Political Weasel

Shorter GOP On The Economy

Shorter GOP on Bush's role in crashing the economy and Obama's progress in restoring it:

It doesn't matter who was behind the wheel when the car went over the cliff, it only matters that the guy pushing it back up the mountain can't push it back up at double the high rate of speed it careened down. He hasn't reached the mountain top, yet, so UP is clearly the wrong direction - we must turn it around and push it the other way.

Well, GOP, it DOES matter who was behind the wheel when the person asking to be our new chauffer is promising to turn that car back around and go hell bent for the ravine, again.

30+ months of job growth, net job gains, unemployment rates slowly but steadily coming down, stocks posting record highs, what would have been Great Depression II averted and the worst recession since the Great Depression ended -- all while the GOP has intentionally put up road block after road block to prevent it. We're not heading the wrong direction and it's time to get the GOP and their road blocks out of the way so the people's work can be done and we can get this economy back to the top, where it belongs.

...And, for the record, GOP: only two things rush up faster than than they trickle down: vomit and wealth.

Once Upon a Time, Romney Had Empathy.

Here's what Romney said to NBC's Ron Allen, yesterday, about RomneyCare and how it proves he has empathy:

“I got everybody in my state insured. One hundred percent of the kids in our state had health insurance. I don’t think there’s anything that shows more empathy and care about the people of this country than that kind of record.”

Really Mitt? You don't think there's anything at all that shows more empathy than insuring the people of Massachusetts? Have you actually given that question any thought? Why don't you don't a take a minute to consider it, now? Think. Think hard. What could be even more empathetic and caring than insuring the people of just one of our great states? Still can't come up with anything, huh? No wonder you think plane windows should open and that adding oxygen to a fire puts it out. Let me help you out, here... now, I'm just spit-balling, here, but how about insuring everyone in EVERY state and the District of Columbia, like President Obama did? How awesomely empathetic would THAT be? ObamaCare is more than 50 times more empathetic than RomneyCare! Plus, unlike RomneyCare, it doesn't use taxpayer funds to cover those abortions you used to say should be a woman's free choice, but now say you'd jump to ban at the Federal level, given the chance AND ObamaCare imposes smaller fines than RomneyCare. Wow, you must be like the biggest fan of ObamaCare, ever!

But wait... what did you actually have to say about ObamaCare? Oh yeah, "Day One, Job One, Repeal ObamaCare." You even uploaded an ad about it.

How empathetic is that? (Hint: The answer is NONE.)

And Mitt, I have to ask... how exactly do you think this proves you have empathy and care about the people? At most, it proves you USED to have empathy. Have you said anything, more recently than you've signed ANYthing into law, that might give us some insight into how much empathy you have for all those people you insured in Massachusetts and for the millions of other Americans who are struggling? There is?! Well, let's hear it!

Oh yeah... that. Ow. Now that we know what you say about us behind our backs, it's more likely the only thing RomneyCare might prove is that you used to do a better job of PRETENDING to have empathy. Those people you just bragged about insuring in Massachusetts are some of those same people you trash talked at your fancy $50,000.00/plate fundraising dinner. Did you think we wouldn't notice that? It's not your job to worry about them or our seniors, our veterans & war heroes, those Americans who are looking for jobs because of that unemployment rate you're running on & which your own party helps to sustain by blocking the jobs bill in Congress or even our disabled people and poor children?

How empathetic is that? (Hint: The answer is NONE.)

And you've told the 30+ million people you intend to kick off of health care on day one of your Presidency to "take personal responsibility and care for their lives" by going to the Emergency Room and sticking ME and MY FAMILY (who are insured and pay very expensive premiums for really high deductibles and crappy coverage) with the bill? WTF?!?! Back when you were proving your empathy by insuring the people of Massachusetts, you described that as socialism. Remember that, Mitt?

How empathetic is it to make them wait until minor illnesses become emergencies to seek care? How empathetic is it to stick ME with their bills when I'm already stuck paying for your tax breaks and the last spend & spend & spend Republican President's wars? (Hint: The answer is NONE.)

Tell you what, Mitt. You've said you care deeply about jobs and struggling Americans. You've said the Government can't create jobs, only the private sector can. You claim to know how to create jobs because you've done it. Why don't you prove THOSE claims? Put your elbow grease where your waffle-hole is. Stop seeking a job in the Government you claim can't help the situation, go back to the private sector, CREATE SOME JOBS - good jobs a hard working man or woman can support a family on, build a decent life around and retire comfortably from after 40 years - jobs for American citizens in the United States of America... and while you're at it, make a profit, a big one and use it to take some personal responsibility for and show some care for maintaining this glorious nation as the best place on this Earth to call home... invest your profits in American businesses, sock it away in American banks and pay your taxes.

