone.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
No Se Puede, Mittens.
So Republicans are again claiming they're "The REAL Party for Latinos!" Yes, believe it or not, they're now trying to pin the blame for the filibusters they led on comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act on Democrats. Wow. Who are they trying to fool?
Mitt Romney is reaching for his Etch-A-Sketch because he's desperate to shake up and reset his campaign. His trouble with Latin@ and other minority voters is real, especially in key swing states that he would like to wrest away from Obama. PPP recently showed that Obama's support among Latino voters both here in Nevada and in Colorado is especially strong (so strong, in fact, that Obama now has healthy overall leads in both states), and now even PPP's newest Florida poll shows the same over there. Mittens now realizes he's in deep trouble, so he's grabbing that Etch-A-Sketch in a desperate move to reset his own campaign.
But seriously, can Willard make all of us forget what he was saying during G-O-TEA primary season? Remember that early this year, Willard's BFF Kris Kobach, the man behind such extreme, xenophobic "Papers, Please" state statutes like Arizona's infamous SB 1070 and its "copycats" in Alabama & Georgia, praised Mittens' commitment to anti-immigrant extremism. In fact, he exclaimed that "Romney stands far to the right" of the other G-O-TEA contenders on immigration.
No really, Kris Kobach is on record praising Romney's anti-immigrant policies... And Romney is on record embracing Kobach and his hate-fueled extremism!
Yet now, Romney and his RNC buddies want us to believe that he's better for Latin@ American families than Obama? Are they for real? Another infamous figure behind Arizona's SB 1070, recalled State Senator Russell Pearce, boasted that his and Romney's immigration policies are "identical".
And in case Romney's extreme anti-immigrant views aren't bad enough, there's even more for Latin@ voters not to like. His economic policies also aim to slap hard-working Latin@ families en la cara. Let's not forget this.
Even now that G-O-TEA primary season is over, Willard is still pandering to the "tea party" by promising to end the "war on the rich" by showering the 1% with even more "Billionaire Bailout" tax cuts while he slashes the American social safety net to death. Does R.Money really think Latin@ voters love the idea of writing even more economic injustice into our tax code and budget? Es Mittens loco en la cabeza?
Ay, yay yay. And "Los Republicanos" wonder why Latin@ voters keep running away from them in droves?
Mitt Romney is reaching for his Etch-A-Sketch because he's desperate to shake up and reset his campaign. His trouble with Latin@ and other minority voters is real, especially in key swing states that he would like to wrest away from Obama. PPP recently showed that Obama's support among Latino voters both here in Nevada and in Colorado is especially strong (so strong, in fact, that Obama now has healthy overall leads in both states), and now even PPP's newest Florida poll shows the same over there. Mittens now realizes he's in deep trouble, so he's grabbing that Etch-A-Sketch in a desperate move to reset his own campaign.
But seriously, can Willard make all of us forget what he was saying during G-O-TEA primary season? Remember that early this year, Willard's BFF Kris Kobach, the man behind such extreme, xenophobic "Papers, Please" state statutes like Arizona's infamous SB 1070 and its "copycats" in Alabama & Georgia, praised Mittens' commitment to anti-immigrant extremism. In fact, he exclaimed that "Romney stands far to the right" of the other G-O-TEA contenders on immigration.
No really, Kris Kobach is on record praising Romney's anti-immigrant policies... And Romney is on record embracing Kobach and his hate-fueled extremism!
Yet now, Romney and his RNC buddies want us to believe that he's better for Latin@ American families than Obama? Are they for real? Another infamous figure behind Arizona's SB 1070, recalled State Senator Russell Pearce, boasted that his and Romney's immigration policies are "identical".
And in case Romney's extreme anti-immigrant views aren't bad enough, there's even more for Latin@ voters not to like. His economic policies also aim to slap hard-working Latin@ families en la cara. Let's not forget this.
First of all, he supports Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plans that would cut Medicaid spending by $700 billion over 10 years, reduce food stamps by $127 billion, and cut in half the funding of Pell Grants. Gov. Romney’s own budget plans seek to impose a cap on overall annual federal spending at 20 percent of the nation’s GDP, which would necessarily slash vital programs for the poor and middle class such as Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and Pell Grants. He also signed the Cut, Cap and Balance pledge promoted by a number of conservative and Tea Party groups.
