Most of us know that Mitt has released his 2011 tax returns, and that he paid 14.1% of his income in taxes. Also, that he chose not to deduct all his charitable contributions so order to keep his effective tax rate higher.
The followup story is that during a July interview with ABC news, Romney said, “… 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.” That same story refers to a comment he made in January. “I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.”
Aside from the obvious – he’s not qualified to be President by his own standards – what did Mitt mean? Are people who voluntarily pay more than they can too stupid to be President? Do they make too poor hiring choices among accountants to be an executive? Is it somehow “unpatriotic” to pay more than is owed?
I think it was just a throwaway, smartass comment designed to shut down the line of questioning. Implying that he didn’t get rich making bad decisions with money. That’s why the left is having a field day with the 2011 tax figures: because he refused to answer the question for so long, then was such a smartass about it.
It’s clear that in that moment in July, in his little pea brain, he thought he’d make himself look smart by declaring that only a dumbass would pay more than they had to in taxes. To him, that was a big “duh” moment.
Except what it actually proved was that Mitt Romney thinks it’s a virtue to abuse the tax code to such a degree that he can avoid paying taxes that are actually owed (by possibly illegally claiming income to be earned under a category that gets taxed at 50 percent less than another; stashing money in off-shore accounts so it doesn’t get taxed as it should; illegally using “Son of Boss” schemes to invent losses that never actually existed, etc.), and then bat his eyes and claim innocence.
Mitt Romney thinks we are all stupid for paying the all the taxes that are legally due. Well, unless we’re in the 47 percent who, when calculating all the taxes that are legally due, end up with a zero federal income tax bill. Then we’re entitled victim moochers dependent on government.
Look, it’s time to face the fact that Mitt Romney is an arrogant, self-important prick. He gets what he gets because he deserves it and we suffer what we suffer because we deserve it. That is literally how his brain works. And because he literally doesn’t have the natural capacity to form empathy, the only way to get him to think differently is to plunk his ass into the middle of the projects for a month; cut him off from his family, his bank accounts and all his resources and connections; make him slave at two different part-time minimum wage jobs for 60 hours a week; and care for one of those fake babies that are programmed to mimic a real baby. I bet if he actually had to live that life for a month, he’d need therapy for years to recover from the trauma.
It’s only “foot in mouth” if he knew, at the time, that he was going to have to underpay in order to get to the > 13% point. I don’t know if he should have known or not.
So, I don’t see what the mystery is. He wanted to emphasize that he was just doing what anyone else in his shoes would do. How he ended up in the mess he did with his 2011 taxes is the real mystery. His accountants should have been better aware of the situation. If he wasn’t so averse to firing people, he’d probably get rid of them.
Obviously he wasn’t anticipating the 13% point, but he still was saying more than simply “I do what everyone else does.” He explicitly talked about being qualified to be president, and everyone else doesn’t want to be president. The mystery is his use of the term qualified. Either there was an ideological assertion spinning around in his head that he didn’t really explain completely, or he was trying to say something which is pointlessly obvious: “It’s stupid to pay more than you have to, and one qualification for being president is not to be stupid.” Either way, it’s not so much that his foot is in his mouth as that his mouth isn’t adequately connected to his brain at moments, such as when he speaks off-the-cuff.
I’ve been thinking about this lately – Mitt Romney really needs to learn what life is like for those of us in that mysterious under $200,000/year category. But I’m not sure that there’s any way he could demonstrate it without looking like a complete tool. I remember President Obama working on a habitat for humanity project, and I think he also spent some time working in a nursing home during the last campaign. Has Mitt ever done anything similar – not a “leisure time” working man’s activity like having a beer or a pancake breakfast, but actually doing some kind of tough manual labor?
Of course not. He’s been a pampered, elitist snob his entire life.
And don’t forget, Barack Obama didn’t need to “walk a day in their shoes” (even though he did nonetheless) to know what it’s like to struggle—he lived it. And he started his “real-life” career after college working as a <gasp> community organizer where he also got to see first-hand what it was like to be among those who had no political sway (which was the entire purpose behind organizing communities in the first place). Basically, Barack Obama has walked the walk so he’s (wait for it … ) entitled to talk the talk. Mitt Romney keeps fucking up what he says because it’s just words that have no actual meaning to him.
Unless he’s caught speaking the truth behind closed doors so we know how he really feels about “the 47 percent who pay no income taxes.” He’s an arrogant jackass.
If you take the whole Job Creator[sup]TM[/sup] thing seriously, then yes, it is unpatriotic to pay more than is owed. Keeping the money himself, even if it just sites in a bank vault somewhere gathering dust, is better than giving it to the government, which will just squander it.
I agree that Romney is out of touch, but one month wouldn’t fix that. He’d know that all he had to do was hold out for one month and he’d have a fortune again. I don’t know if there’s any way to replicate the attitude in someone who’s not, and never really will be, in the same circumstance.
For what it’s worth, I don’t get a lazy vibe from Romney. I think he’d be able to swing a hammer at a Habitat for Humanity site if he saw value in it. It just seems that he really buys into the idea that the most noble thing he can do for his fellow man is to become filthy rich.
Aannd Palin tells Romney togo rogue. (Cause that tactic worked so well for her, right?) This implies that Romney has utilized advisors and speech writers up to this point.
A solid corporate budget is one that spends as little as it has to and takes in as much as it can. If you let more money go on taxes than you have to, you’re not maximizing your revenue and thus you’re not the best person to run a budget.
Don’t give him any ideas. I wonder, has Palin read or watched any news in the last few months? Or is it just evidence of her narcissism: too busy Googling herself to notice the fractures? How can any American citizen be unaware that Romney fumbles dismally every time he goes off script? What a profoundly clueless thing to say.