If you devote the rest of your life to doing that and you can accomplish it, you'll be far more wealthy than you're on track to be, now and you won't have to brag or reboot or shake your etch a sketch to get my applause or to convince me you can do the things you say you can do. You'll have earned it.

Shredding the Competition

ATTENTION Newly registered Democrats in Florida:

Double check that you are actually registered. A Romney hired firm, owned by a known registration fraud perpetrator, allegedly shredded Dem registrations in Florida in an attempt to skew the Nov election. If your voter registration card found its way into the shredder, the deadline to register in FL is Oct. 9, so you need to hurry!

Newly registered Dems in other states need to double check their registrations, as well,particularly in swing and battleground states, where it's more likely their efforts were concentrated.

http://www.politicolnews.com/gop-hired-fraud-company-destroy-voter-registrations-of-democrats/

The Real Mitt Romney

Earlier this week, footage came out of Mitt Romney speaking with wealthy donors at a private $50,000 per plate fundraiser. In his talk, he lets them know what he'd rather we did not know: what he really thinks of us.

By "us," I'm not sure if he means just those of us who are voting for Obama or if he means just the 47% of Americans who pay no income tax -- he seems to think the two groups are one and the same, which clearly shows a lack of even the most rudimentary understanding, both of who makes his own Republican party's base and who is included in that wretched, huddled mass of Americans whom he believes yearn to remain on the government dole and are thus a lost cause and of no concern to him. (If you were shocked by his statement that it's not his job to worry about nearly half of all Americans, you weren't paying attention in the primaries when he said he wasn't concerned about the very poor. He wasn't joking, kids.) And he doesn't stop there, he further describes the 47% as dependent on the Government for survival, in other words -- all 47% are not only paying no income tax but refuse to work and are living solely on the Government Dole because they believe they are victims and entitled to a free ride. The lazy moochers!!!

So, to summarize what Mitt said: 47% of Americans are in the tank for Obama, pay no income tax, refuse to work AND depend solely on the Government Dole for survival.

• Nobody who's in the tank for Obama pays income tax and everybody who pays no income tax is in the tank for Obama.
• Everybody who's in the tank for Obama is on the Government Dole and everybody who's on the Government Dole is in the tank for Obama.
• Everybody who's voting for Obama refuses to work and everyone who's not working is voting for Obama.
• Everybody who's voting for Obama sees themselves as victims and everyone who sees themselves as victims is voting for Obama

Got that? Good.

In case you've forgotten what Mitt Romney actually said and you've bought into his post-outing damage control that he was talking about creating jobs and lifting people out of poverty, here's the quote to refresh your memory:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the President no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48—he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. 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.
See Full Transcript on Mother Jones

Who is in the tank for Obama?
For starters, lots of us, who are "in the tank" for Obama, DO work and DO pay income taxes AND, unlike Romney, can PROVE IT by producing, as we're often asked to do when we apply for loans or even some jobs, complete tax returns going back multiple years. Mr Romney, who claims to have released two years of his tax returns has, in fact, released only a PORTION of his 2010 returns. Get out your scratch pads & do the math along with us at home, kids: A fraction of 1 return is not only less than 2 years, it's less than 1 year. We have NO evidence Mitt paid any income taxes at all in any of several years leading up to and including 2009... because Romney refuses to provide that evidence

Update: Shortly after this post was written, it was announced that Romney has released his 2011 return as well as statements/summaries (but not the actual returns) regarding several previous years. It is worth noting that Mitt's effective tax rate in 2011 would have been 9%, but he chose not to take his full deduction for charitable contributions, raising it to a somewhat less electorally damaging 14%, but catching himself up in his own claim that if he paid even one dollar more than the law said he had to pay, he'd be unqualified to be this nation's President. Also, if he loses (or even if he does not lose,) he has 3 years to ammend his 2011 taxes to take the full deduction.

Which programs are part of the Government Dole?
That depends on who you ask. Let's be clear about this... Mitt Romney fully subscribes to the Republican Party's definition of "The Government Dole." Their definition includes social programs that assist low income families, like food stamps, Welfare and Medicaid. This is an area that pretty much all of us agree falls under the definition of Government Assistance Programs. But, all of us weren't talking - Mitt Romney was talking and his definiton doesn't stop there, no, his is barely getting started. The Republican/Romney definition also includes SSI disability and Veterans benefits. (That's right kids, he's lumping our Veterans, including our Veterans who were permanently disabled in COMBAT into his detested group of lazy freeloading scum! How very Presidential of him, eh?) Romney and the Republicans also include in their definition things we pay for, separate from our income tax, out of our EARNINGS, through payroll tax and/or our "burden rate" -- things like the Social Security retirement benefits we pay for in advance our entire working lives and the unemployment insurance we pay for and the Medicare premiums we pay in advance all our working lives so that we will have health insurance in our old age. AND, get this, they also include in their definition things we have to pay back to the Government, with interest -- like student loans and small business loans. (Don't worry, if you have a huge, multi-$billion internation corporation or conglomerate that gets $Millions or $Billions in subsidy you don't have to pay back despite paying no taxes in the US, at all, you're a job creator, so you're A-OK with Romney and the Republicans! Yes, you are among the worthiest of the worthies!)