His proposal to fund Medicaid through block grants to the states would result in deep cuts to a program that is at the crux of Latinos’ access to health care. In fact, according to the National Council of La Raza, in 2009, Medicaid and its sister program, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, covered more than one in four Latinos and nearly half (49.8 percent) of all Hispanics under age 18—representing 8.5 million children.
Social Security and Medicare are also of particular importance to Hispanics: Over three-fourths of senior citizens rely on Social Security for their income, and overall, Medicare serves approximately 3.5 million Hispanics. Gov. Romney’s plan to raise the retirement age for eligibility for Social Security would have a negative impact on Latinos because it would amount to an additional 13 percent across-the-board benefit cut. This would be especially unfair to low-income workers who are more likely to have significant health problems, and work in physically demanding jobs. It would also affect the elderly, who have a much harder time finding new work after being laid off.
Gov. Romney has also indicated that he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would insure 9 million Hispanics that currently lack health insurance, a position supported by only 29 percent of Latinos.
Finally, while Hispanics routinely cite education as a key issue and strongly support our public schools and access to college, Gov. Romney’s pledge to cut the budget would require cutting funds for Pell Grants—a program that benefits 12.1 percent of Latino undergraduate students.
Even now that G-O-TEA primary season is over, Willard is still pandering to the "tea party" by promising to end the "war on the rich" by showering the 1% with even more "Billionaire Bailout" tax cuts while he slashes the American social safety net to death. Does R.Money really think Latin@ voters love the idea of writing even more economic injustice into our tax code and budget? Es Mittens loco en la cabeza?
Ay, yay yay. And "Los Republicanos" wonder why Latin@ voters keep running away from them in droves?
Friday, April 13, 2012
Reno Isn't Goldman Sachs' Only ARS Victim
Yesterday, News 4 Reno did a quick piece on it.
But as we discussed yesterday, there's far more to this story than what initially meets the eye. Apparently, Goldman Sachs convinced Reno to issue $210 million in "auction rate securities" that ultimately cost the city far more than Goldman told them once the 2008 financial crisis hit and the "auction rate securities" (ARS) market turned out to be far less stable than Goldman claimed it was. In fact, it looks like Goldman has run into trouble on this issue before.
Last year, Goldman Sachs had to settle a law suit with Colorado's Division of Securities and buy back over $5 million worth of ARS after investors there complained about their inability to sell once the ARS market was frozen. And after New York's Attorney General began investigating Goldman in August 2008 over concerns that they pushed Fidelity Investments to sell Goldman underwritten ARS to investors, Fidelity agreed less than a month later to buy back $300 million worth of ARS from its customers.
Back in February 2008, just as the entire ARS market was starting to crash, The New York Times probed what was happening behind the scenes... And did this story that sounds awfully prophetic today.
And this brings us back to Reno. Remember that in 2005 and 2006, Goldman Sachs was telling the City of Reno that ARS were essentially as good as gold when Goldman convinced Reno to issue that $210 million in ARS for the events center and railroad trench projects.
So Reno thought that ARS would save them money over a traditional bond sale while still providing the city with needed funding for its infrastructure projects because Wall Street powerhouse firm Goldman Sachs told the city so. And investors thought ARS were "solid and safe" because Goldman Sachs told mutual fund providers like Fidelity to tell them so. What neither side knew was that both sides were being played as "Muppets", as former Goldman Sachs insiders Greg Smith and Jacki Zehner would later admit.
Here's Greg Smith in his own words (from his own New York Times Op-ed):
So the City of Reno may just be one of a multitude of ARS victims played by Wall Street "vulture capitalists" like Goldman Sachs. The Reno case just may be the first time that a municipality convinced into selling ARS seeks compensation for subsequent losses. And strangely enough, Reno may now be providing the Occupy/99% movement with something far more valuable than a pool complex to organize around.
But as we discussed yesterday, there's far more to this story than what initially meets the eye. Apparently, Goldman Sachs convinced Reno to issue $210 million in "auction rate securities" that ultimately cost the city far more than Goldman told them once the 2008 financial crisis hit and the "auction rate securities" (ARS) market turned out to be far less stable than Goldman claimed it was. In fact, it looks like Goldman has run into trouble on this issue before.
Last year, Goldman Sachs had to settle a law suit with Colorado's Division of Securities and buy back over $5 million worth of ARS after investors there complained about their inability to sell once the ARS market was frozen. And after New York's Attorney General began investigating Goldman in August 2008 over concerns that they pushed Fidelity Investments to sell Goldman underwritten ARS to investors, Fidelity agreed less than a month later to buy back $300 million worth of ARS from its customers.
