Romney admits Obama didn't raise taxes, after claiming he did

As we've said before, just hand Mitt Romney a microphone and step away. So Mitt Romney is now admitting that President Obama didn't raise taxes during his four years in office, even though up until now that's exactly what Romney has been telling people, that Obama did raise taxes.

This is the problem with lying about pretty much every position you claim to hold. No human being is capable of keeping that many lies consistent. You eventually get caught.

Read the rest of this post...

Did Romney close his Swiss account to evade prosecution?

As I mentioned the other day, there are so many unanswered questions about Mitt Romney's taxes.

One issue that is increasingly being asked is whether Mitt Romney closed his Swiss bank account at UBS to avoid serious prosecution for avoiding taxes.

UBS reached a settlement with the IRS for nearly $800 million for their role in helping rich Americans avoid paying US taxes. Following the settlement, the IRS announced an amnesty period for Americans who may have been hiding money at UBS, and thousands came forward.

It's still not clear whether Mitt Romney participated in that amnesty period, but what we do now know is that he no longer has a Swiss bank account with UBS as of 2010. The timing is certainly interesting. 

Because Romney won't release full details of his taxes, and instead only released a pile of documents signed by PWC and lawyers, we can't say for sure whether he hid millions in Switzerland or not.

Paul Abrams at the Huffington Post has been following this closely for a while now and has made a list of the circumstantial evidence that points towards Romney participating in the amnesty program. Romney is only answering questions via email about his taxes and of course, he's not answering any questions about amnesty.

Huffington Post:

To review, here is the circumstantial evidence:
i) Romney closed ONLY his Swiss UBS Account, not Caymans or Bermuda or Luxembourg. Hence, he cannot claim "bad optics for a campaign" as the alternative explanation;
ii) Romney closed the UBS account during the time required to receive amnesty;
iii) Romney omitted from his public disclosure of his 2010 returns the specific information about the UBS account;
iv) Romney took six extra months to prepare his 2011 returns, disclosing them in the countdown to the election, whereas he could have disclosed 2009 immediately with 2010, getting all that bad news out at once, during the primary, so that it would be ancient history by now. That is strong evidence that 2009, that would have shown the amnesty with flashing lights, was too toxic.

Someone in the traditional media needs to ask Mitt Romney directly whether he did or did not close his Swiss bank account during the amnesty program. But they also need to demand that he release the full details of his taxes like every other candidate for president in modern times. Read the rest of this post...

Is there $9 million missing from Romney's taxes?

Another day and another list of questions related to Mitt Romney's partial tax document dump on Friday.

Either his team of tax attorneys are complete idiots - doubtful, to say the least - or they're playing games. Romney's initial 2011 earnings estimates in January were $22.7 million, up from $21.58 million in 2010. In September, the updated tax filing showed $13.7 million for his 2011 earnings.

Just as there were a number of questions yesterday, there are more again today. Click through to read the full article at Lawsonry.com. It's disturbing, but will the traditional media ask questions?

- Is it credible to believe that his team was off by $9 million?
- Did this radical change help him lower his tax rate?

There are too many issues with the information that he provided and they all reflect poorly on his ability to ever come clean and be honest with the American public. When Romney is not making gaffes, he is providing spin that only the super rich can spin. All of his answers feel slippery, as though he's convinced himself that he just tricked everyone.

People of the Romney class have means beyond the reach of everyone else and they use every resource available to exploit the system. What's worse is that they then go out and try pointing the finger at the most vulnerable people who rely on assistance to keep living. The Romney class relies on loopholes and tax attorneys to fund the construction of an elevator in their house or for tax write offs to fund their Olympic show horse. Read the rest of this post...

Romney family trust invested in China, bet against America

Much like his strange decision to pay more taxes than he had to pay in 2011, the supposedly blind trust sold off it's investments in China as the Romney campaign gained momentum. Wow, what are the odds of that happening in a blind trust?

And how about old Mitt taking bets against America? Who runs for president of the United States and makes financial bets against his own country?

