The American Dream
Excerpt: "The (Romney tax) filings, I promise you, will
show loopholes and financial black holes that make taxable income disappear.
What we will not see is anything revelatory... By and large, the tax
filings tell you nothing you don’t already know. But the refusal to
release them is a different matter. In Romney’s case, this is his one and only
stand on principle, an odd example of political bravery. He has flipped on
abortion, gun control and, of course, health-insurance reform, his signature
achievement as governor of Massachusetts. But not on releasing his taxes... The making of such money
is concealed, based on the exotic manipulation of numbers and the disregard of
people. Only a relatively few know how to do this sort of thing, and they don’t
much like to talk about it. Romney, as we already know, is one of those people.
He hides his taxes not because it would reveal anything new about him, but
because it would reveal what he has always known about us: We’re suckers."
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Substantively, the United States is a plutocracy.
Mitt Romney - whether he knows it or not - is running for plutocrat-in-chief.
The rest is footnote. (Democracy is a footnote.)
We will see if our socio-economic bifurcation persists, or if - as George Soros predicts - there will be fighting in the streets.
http://www.
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Revelation of Romney's "no pay" (or "low pay") taxes would move us in that direction.
Class warfare?
As Warren Buffett put it, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
***
- Richard Cohen
- Opinion Writer
The secret in Mitt Romney’s tax returns
By Richard Cohen, July 23, 2012
To paraphrase Rhett Butler, I don’t give a damn if Mitt Romney releases more of his tax returns. I expect to learn nothing from them, aside from the fact that he is very rich and has paid less in taxes than he has acknowledged. He has probably taken advantage of all the loops and dodges in the tax code, piling trusts on top of trusts, securing wealth for Romneys yet unborn — gelt unto the third generation, little taxed, slightly taxed or taxed not at all.
“Let me tell you about the very rich,” F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote. ’Scuse me, Scotty, let me tell you about them: They don’t pay much in taxes.
This is what the average person would learn if all of Romney’s tax filings hit the light of day. He has so far divulged just his 2010 return and the estimate for 2011, and the Obama camp, smelling blood, has demanded more. The din has reached such a level that even some conservatives are entreating Romney to reveal additional filings. They are not, however, imploring their candidate to identify his bundlers — for this might actually reveal who has their hooks into him. The filings, I promise you, will show loopholes and financial black holes that make taxable income disappear. What we will not see is anything revelatory or, as some insist, genuine insights into the character of the candidate.
Certainly, this has been the case in the past. Richard Nixon disclosed his taxes preceding the 1968 presidential campaign. He reported hefty earnings averaging $200,000 in his years as a New York lawyer, but there was nothing in the forms relating to occasional bouts of drunkenness, paranoia, excessive self-pity or a proclivity to listen to the telephone conversations of others.
Similarly, Bill Clinton, in his pre-White House filings, showed a gross 1990 income of $268,646, but the box (32a) relating to possible extramarital relations in the Oval Office was left blank. No doubt it was an oversight.
George W. Bush’s tax forms were as vacant as he was of any suggestion that he moved his lips when he read and would, if given the chance, tank the economy and lead the nation into two wars, mismanaging both.
By and large, the tax filings tell you nothing you don’t already know. But the refusal to release them is a different matter. In Romney’s case, this is his one and only stand on principle, an odd example of political bravery. He has flipped on abortion, gun control and, of course, health-insurance reform, his signature achievement as governor of Massachusetts. But not on releasing his taxes. Others have been recalcitrant. Ronald Reagan didn’t want to do it (he charged his daughter Maureen interest on a loan) but ultimately did.
In general, presidential and vice presidential candidates have released their returns. Maybe this was because most of them were public servants whose salaries were already known and whose wealth was modest. Others, though, were persons of considerable wealth — Lloyd Bentsen, John Kerry, John Edwards — who laid it all out on the table. (I wonder if Edwards, if he still had presidential prospects, would have deducted his latest child.)
It’s impossible to know what Romney is not revealing. But it is instructive to contrast him to his father, George, who was an auto executive and governor of Michigan. When George Romney ran for president in 1968, he released 12 years of income tax returns. But he was essentially salaried — his remuneration set either by statute or by a board of directors — and so really he was divulging little. Maybe more important, he actually made something (cars) or did something (governed). His son not only manufactured nothing but earned his wealth the new way — by financial manipulation, leveraging and such. On paper, it could look ugly.
For Mitt Romney, there are no assembly lines, no factories or mines — just back offices and computer terminals and such esoterica as the infinitesimal difference between what the Libor rate should be and what it is. He was loyal to no company, no industry — just to his investors (many of whom were Latin America oligarchs, seemingly connected to death squads. Alan). The making of such money is concealed, based on the exotic manipulation of numbers and the disregard of people. Only a relatively few know how to do this sort of thing, and they don’t much like to talk about it. Romney, as we already know, is one of those people. He hides his taxes not because it would reveal anything new about him, but because it would reveal what he has always known about us: We’re suckers.
Read more on this issue:
Matthew Yglesias: What is the worst we could find?
***
The Roots of The American Dream
More on The Golden Calf at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_calf
All that glitters...
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