Back in February 2008, just as the entire ARS market was starting to crash, The New York Times probed what was happening behind the scenes... And did this story that sounds awfully prophetic today.
In 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission reached a $13 million settlement with 15 investment banks, and the industry agreed to impose a voluntary code of conduct for the auction-rate market.
The S.E.C. investigation centered on how bidding was conducted for these securities. Critics complain that investment banks have the upper hand in bidding because they can bid after seeing what other investors have bid.
Brokerage firms are not legally obligated to make a market in auction securities, or give clients a price even if there is not one in the market. But clients who are unable to sell are likely to argue that they were wrongly put into long-term securities when their intention was to buy shorter-term debt.
“If these were pitched as cash equivalents, if that is what the broker said they were, the banks may be held responsible for losses and clients’ inability to get their money out,” said Jacob H. Zamansky, a securities lawyer who represents individual investors.
Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch declined to comment.
The situation is an awkward one for investment banks and brokers that have had to tell clients that their cash is frozen until at least the next auction — if not longer. One affluent New Jersey family has sued Lehman Brothers for the declining value of its cash in auction-rate securities. Lehman has said it acted properly.
Money managers, chief executives and individual investors have been swept up by the latest turmoil in the credit markets. One wealthy investor said Goldman Sachs had sold him auction-rate securities and had described the instruments as equivalent to cash.
“It’s a moral outrage,” said this investor, who asked not to be named because he still has to deal with the bank. “Their pitch was, keep your cash with us, we get a higher rate.”
And this brings us back to Reno. Remember that in 2005 and 2006, Goldman Sachs was telling the City of Reno that ARS were essentially as good as gold when Goldman convinced Reno to issue that $210 million in ARS for the events center and railroad trench projects.
The city is seeking arbitration against the bank through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (basically, a private court for financial institutions), “to recover the damages it sustained due to Goldman’s misrepresentations and omissions” when the city issued the bonds in 2005 and 2006 for its downtown events center and railroad trench projects, according to complaint filed in February. Those bonds were issued on the so-called “auction rate securities” market, which collapsed amid the global financial meltdown in February 2008. [...]
Cities figured that would result in lower interest rates over time and investors thought they could get a liquid investment at higher interest rates compared to other liquid investment options like money market funds.
What cities and investors didn’t know, according to state and federal court filings against banks involved in the auction rate securities market, was the extent the market relied on the financial institutions to keep it running.
In other words, the banks were keeping the market alive by bidding on the bonds, too — and didn’t tell anyone. So when the banks stopped making those bids in February 2008 as the credit crunch began to squeeze the financial system, Reno’s interest rates spiked on the downtown events center bond and forced the city to drain a $5 million reserve fund to cover interest payments that jumped to 15 percent overnight. The city was also forced to pay millions of dollars in fees to the bank to refinance the debt.
Reno’s filing with FINRA says had the city known the market was so dependent on banks like Goldman Sachs — the Biggest Little City’s big bank of choice throughout much of aughts — it would have thought twice about issuing the debt on the auction rate securities market.
“…Goldman’s actions, misrepresentations and omissions demonstrate that it dd not deal fairly with Reno, and as a result Reno sustained extensive damages,” according to Reno’s filing.
So Reno thought that ARS would save them money over a traditional bond sale while still providing the city with needed funding for its infrastructure projects because Wall Street powerhouse firm Goldman Sachs told the city so. And investors thought ARS were "solid and safe" because Goldman Sachs told mutual fund providers like Fidelity to tell them so. What neither side knew was that both sides were being played as "Muppets", as former Goldman Sachs insiders Greg Smith and Jacki Zehner would later admit.
Here's Greg Smith in his own words (from his own New York Times Op-ed):
What are three quick ways to become a leader [of Goldman Sachs]? a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.
Today, many of these leaders display a Goldman Sachs culture quotient of exactly zero percent. I attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It’s purely about how we can make the most possible money off of them. If you were an alien from Mars and sat in on one of these meetings, you would believe that a client’s success or progress was not part of the thought process at all.
It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus,God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.