NY Yimes:

The 2011 tax returns his campaign released on Friday show that Mr. Romney’s family trusts had invested in shares of a Chinese-owned state oil company but got rid of those investments this summer as Mr. Romney’s anti-Chinese rhetoric heated up on the campaign trail.

In 2009 and 2010, the W. Mitt Romney blind trust invested $77,262 in shares of Cnooc Limited, the state-owned Chinese oil company, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. On Aug. 10, 2011, as Mr. Romney was emerging as a harsh critic of China, the shares were sold, producing a profit of $8,138, as the trust made money on the oil company but lost money on the bank.

The trust also invested in derivative securities linked to the Japanese stock market and to an index that includes stocks in every major country except the United States. It invested in a derivative that would profit if the dollar fell against a group of foreign currencies.

Is Mitt Romney arrogant enough to think that people are stupid and not paying attention or is he just arrogant? Read the rest of this post...

Romney's tax documents raise even more questions

If Mitt Romney thought that a partial release of his tax documents would change the discussion from his 47% remarks, he was mostly right. Unfortunately for Romney, the tax information that he provided brings everyone back to the problem that has nagged him for months. Romney's 2011 tax documents are a little too convenient since they failed to fully utilize deductions and they can easily be amended any time in the next three years.

My first thought when I read that he was releasing a summary going back 20 years was why 20 years? If the norm is 10 or 12 years, 20 sounds odd and it's probably for good reason. The weaselly 20% rate that PWC mentions is so light on detail that it's not even funny. The tax rate during the Clinton years was much higher, so everyone was paying more.

Was the purpose of releasing a 20 year summary meant to soften some painfully low years? It would not be a surprise if the purpose of including the 20 year term was so they could play typical Big Four accounting games to make the numbers look less outrageous than they would be over 10 years. Since they only released a summary, the 20 year term may have been used for this reason. How many tax report simulations did they run before they settled on 20 years?

As for the accounting firm, why should anyone be impressed with a summary from PWC. (You might call them Pay We Confirm.) PWC also did the books for AIG, Tyco and JPMorgan and the results were not without scandal. Should the PWC stamp of approval really mean much? The big accounting and consulting groups have a well earned public reputation for taking big money and delivering whatever result they are paid to deliver. Only an fool who hasn't watched the accounting industry in action would fall for their spin. Believe their numbers, at your own risk.

Others are now wondering whether there are ugly secretes inside the full Romney tax documents since only a sanitized summary was handed over. Did Mitt Romney file for tax amnesty with the IRS in 2009? Who knows? Did he have to pay back taxes related to amnesty, thus raising his tax rates? We do not know. What was the year-by-year rate as opposed to the broad summary? No clue. Why did Romney close a Swiss bank account in 2010, the year after the 2009 IRS amnesty program? Only Mitt knows. Andy why is there a 3.5% delta between the various numbers provided by PWC? It's nuts.

Even his 2011 charitable donations are worth noting. Most went to the Mormon church and the rest went to his own foundation, which then shovels over most of its money to the Mormon church.

To makes matters worse, the Romney campaign will only take questions via email. They will then pick and choose who they answer and how they answer. Is that supposed to be transparent? Mitt Romney has been running for president for years and this is the best he can do?

So yes, Mitt Romney has managed to change the subject from the 47% but he has brought us back to the original problem of whether or not he is paying his full share. We still don't know and we won't know until the full details are provided. Read the rest of this post...

Romney fails the character test on his taxes, and everything else

Reader BlueOysterJoe weighs in:

From Harry Reid's statement:

“When will the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president?,” Mr. Reid said. “Governor Romney is showing us what he does when the public is looking. The true test of his character would be to show what he did when everyone was not looking at his taxes.”

I like how Reid refers to this as a question of character.

"Character" is often a term used by politicians to demagogue or dog whistle, but to some degree, character is important for anyone in public office. If a politician is a drunk or an adulterer or whatever, and it doesn't affect his job, I am not going to necessarily like them, but I will likely give them a pass. We're all human, and I suspect if each of us knew everything that everyone else did in their moments of weakness, it would be an eye opening experience indeed ...

