There is so much that’s awful in Mitt Romney’s secretly-videotaped 47% comments at a super-high-dollar fundraiser that it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it. His obvious contempt for people who find themselves in need only scratches the surface, and many thousands of words have been written about what that tape reveals about who Mitt Romney really is and what he really believes.
But for all of that, here’s a point that I haven’t yet seen. Mitt Romney believes – or, at least, he says he believes – that his economic plan of lower tax rates across the board (i.e., a ginormous tax cut for the wealthiest), coupled with closing mystery loopholes that he refuses to identify, will help everybody, not just the rich. He said so again just yesterday:
“The question is who can help the poor and the middle class. I can! He can’t!” Mr. Romney said.
And yet, in the fundraiser video, here’s what Romney says (emphasis mine):
Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. And he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean that’s what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people—I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.
Take Romney at his word that, in this passage, he is talking only about how to win an election, and not about how he would govern. The assumption behind it is crystal clear: he thinks that someone who pays no federal income tax will have no interest in a campaign whose main goal is lower federal income tax rates for everyone.
But think about that for a second. Isn’t the whole point of the Romney tax cut plan supposed to be that lower taxes for everyone, including the very rich, means more jobs and economic opportunity for everybody? Isn’t that exactly what he said at the rally yesterday where he says that he can “help the poor and the middle class”? If that’s true, why wouldn’t a message of lowering taxes connect for everybody, including – indeed, perhaps especially – those who don’t pay federal income tax, maybe because they’re out of work or are in a job that doesn’t pay very much? Surely, it’s the folks at the bottom of the income scale who would most like to see a rising tide that lifts all boats.
There are only two possible answers to that question, as far as I can see. One, Romney doesn’t actually believe that lowering taxes across the board will help the poor and others who pay no federal income tax, and his whole campaign is a charade, a scheme to enrich him and his wealthy buddies at the expense of the rest of the country. Two, he does believe it, but he thinks that people who pay no federal income tax are too stupid, or too selfish, to see beyond their own tax returns and understand that even though their own tax bills may not be affected by Romney’s plan, their overall economic situation (along with that of the country) will be improved if Romney becomes president.
I don’t know which it is. Neither says anything good about Mitt Romney.
SomervilleTom says
Mr. Romney is not stupid, and he has access to the same facts as the rest of us. I think we should assume that he knows, as well as we do, that in fact a huge part of that 47% votes Republican — seniors, veterans, and the surprisingly large portion of the working poor that still vote Republican (who knows why).
I think he is, in fact, playing to the welfare-queen stereotype — but doesn’t need to say as much given his audience. Both his audience and Mr. Romney know that in fact a huge slice of that 47% LIKES this message, because they think he’s talking about “somebody else”. I think it’s just more old-fashioned GOP scapegoating, like so much of this campaign (such as his flagrant lies about President Obama’s tweaking of the welfare rules).
In addition, I think it is yet more evidence of the class warfare being waged by the GOP. A significant portion of the GOP voters among that 47% believe that someday somehow they’ll end up on the winning end of that class warfare — his subsequent doubling-down on the message of this clip suggests to me that Mr. Romney continues to pander to and encourage that false hope.
centralmassdad says
The other day I read a posting over at the Atlantic that is far more optimistic about the future of the nation than anyone seems to be here.
Purely racist political appeals have steadily become more and more abstract, as the less abstract form becomes politically toxic, slowly eroding any ability to actually target a race in the process. At this point, the racial abstraction defines in half the country. Where does it go from there?
SomervilleTom says
We can hope that the electorate soundly rejects the scapegoating and dog-whistles of this awful GOP campaign. Racism isn’t the only example, of course — the drumbeat against immigrants, Hispanics, and women, the LGBT community, and so on continues.
I fervently hope that the Obama/Clinton message that we are all in this together triumphs over the raw self-interest promoted by the GOP. In my view, that will do wonders to both heal the deep wounds that have been opened over the past two years and also to perhaps begin to dissolve the congressional gridlock that has so damaged our national recovery.
demeter11 says
If Romney has contempt for those that find themselves in need he should look at a mirror and have a whole lotta contempt:
First, as BMG’s David pointed out, Romney squeezed the federal government for $10 million to bail out Bain when he was CEO:
Then, as reported in Mother Jones: The GOP candidate pried $1.5 billion out of the federal government to bankroll his Olympic turnaround. Millions went to questionable projects that benefited well-connected Utahns.
So, $10,600,000 from the government, not to mention the break for his dressage horse.
If that’s not a reason for contempt I don’t know what is.
demeter11 says
I cant them to show up as links so here they are as text, which can be copies and pasted into browser
Bain $$ from gov’t: http://vps28478.inmotionhosting.com/~bluema24/2012/01/mitt-romneys-10-million-federal-bailout/
Olympic $$ from gov’t:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mitt-romney-expensive-olympics-federal-funding
JHM says
(( “American Nordic” by The Daily Torygraph ))
See also Miss Piggy in this morning’s Wall Street Jingo.
Happy days.
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