So the City of Reno may just be one of a multitude of ARS victims played by Wall Street "vulture capitalists" like Goldman Sachs. The Reno case just may be the first time that a municipality convinced into selling ARS seeks compensation for subsequent losses. And strangely enough, Reno may now be providing the Occupy/99% movement with something far more valuable than a pool complex to organize around.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Reno v. Goldman Sachs
We know Reno is still enduring some tough times. Gaming has been struggling (although the February gaming numbers suggest a turnaround may finally be underway), and employment recovery seems to be lagging behind Southern Nevada. And even the city itself has had to struggle with its finances. However, the City of Reno is now claiming that its financial problems were caused by something deeper than just the business cycle.
Yesterday, Reno announced its plans to sue Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs over $210 million in supposedly "safe" bonds that Goldman persuaded Reno to issue... $210 million in "auction rate securities" that ended up essentially junked once the 2008 Global Financial Crisis triggered "The Great Recession".
So what exactly happened? Let me... No, I'll let RGJ's Brian Duggan explain.
So long story short, this was just another one of Wall Street's "Get rich quick!" schemes that had municipal governments thinking they were getting a great deal on bond revenue when they were really just getting hosed. And believe it or not, a former Goldman Sachs executive has at least suggested that his former employer hosed Reno. In fact, Greg Smith, the former Goldman Sachs executive director who ran the firm's US equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa took to The New York Times' Op-ed page last month to blow the whistle.
Shortly after Smith left Goldman Sachs, Jacki Zehner, the youngest trader and first female trader to make partner in the firm, stepped forward to confirm Greg Smith's account of what happened at Goldman Sachs. And Zehner actually expressed regret over Goldman Sachs' creation and sale of "so much junk" in the form of "mortgage backed securities", credit default swaps, and auction rate securities that duped so many clients and investors and led to the 2008 financial collapse.
Last year, the Occupy/99% movement sprouted as a protest against Wall Street greed run amok. Back in October, Occupy Las Vegas famously made a mark on the CNN/Western Republican Leadership Conference Presidential Debate.
And of course, this was the same week that Mitt Romney infamously declared that no one should try to stop home foreclosures. Romney and his affiliated PACs have received over $1 million from Goldman Sachs so far this cycle, and he's responded with calls to repeal the kind of financial regulations that curb the kind of "so much junk" that Goldman Sachs has profited from.
Until last month, Goldman Sachs was becoming controversial because of its role in the mortgage meltdown and real estate collapse. But now, we're seeing another way that Goldman made money while putting people at risk. Now, we're seeing an entire city in crisis.
I'm sure we'll be hearing about Reno's "reckless fiscal policy" in the coming days. And yes, the City of Reno may not entirely be blameless in green-lighting this scheme to score "easy money" and avoid making tough decisions on revenue. However, I also have a hard time seeing how Reno could have done this on its own without Goldman Sachs "whispering sweet nothings" in city leaders' ears. It's increasingly looking like Wall Street's top financial powerhouse had a key role in Reno's present crisis at City Hall. We'll have to see how liable Goldman is ultimately held for this, but for now we're reminded again of what happens when we carelessly brush off regulation and oversight to let the financial industry make up its own rules.
Yesterday, Reno announced its plans to sue Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs over $210 million in supposedly "safe" bonds that Goldman persuaded Reno to issue... $210 million in "auction rate securities" that ended up essentially junked once the 2008 Global Financial Crisis triggered "The Great Recession".
Joe Peiffer, an attorney with the New Orleans-based law firm Fishman Haygood Phelps that was hired in December to represent Reno, said Wednesday those damages could total into the “multiple millions” of dollars.
He said Goldman Sachs withheld key information when it told Reno to issue bonds on the $330 billion “auction rate securities” market that ultimately fizzled in 2008 amid the global financial crisis.
“The problem was they weren’t told everything (they) needed to know to understand the risk,” Peiffer said. “It was something the banks knew and didn’t tell the cities.”
As a result of the market crash, Reno’s interest rates spiked, forcing the city to scramble to refinance through Goldman Sachs, which also served as Reno’s underwriter and broker-dealer for the bonds.
That resulted in millions in extra fees and interest payments.
This included the city draining a $5 million reserve fund to cover interest payments on the event center debt after the interest rate jumped to 15 percent and an $8 million termination fee it paid Goldman to fix the downtown trench debt.
So what exactly happened? Let me... No, I'll let RGJ's Brian Duggan explain.
So what exactly is an “auction rate security”?