But there does reach a point where mistakes, personal flaws, etc. force you to question the very core of a person's being. If someone had an affair ... that's not great, but ok. If the same person had an affair while his wife was dying from cancer, that suggests a kind of core evil / darkness lurking in that person's soul that I think makes him unfit for office.

Returning to Romney, it's not just that he tells a certain quantity of lies or that he made his money as a corporate raider. It's the fact that his core character seems polluted by a kind of depravity that would make him a terrible president. This core depravity is what links his homophobic pranks, his treatment of family pets, his methods for making money, his serial lying and these income tax shenanigans. It's a character issue, and the Dems should be talking more about it.

Read the rest of this post...

What's to stop Romney from amending his tax return after the election?

A reader writes:

Don't forget, like anyone else, Romney can file an amended 2011 return after the election and get back that 9% rate he surely believes he's entitled to. 14.1% my ass.

Meaning Romney can still get that 9% to 10% tax rate he gave us this time around for appearances.

The NYT agrees:

It is possible, however, that Mr. Romney could still deduct the unclaimed amount of his charitable donations in future tax years, experts said.

Read the rest of this post...

Romney disclosing his 2011 tax returns at 3pm Eastern; admits not qualified to be president

Mind you, this raises his tax disclosure to a grand whopping total of two returns.

He required ten from Paul Ryan.  He's giving us two.

The highlights: Romney's tax rate was 14.1%.  He only got that "high" a rate after jiggering the numbers for the past 9 months.  The Romney campaign admits that Romney jiggered his 2011 taxes in order to make them look better for the election:

The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.

So basically, Romney got the financial equivalent of a fake tan.  And even then, his tax rate was an absurdly low 14.1%.

ThinkProgress notes that had Romney taken all of his charitable deductions, he'd have paid a tax rate of around 9%. And they note that, per Romney's own words, he now isn't qualified to be president.

I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president. I’d think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires.

Gosh, quite the "gaffe," Mitt Romney admitting that he's not qualified to be president.

9%.  If I could only remember the word someone once used for people who weasel out of paying their fair share of taxes...

I'm sure it'll come to me....

Read the rest of this post...

Host of now-famous Romney fundraiser under investigation in NY

Romney's host for the "47%" fundraiser, Marc Leder, is under investigation by the New York Attorney General for questionable tax practices with his private equity firm, Sun Capital Partners.

The investigation is still open, so he may very well be cleared. The tax practice that his firm allegedly uses is nothing new, and it's been widely used by many in that industry. Of course, many other firms are also under investigation in New York for the same practice.

Romney's friend, like Romney himself, may very well be within the law, but that's not really the point. After watching the elites become ridiculously rich in recent years, we've also watched the middle class struggle and the number of poor increase. For the Romney class, the tax code is there for the picking. They have the cash to throw smart bodies (lawyers, accountants) at the issue and find a way to pay less and less as they earn more and more.

There's a big difference between being within the law and doing the right thing.

Is paying 15% (or 14% in Romney's case - that's assuming he's paid anything at all these past ten years, we don't know since he won't release his taxes) really fair when working families are paying more?

The problem with people like Romney, Leder and the rest of the financial elite on the right is that they view themselves as victims. Yes, the people who have profited the most from the radical tax cuts are still not satisfied, and have convinced themselves that nothing is ever enough.

Being an egotistical, selfish jerk is one thing, but putting people like this in power to turn back the clock to the days of the Industrial Revolution is another. Who wants a president that stands to personally gain millions in tax breaks even after he's already gamed the system to pay less than most working people?

Enough is never enough for this crowd.

Guilty or innocent, we need to stop having a system that primarily works for the richest of the rich. In a Romney administration, it's going to be just that, on steroids.

According to court documents filed as part of his 2009 divorce, Leder created a system for turning hundreds of millions of dollars in ordinary income into investments that would be taxed at a much lower rate.

The strategy, known as “a management fee waiver,” may have lowered his tax bill by millions of dollars over time, according to the documents.

Leder’s private equity firm, Sun Capital Partners, is one of more than a dozen private-equity firms being investigated by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to see whether they used management fee waivers to avoid taxes, according to people familiar with the matter.

Read the rest of this post...

New 65 year study shows tax cuts do not lead to economic growth

This will be shocking news for the Republicans, though it shouldn't be. The US has had higher growth rates during times of much higher taxes but somehow that is always glossed over by the tax cut proponents.

Even Mitt Romney himself proves how little tax rates are connected to employment creation investments. The man hasn't worked in years and has paid no more than 14% in taxes yet we don't see him setting up new businesses with the extra income. He fails his own test on tax breaks.

Let the GOP tax spin begin.

Analysis of six decades of data found that top tax rates "have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth." However, the study found that reductions of capital gains taxes and top marginal rate taxes have led to greater income inequality. Past studies cited in the report have suggested that a broad-based tax rate reduction can have "a small to modest, positive effect on economic growth" or "no effect on economic growth."

Well into the 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was above 90%. Today it's 35%. But both real GDP and real per capita GDP were growing more than twice as fast in the 1950s as in the 2000s. At the same time, the average tax rate paid by the top tenth of a percent fell from about 50% to 25% in the last 60 years, while their share of income increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% before the recession.

Read the rest of this post...

Romney's tax plan to significantly increase taxes

Voodoo economics have been a hallmark of GOP politics since the Reagan years. Much like Mitt Romney's MIA tax documents, his proposed tax plan is murky and he's been unwilling to provide many details. Studies are now showing that the Romney plan is likely to hit typical Republican voters hard.

The rich will of course get their massive tax cuts but the upper middle class will lose deductions and pay considerably more than before. LA Times:

Mitt Romney's budget plan would significantly raise income taxes for many families making between $100,000 and $200,000, analyses by leading Republican economists cited by the Romney campaign show.

The Republican analyses were designed to rebut the Democratic charge that Romney's plan would "increase taxes for the middle class." The studies conclude that the plan could work as Romney has said, but that doing so would require eliminating all or most deductions and credits for households with income over $100,000. That would include wiping out such popular tax provisions as the deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.

Campaign debate so far has largely focused on the 2% of taxpayers with the highest incomes — whose taxes President Obama wants to increase — and those with earnings in the middle range of U.S. incomes. Much less attention has focused on the large number of families whose incomes are twice the national median or higher but whom Romney has defined as part of the middle class.

Read the rest of this post...

Larry Flynt offers $1 million for Romney's tax returns

The Huffington Post Reports:

The Hustler founder is offering a $1 million reward for information on Mitt Romney's taxes, AdWeek reports. Flynt, an outspoken critic of Romney, is taking out two full page ads in Sunday's issues of USA Today and The Washington Post to publicize the offer.

The ad offers cash in exchange for "unreleased tax returns and/or details of his offshore assets, bank accounts and business partnerships.”

"What is he hiding?" Flynt said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "Maybe now we'll find out."

As I reported last week, a group of hackers claim to have stolen the tax returns and are holding them for a $1 million ransom to be paid in the 'Bitcoin' anonymous payments system. Could there be a deal there?

Having worked on electronic payments for twenty years now, I believe the answer is 'possibly but almost certainly not one that involves Bitcoin.'

Anonymous payment systems like Bitcoin are great in theory. The practice is rather different. Transferring payment from the customer to the merchant is only half the problem. The harder part of the problem is how the merchant convinces the customer that they will deliver the goods.

Flynt could send the hackers $1 million in Bitcoin but he has no assurance that they even have the tax returns, let alone if they would deliver them to him if he pays. Romney and his backers face the same problem in reverse. There is nothing to stop the hackers taking the $1 million from Romney (or his Vegas sugar-daddy) and then selling the returns to Flynt for another $1 million.

What the Bitcoin payment scheme lacks is accountability. When both parties in a transaction are fully anonymous, neither are accountable, neither has a reputation at stake. So even if the hackers claim to be willing and able to supply Romney's tax returns in exchange for $1 million and even though Flynt is clearly willing to pay $1 million, the Bitcoin system does not enable them to complete the transaction.