It’s a relatively complex financial instrument that has been around since the 1980s (and first introduced to the municipal market in 1988 by Goldman Sachs, according to the New York Times). It allowed municipalities to issue long term debt at short-term interest rates by resetting the rate every seven to 35 days in a formalized bidding process.
Cities figured that would result in lower interest rates over time and investors thought they could get a liquid investment at higher interest rates compared to other liquid investment options like money market funds.
What cities and investors didn’t know, according to state and federal court filings against banks involved in the auction rate securities market, was the extent the market relied on the financial institutions to keep it running.
In other words, the banks were keeping the market alive by bidding on the bonds, too — and didn’t tell anyone. So when the banks stopped making those bids in February 2008 as the credit crunch began to squeeze the financial system, Reno’s interest rates spiked on the downtown events center bond and forced the city to drain a $5 million reserve fund to cover interest payments that jumped to 15 percent overnight. The city was also forced to pay millions of dollars in fees to the bank to refinance the debt.
Reno’s filing with FINRA says had the city known the market was so dependent on banks like Goldman Sachs — the Biggest Little City’s big bank of choice throughout much of aughts — it would have thought twice about issuing the debt on the auction rate securities market.
So long story short, this was just another one of Wall Street's "Get rich quick!" schemes that had municipal governments thinking they were getting a great deal on bond revenue when they were really just getting hosed. And believe it or not, a former Goldman Sachs executive has at least suggested that his former employer hosed Reno. In fact, Greg Smith, the former Goldman Sachs executive director who ran the firm's US equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa took to The New York Times' Op-ed page last month to blow the whistle.
It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.
It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are.
These days, the most common question I get from junior analysts about derivatives is, “How much money did we make off the client?” It bothers me every time I hear it, because it is a clear reflection of what they are observing from their leaders about the way they should behave. Now project 10 years into the future: You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the junior analyst sitting quietly in the corner of the room hearing about “muppets,” “ripping eyeballs out” and “getting paid” doesn’t exactly turn into a model citizen.
Shortly after Smith left Goldman Sachs, Jacki Zehner, the youngest trader and first female trader to make partner in the firm, stepped forward to confirm Greg Smith's account of what happened at Goldman Sachs. And Zehner actually expressed regret over Goldman Sachs' creation and sale of "so much junk" in the form of "mortgage backed securities", credit default swaps, and auction rate securities that duped so many clients and investors and led to the 2008 financial collapse.
So much junk was created that should never have been with disastrous consequences and that will be a black mark on the whole industry for a long time, as it should be. That in and of itself is testimony to the industry in general having lost its way. When you create toxic waste and market it as if it is was not, you are indeed harming your moral fiber. I know many people who were in ‘that business’ who quit because they could not in good faith sell the crap they were being asked to create and market.
Last year, the Occupy/99% movement sprouted as a protest against Wall Street greed run amok. Back in October, Occupy Las Vegas famously made a mark on the CNN/Western Republican Leadership Conference Presidential Debate.
And of course, this was the same week that Mitt Romney infamously declared that no one should try to stop home foreclosures. Romney and his affiliated PACs have received over $1 million from Goldman Sachs so far this cycle, and he's responded with calls to repeal the kind of financial regulations that curb the kind of "so much junk" that Goldman Sachs has profited from.
Until last month, Goldman Sachs was becoming controversial because of its role in the mortgage meltdown and real estate collapse. But now, we're seeing another way that Goldman made money while putting people at risk. Now, we're seeing an entire city in crisis.
I'm sure we'll be hearing about Reno's "reckless fiscal policy" in the coming days. And yes, the City of Reno may not entirely be blameless in green-lighting this scheme to score "easy money" and avoid making tough decisions on revenue. However, I also have a hard time seeing how Reno could have done this on its own without Goldman Sachs "whispering sweet nothings" in city leaders' ears. It's increasingly looking like Wall Street's top financial powerhouse had a key role in Reno's present crisis at City Hall. We'll have to see how liable Goldman is ultimately held for this, but for now we're reminded again of what happens when we carelessly brush off regulation and oversight to let the financial industry make up its own rules.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Can AFL-CIO Go It Alone on Tax Reform?
As mentioned yesterday, we've been on quite the wild roller coaster ride this year when it comes to tax reform. It's up... No, it's down... No, it's all around! Yesterday, we saw another twist in the form of a federal law suit being filed by the City of Fernley that threatens to take down Nevada's Consolidated Tax (or "C-Tax") system. And today, we're seeing an interesting turn at Nevada AFL-CIO. After NSEA turned down AFL-CIO's margin tax initiative over legal concerns, Danny Thompson is now claiming the state's largest union alliance is ready to pass the initiative all on its own.
And here's where it gets really interesting. There have been rumors for several weeks about Brian Sandoval's power brokers bleeding dry both organizational and financial support for Nevada AFL-CIO's tax initiative. So obviously, there have been questions about how Danny Thompson can somehow make this work. In today's Sun article, Thompson himself provided us with some clues.
It's funny that Danny Thompson brought up Culinary 226. Lately, they've been awfully busy fighting Station Casinos over both unionizing Station properties and heading off anti-union campaigns on The Strip. Yet last month in a stunning display of solidarity, the national AFL-CIO put aside past differences with Culinary's national partners (who joined SEIU in breaking away from AFL-CIO in 2005) to voice strong support for Culinary, and for Station workers looking to join the union.
Is there more to that alliance than what we saw last month outside Red Rock Resort & Casino? And is this why Danny Thompson doesn't seem to be shedding tears over the loss of the state teachers' union from his margin tax coalition and the deafening silence fromBilly Vassiliadis and the R&R powerhouse business leaders? Thompson indeed makes a valid point about the grassroots might of Culinary's 65,000 members. If Culinary goes all in for this initiative, it will indeed mark a key turnaround for this initiative.
Thompson also noted something important in stating unions won't just be "giving away" money to candidates this year. This looks to be in line with the national AFL-CIO plan to focus more on its own campaign instead of just donating to Democratic party committees and candidates. We have been seeing Labor in full force in Wisconsin since last year, and now they're hoping to take the energy and momentum nationwide. And while Brian Sandoval has been trying hard lately to avoid becoming "The West's Answer to Scott Walker", Danny Thompson may nonetheless see opportunity in rallying workers behind a tax initiative that has the potential to carry a powerful "99%" economic justice message in making big business pay its fair share so working class kids can have a better education.
We'll have to wait and see where Danny Thompson and Nevada AFL-CIO ultimately go with this margin tax initiative. But now, it looks like there may actually be a path forward for it regardless of what NSEA and the Nevada Resort Association ultimately decide to do with it. Can the kind of Labor powered grassroots energy that reawakened progressive activism in Wisconsin and catapulted the Occupy message of economic justice to the national spotlight redefine the conversation on taxes and investment in public education here in Nevada?
After months of talks, teachers, gaming, mining and other Nevada power players are unwilling to join the initiative campaign, but AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson said that won’t doom the proposal to increase funding for education.
“We’re going to do this with or without the teachers,” Thompson said. “We’re going to do this with or without anyone.”
And here's where it gets really interesting. There have been rumors for several weeks about Brian Sandoval's power brokers bleeding dry both organizational and financial support for Nevada AFL-CIO's tax initiative. So obviously, there have been questions about how Danny Thompson can somehow make this work. In today's Sun article, Thompson himself provided us with some clues.
Thompson said he would have no problem collecting the signatures needed to qualify his ballot initiative.
“I can get the signatures internally,” he said. “I can go to the unions. I don’t even need to go out to the streets.”
Thompson wouldn’t disclose how many members unions affiliated with the state’s AFL-CIO have but noted that the Culinary alone has 65,000 members.
Thompson said despite rumors to the contrary, his organization has money to support an initiative campaign. He declined to reveal how much money the organization has.
“We have money,” he said. “We’re just not giving it away to candidates.”
It's funny that Danny Thompson brought up Culinary 226. Lately, they've been awfully busy fighting Station Casinos over both unionizing Station properties and heading off anti-union campaigns on The Strip. Yet last month in a stunning display of solidarity, the national AFL-CIO put aside past differences with Culinary's national partners (who joined SEIU in breaking away from AFL-CIO in 2005) to voice strong support for Culinary, and for Station workers looking to join the union.
Is there more to that alliance than what we saw last month outside Red Rock Resort & Casino? And is this why Danny Thompson doesn't seem to be shedding tears over the loss of the state teachers' union from his margin tax coalition and the deafening silence from
Thompson also noted something important in stating unions won't just be "giving away" money to candidates this year. This looks to be in line with the national AFL-CIO plan to focus more on its own campaign instead of just donating to Democratic party committees and candidates. We have been seeing Labor in full force in Wisconsin since last year, and now they're hoping to take the energy and momentum nationwide. And while Brian Sandoval has been trying hard lately to avoid becoming "The West's Answer to Scott Walker", Danny Thompson may nonetheless see opportunity in rallying workers behind a tax initiative that has the potential to carry a powerful "99%" economic justice message in making big business pay its fair share so working class kids can have a better education.