The only thing we can be certain of here is that people are going to be finding a lot of ways to talk about Romney's tax returns between now and election day. Since Romney is already behind, that means less time spent talking about the issues Romney needs to talk about to catch up

Whatever is in those returns must be really damaging to Romney. Read the rest of this post...

Sen. Whitehouse: Dem Senators may not end Bush Tax Cuts if Obama not "clearly there with us"

There's a nice piece of original reporting over at Digby's site in which David Atkins and his brother Dante interviewed Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on filibuster reform, Social Security, the Bush(-Obama) Tax Cuts and Medicare cuts.

Please do read for all four subjects. It's a great short interview with lots of insight.

Here I want to highlight Sen. Whitehouse on those tax cuts, and then add Atkin's remarks. This is quite revealing; note the president's role.

First Whitehouse (my emphasis and paragraphing):

Dante Atkins: If the Senate remains Democratic, do you expect Senate Democrats to hold the line on refusing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the upper income earners?

Senator Whitehouse: I very much hope that we do, and I expect that we will. I think there is a relationship between how and whether we do that, and how and whether the crisis does that.

If the President draws a strong line, I think he'll have the backing of enough Democratic Senators that he won't be able to have a veto overridden.

That puts him in a very strong negotiating position. And I think that he should take advantage of that, and call and ask for our support.

I think if it becomes questionable whether or not the President will stick to his guns, then there are a considerable number of my colleagues, including those who might be up in 2014, who may have to take a more practical and defensive position so they're not out on this, and then undercut by a White House move later on.

So I think that the support is there, but I would just have as my caveat that it has to be really clear from the White House that they're there with us, and they're not going to walk back and leave a lot of Senators exposed on a position they're not willing to hold themselves.

"Practical and defensive" means cave.

Now Atkins:

This is incredibly important, and one of the most overlooked problems with the Administration's near obsession with "compromise" and being the "adult in the room."

Fair or not, the President will always be labeled by the opposition as its most partisan heavyweight. ... No matter how far to the middle Obama hews, the Republicans will always accuse him of being a Communist.

That in turn means whenever the Administration caves and waffles, members of Congress who stood alongside the President prior to the compromised retreat are automatically marginalized as "even more liberal than Obama." Uninformed voters in midterm elections will naturally assume that they're extremists when the attack ads start rolling in.

It may be that tax cuts for the wealthy are so unpopular at this point that a Senator threatened in 2014 could stand on their own two feet on it regardless of the President's position, but it certainly makes it much harder.

Has Barack Obama left Congress high and hanging in the past? That's certainly the word on the wire.

Me? I think he wants those cuts to pass — all of them. And it will take united congressional opposition to stop it.

Please do click over. It's a good fast read on each of those subjects. Nice job by the Atkins brothers.

ACTION OPPORTUNITY: What can we do? Take a cellphone camera to every Obama event you can get into and ask him early and often:

Mr. Obama — Will you swear now to veto any legislation that contains a full extension of the Bush Tax Cuts?

Be that point-blank.

This is a fight he can win anytime he wants to. Inaction is a win. He can let them expire in December, put in a January bill to give the cuts back to anyone he wants, and dare the Republicans to say No. Any time he wants it, he can have that win. If he wants it.

But I don't trust him to want it. He caved in 2010, remember, and I think he's going to design a deal that's complicated enough to sneak the Bush-Obama tax cut extension past you with sweeteners, something like "see, no cuts to Social Security" or some such.

So think of this as a negotiation, you voters out there. You have him at a vulnerable moment. If Obama wants something from you, he can give you something first.

I know he can lie and reneg. But make him make it a bold lie; a world-class 180° lie. Make him pay you with weasel-free words before you tell him he has your vote.

Ask him point-blank:

Mr. Obama — Will you swear now to veto any legislation that contains a full extension of the Bush Tax Cuts?

Then ask again the next time he shows up.

In the booth you can do what you want. But in this negotiation, you're free to tell him sorry, not good enough ... yet.

Mes centimes for whatever that ends up being worth,

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
  Read the rest of this post...

Video: Americans overwhelmingly want to see Romney's tax documents

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The issue of Mitt Romney's taxes has gone away for the moment, but refuses to go away. If Romney has any hope of winning, he has to follow his father's example and release the documents. It's the American way. Read the rest of this post...