We'll have to wait and see where Danny Thompson and Nevada AFL-CIO ultimately go with this margin tax initiative. But now, it looks like there may actually be a path forward for it regardless of what NSEA and the Nevada Resort Association ultimately decide to do with it. Can the kind of Labor powered grassroots energy that reawakened progressive activism in Wisconsin and catapulted the Occupy message of economic justice to the national spotlight redefine the conversation on taxes and investment in public education here in Nevada?
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Mitt Romney Just Exposed Himself (As a 1% Elitist)
Hey, don't just take my word... Mittens just outed himself!
And not only that, but he also exposed both the moral and intellectual emptiness of his "job creator" myths.
This explains why Romney is far to George W. Bush's right politically... Especially when it comes to economic policy. Since it's obviously in his personal interest to continue paying less in taxes than the vast majority of working class families, we can see why he wants to continue coddling the 1% while attacking the 99% with brutal cuts on everything from Head Start to Pell Grants to law enforcement to the Centers for Disease Control to the EPA.
Honestly, this is why I've never bought Mittens' attempt to crown himself as "the winner" last year. Even if he survives the G-O-TEA primary, he now emerges as "The Wall Street Elitist 1% Candidate" with major political liabilities. Perhaps this is why Mittens fell behind President Obama in a big way in the new PPP national poll out today.
Perhaps American voters aren't as stupid as many have made us out to be. Perhaps more folks truly are realizing that economic inequality hurts the overall economy. And perhaps voters are realizing that "tea party madness" is no way to govern a country. Considering how extreme(ly absurd) Mittens and his G-O-TEA have become, President Obama really doesn't look bad, after all.
And not only that, but he also exposed both the moral and intellectual emptiness of his "job creator" myths.
Citizens for Tax Justice a few months ago estimated that Mitt Romney, due to most of his income coming from investments, pays a tax rate of around 14 percent, a far cry from the 35 percent top income tax rate. Romney then confirmed that the bulk of his income does, indeed, come from investments (and is thus subject to the top capital gains tax rate of 15 percent), but he has refused to release his tax returns in order to reveal the definitive tax rate that he pays. [...]
As Center for American Progress Director of Fiscal Reform Seth Hanlon has explained, the latest data shows that “many middle-class families paid much more [in taxes] than the 17.5 percent average paid by the very rich.” When President Obama suggested the “Buffett rule,” aimed at ensuring that millionaires can’t pay lower taxes than middle class families, Romney derided it as “class warfare,” and “the wrong way to go.”
One of the reasons Romney is able to drive his tax rate down so low is that he is still earning money from his private equity firm, Bain Capital, that is likely subject to a pernicious tax loophole. This loophole lets wealthy money mangers like Romney pay the capital gains tax rate on profits they make investing other people’s money, turning the justification for having a lower capital gains tax rate completely on its head.
During the same press conference, Romney said that he only makes some income from speaker’s fees, “but not very much,” which is money that would be taxed at normal income tax rates. From Feb. 2010 to Feb. 2011, Romney earned $362,000 in speaker’s fees.
This explains why Romney is far to George W. Bush's right politically... Especially when it comes to economic policy. Since it's obviously in his personal interest to continue paying less in taxes than the vast majority of working class families, we can see why he wants to continue coddling the 1% while attacking the 99% with brutal cuts on everything from Head Start to Pell Grants to law enforcement to the Centers for Disease Control to the EPA.
Honestly, this is why I've never bought Mittens' attempt to crown himself as "the winner" last year. Even if he survives the G-O-TEA primary, he now emerges as "The Wall Street Elitist 1% Candidate" with major political liabilities. Perhaps this is why Mittens fell behind President Obama in a big way in the new PPP national poll out today.
Perhaps American voters aren't as stupid as many have made us out to be. Perhaps more folks truly are realizing that economic inequality hurts the overall economy. And perhaps voters are realizing that "tea party madness" is no way to govern a country. Considering how extreme(ly absurd) Mittens and his G-O-TEA have become, President Obama really doesn't look bad, after all.