Paul Ryan thinks America is in decline, wants to close Romney's tax loopholes

Two things.

1. I think it's fascinating that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan think America is no longer great, but rather, is a country in decline. Never thought I'd see the day a Republican would diss America.

During a campaign event yesterday in Kissimeee, Fla., Obama rejected the GOP assertions that America is in decline.

"Now, I don't know whether they're saying that just because they want to win some votes, or because they actually believe it," Obama said, before touting American workers, enterprenuers, scientists and educators "But either way, they're wrong."

2. I'm also fascinated that Paul Ryan is complaining about rich people who shelter income via tax loopholes when his running mate, Mitt Romney, is rumored to not have paid taxes for ten years, because of such loopholes. Yet Romney won't release his tax returns, like every other presidential candidate has done for decades, including Romney's father.

While Ryan stressed that the GOP presidential ticket would close loopholes used by high-income earners, he declined to specify which would be closed to make the tax system fairer.
"Now the question is, not necessarily what loopholes go, but who gets them. High-income earners use most of the loopholes. That means they can shelter their income from taxation," Ryan said on ABC.

"But if you take those loopholes, those tax shelters away from high income earners ... that allows us to lower tax rates on everybody," Ryan said.

And of course, Ryan can't say which tax loopholes they'd plug, because Romney/Ryan have zero details about what they actually plan to do. They simply have no ideas.
Read the rest of this post...

Did hackers steal Romney's tax returns? Secret Service investigating.

If this story is true it could be a bombshell for the campaign. The key graph in the pastebin posting from the hackers:

Romney's 1040 tax returns were taken from the PWC office 8/25/2012 by gaining access to the third floor via a gentleman working on the 3rd floor of the building. Once on the 3rd floor, the team moved down the stairs to the 2nd floor and setup shop in an empty office room. During the night, suite 260 was entered, and all available 1040 tax forms for Romney were copied. A package was sent to the PWC on suite 260 with a flash drive containing a copy of the 1040 files, plus copies were sent to the Democratic office in the county and copies were sent to the GOP office in the county at the beginning of the week also containing flash drives with copies of Romney's tax returns before 2010. A scanned signature image for Mitt Romney from the 1040 forms were scanned and included with the packages, taken from earlier 1040 tax forms gathered and stored on the flash drives.

A little while later the same party sent a ransom demand for $1 million in bitcoins, a purportedly untraceable digital currency.

Before people get too excited about this they should remember an earlier episode in which tapes of Bush preparing for his debate with Al Gore were stolen. The GOP managed to turn a negative story for them into a scandal for the Democrats. This could be a dirty trick intended to neutralize the Romney Tax Returns issue by linking the Democrats to the extortion demand.

The one conclusion that is probably safe to draw from this affair is that there will be renewed government interest in shutting down bitcoin exchanges. The fact that the Secret Service is investigating rather than the FBI suggests that something of the sort may be in progress. The Secret Service was originally formed to safeguard the US currency against counterfeiters and they took the lead role in shutting down the eGold exchanges that preceded bitcoin.

$1 million would be a very large transaction for the Bitcoin network to handle. While the Bitcoin float is allegedly close to $100 million, this figure seems to be inflated by hoarding. It is unlikely someone could buy that much in bitcoins without the fact being noticed. Read the rest of this post...

Romney's Bain Capital subpoenaed over taxes

Many private equity companies have been riding a fine line with taxes and they may finally be getting called on it. For this group, enough is never enough no matter how much they fleece their country or other businesses. The Guardian:

The subpoenas, which were sent out in July, seek documents related to the conversion of fees these private equity firms charge for managing investors' assets into fund investments, the source said. This means the investigation predates the release last month of confidential Bain fund documents by Gawker that revealed such a practice.

The practice is known as a "management fee waiver." As fund investments, the income would be taxed as capital gains, which attract rates around 15%. Without the conversion, the fees would be ordinary income, taxed at rates around 35%.