Monday, January 16, 2012
A New Phase Seeking Genuine Equality
Coolican has a great column this morning where he allows Jim Crow survivors to tell their own stories of escaping "de jure" segregation in The South. It's really worth reading.
However in reading that, I was also reminded of the continuing "de facto" segregation we often face in society today. Even though "de jure" segregation was dropped here in Nevada during the 1960s, the combination of "The Great Recession" and chronic inequality has led to continuing struggles for minority communities here. All one needs to do is drive down Eastern Avenue to (minority-majority) East Las Vegas and North Las Vegas to see the great poverty in our community, then drive back up Eastern to see how well manicured neighborhoods in Henderson's (mostly white) Seven Hills and Anthem have been minimally impacted by the recession.
And it's not just Nevada. Despite the progress toward legal equality since the 1950s, America has been sliding back in the last 40 years as wealth has increasingly become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. And no, Mitt Romney, this is not about "envy". This is a serious problem. Without a functioning middle class, we don't have a stable pool of consumers to buy stuff, and the economy ultimately suffers.
Many folks remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for his work to fight legal racial inequality. And yes, that was a great part of what he did. However, he didn't stop there. He also worked to combat economic inequality. And he laid the foundation for new frontiers of The Civil Rights Movement.
Both Coretta Scott King (Dr. King's wife) and Bayard Rustin (who helped organize the 1963 March on Washington and worked closely with Dr. King) stood with Martin Luther King during his life, and both kept his legacy alive from 1968 onward by reminding us that injustice anywhere means injustice everywhere.
One of the great things that Martin Luther King achieved was the tying together of all these injustices and pushing for the end to inequality and injustice everywhere. And we still need this today. Whether it's unjust wars, poverty in our communities, xenophobic attacks on Muslim Americans, or the denial of full legal equality to LGBTQ Americans, the work has to continue. That's probably what we should think about today.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Mitt Romney's Bain Genie Is Out of the Bottle
Apparently, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry committed "the unforgivable sin": They "released the kraken" that is Mitt Romney's dirtiest secret, and the GOP establishment is demanding they stuff that genie back in the bottle and toss it out to sea. Too bad for them that genies like this one really can't be recaptured and contained. This one will indeed be coming back to haunt the G-O-TEA this fall.
“I would have preferred to wait, yes, to keep the bottle of whup-ass fresher,” one Obama campaign strategist told TPM. “At the same time — and this is important to note — having the Republicans eat their own actually makes the Bain story more potent than we ever could because it instantly validates it as a line of attack and falls on independent ears as a matter of legitimate debate, not as a partisan line of attack.”
And when the real Bain attack comes, it will be anything but old news to the voters it needs to reach. After all, it’s hardcore Republicans who are paying the closest attention to the GOP campaign and its Bain moment right now, and they’re not voting for President Obama anytime soon.
“This isn’t a primary attack in the first place — it’s why we haven’t put any resources behind Romney as a corporate buyout specialist at this stage — it’s a general election issue for independent and swing voters in places like Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Indiana,” a senior Democratic strategist told TPM. “We were shocked that his rivals went there but nonetheless pleased because now the charges about his status as a corporate raider enjoy the lustre of bipartisan ship.”
Again, don't forget who started this. REPUBLICANS have been looking to take advantage of this. And REPUBLICANS are leery of what Mitt Romney did at Bain Capital. It doesn't matter what Sheldon Adelson says about his own views on Mitt Romney. That he gave money to the pro-Newt Gingrich Super PAC that made no attempt to hide its plan to drop this "Newt-ron bomb" on South Carolina speaks volumes.
It also speaks volumes that the RNC is begging its own not to mention Mitt Romney's stint at Bain Capital, and that Romney himself says that matters of economic injustice are only allowed to be discussed "in quiet rooms".
Yes, this is what Romney believes should only be discussed in "quiet rooms". And considering his part in this as head of Bain Capital, we can now see why. But unfortunately for him, President Obama and his advisors are not staying quiet on the #1 issue on American voters' minds.
Again, the contrast couldn't be any greater. Romney profits off government sponsored corporate welfare, then he says discussions of economic inequality are all "about envy". Romney lies about President Obama's economic record, then his GOP establishment surrogates throw a temper tantrum when anyone tries to tell the truth about Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital. And we're supposed to believe he can boost job creation as US President?
Romney is clearly angry that this election may very well be decided on matters of economic inequality... Especially since he's the one who stands to lose the most from it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)