Other firms that received subpoenas include Sun Capital Partners; Clayton, Dubilier & Rice; Crestview Partners; H.I.G. Capital; Vestar Capital Partners; and Providence Equity Partners.

Read the rest of this post...

Poll: Americans think rich don't pay enough taxes

Uh oh. It looks like the Teabagging Republicans are on the losing side of this debate.

The poll found that many Americans believe rich people to be intelligent and hard-working but also greedy and less honest than the average American. Nearly six in 10, or 58 percent, say the rich don't pay enough in taxes, while 26 percent believe the rich pay their fair share and 8 percent say they pay too much.

Even among those who describe themselves as "upper class" or "upper middle class," more than half — 52 percent — said upper-income Americans don't pay enough in taxes; only 10 percent said they paid too much. This upper tier was more likely to say they are more financially secure now than they were 10 years ago — 62 percent, compared to 44 percent for those who identified themselves as middle class and 29 percent for the lower class. They are less likely to report problems in paying rents or mortgages, losing a job, paying for medical care or other bills and cutting back on household expenses.

As this article mentions, it's not a problem that Romney is rich, but that he is strongly perceived as the candidate who will promote policies that mostly benefit the rich. Read the rest of this post...

Comrade Jindal complains Obama isn't giving him enough taxpayer socialism for hurricane damage

UPDATE: Brian Beutler has uncovered that Jindal is in fact demanding more federal aid than states normally get in these circumstances.  And what's more, he didn't demand the extra aid when Gustav hit when Bush was president, only when a Democrat is president. So he's a commie and a hypocrite.
____________

That crazy socialist governor from the People's Republic of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, and the rest of the Teabagging Republicans are such complete frauds but can't admit it.

They're always glad to complain about handouts - such as when Jindal turned down $90m in stimulus monies meant to help 24,000 unemployed in Louisiana, or when Jindal turned down $300m for high speed rail - but then, when it's politically popular (like during a hurricane) suddenly Jindal is Chairman Mao begging at the people's teet, like Jindal is now doing over federal disaster monies for Hurricane Isaac.

Republicans like Jindal believe that the Bible has all the answers, not science and of course not the government - but the only thing they're praying for right now is more money from Uncle Sam. You know, the kind of handouts and money that they dismiss and blast when it's for others.

Jindal should quit complaining and join the modern world.  Or figure out how to raise his own money.  CBS News:

The White House said Obama informed Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal of the emergency declaration in a phone call. The declaration makes federal support available to save lives, protect public health and safety and preserve property in coastal areas.

Jindal, a Republican, shot back late Monday in a letter to the Obama administration that the declaration fell short of the help he was requesting.

"We appreciate your response to our request and your approval," Jindal wrote. "However, the state's original request for federal assistance .... included a request for reimbursement for all emergency protective measures. The federal declaration of emergency only provides for direct federal assistance."

One day someone in Washington needs to call out the crazies like Jindal. If you're going to make a name for yourself ripping science and government taxes they don't ask for them and don't accept them. Why should Jindal dirty his hands with socialist tax dollars that probably came from the Blue States who pay much more into the federal government than they receive. What does the Bible have to say about that?

Let's also not forget that it has been the Republicans who have been chopping the FEMA budget, so Governor Jindal ought to be talking with his GOP friends instead of complaining about the president. Read the rest of this post...

Romney-Ryan tax plan gives an additional $2.3 billion in tax cuts to Big Oil

Government for the 1% by the 1%. This is government corporate welfare for those least in need and it needs to stop. If the Big Oil industry can't figure out how to make money on their own all of these years, it may be time for them to close shop and move on.

The world’s five biggest public oil companies—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell—would keep special tax breaks worth $2.4 billion each year. And by cutting corporate tax rates, the Romney plan could lower the companies’ annual tax bill by another $2.3 billion, based on an analysis of the companies’ tax expense for 2011. The special tax breaks, supplemented by Gov. Romney’s lower corporate rates, could benefit the oil companies by more than $4 billion annually.

As we will show, these five companies are hardly in need of a tax cut: They earned a combined record profit of $137 billion in 2011 due to high oil and gasoline prices.

Read the rest of this post...