Who's actually ON the Dole?
So, going back to that part of the Government Dole that really does provide assistance to the needy, (Welfare, Medicaid and Food Stamps) who, in this great nation, sucks hardest at the Government teet? Surely, it is the freeloading, scumbag blue states who are in the tank for Obama, right? Sorry, kids. It's the Red States By far. That's right a good portion of those leeches Romney made it clear are a lost cause and not his job to worry about are in the Republican base and in the tank for Romney. Oops. I guess Mitt missed the Tea Party movement, where we learned that a good amount of the markers & poster board used to make those poorly spelled signs railing passionately against Obama and against social programs was actually purchased with welfare and SSI checks cashed by those who held those signs aloft. (But, hey, let's be fair. Many of them justified their Government handouts telling us they deserved that tainted socialist money because they'd paid in to the system at some point prior in their lives -- you know, like everybody else does.)

Who doesn't owe income taxes at the end of the year?

• About 10% of Americans pay no income tax because they earn under $20,000/yr. - some of these people work and some are out of work -- Maybe you've heard Romney and other Republicans reminding us that we still have 8.1% unemployment? In other words, we don't exactly have more jobs than people to fill them in the wake of the worst recession since the Great Depression, no thanks to the Republican Congress who has blocked the jobs bill despite Republican Speaker Boehner's promise, in 2010, that they would create jobs if we gave Republicans the majority in the House.
• Lots of hard working families who are raising children and whose deductions and Earned Income Credit and Mortgage Interest credit offset their tax liability.
• Children who do not work -- because they are too young.
• Seniors who no longer work -- because they're too old.
• High School and College Students who do not work -- because they're concentrating on their studies. Note: Neither Mitt nor Ann worked when they were in college, even after they married and began having children.
• Wealthy people who do not work and who live off of investment income.
• Millionaires and Billionaires who work, but find creative ways, as Mitt Romney did when he was at Bain to receive compensation that is considered investment income and not earned income.
• Millionaires and Billionaires who work, but crawl through accounting and financial loopholes to "shelter" their income so it appears they did not earn it in the US or so that it appears they've donated it all to charity - including charities they own and control. Like Mitt does.

Are all of these people worthless moochers who refuse to work? NO! Most of them work for a living - and work hard, at that!
Are all of these people on the Government Dole as defined by Romney, Ryan and the Republican party? No.
Are all of these people in the tank for Obama? NO! A good portion are in the tank for Romney! Some of them might even have paid $50,000 to be in that room with Romney. Heck, one of them might BE Mitt Romney. (He won't release his returns, so we will never know - to quote Dana Carvey's Church Lady character from SNL "Isn't that convenient?")

It's also worth noting, here that most of these people have something Mitt Romney does not have - a job. In fact, Romney didn't have a job until he was nearly 30, long after he'd married and started his family and then he retired in (well, the year he retired is even a question he's answered different ways depending on who's listening, but whatever year it was, it was well before he reached the age most of the hard working people he looks down on as freeloading moochers will have the luxury of retiring.)

Is there any such thing as victims, in a free society?
Yes, kids, sadly victims exist in every society. Are they all Obama supporters? Hardly! The Republicans have tried to turn the word into something dirty, detestable and despicable. They've twisted into a taunt to subdue you into going along with the status quo they want to set and their redefinition intentionally detracts from the real meaning.

If you're not chewing your cud contentedly, like the dumb little head of cattle you're supposed to be, you're crying "victim." Raped and knocked up by your rapist - you're not a victim, you've been blessed and should quit your whining to thank your maker for that brutal assault. Lose your job because some private equity firm bought your profitable employer, leveraged it to the hilt and left it to die an agonizing death - you're not a victim, you're just a lazy bum who doesn't take responsibility for your life, as evidenced by the fact you don't have a job. Right?

Well, here's the thing. If there's no such thing as a victim, there's no such thing as a crime. That's the real definition of victim - a person against whom a crime has been perpetrated. If you honestly believe the Republicans think there's no such thing as a victim, that it's just whining on the part of some worthless drain on society who can't take responsibility for or care for his/her own life, take a good long look at how fast the Republicans are NOT shutting down and dismantling all of our empty prisons and jails.

Their entire victimhood meme is a tactic, not a belief. Certainly, not a fact. There are very real victims in this great nation. We often call them survivors, because of the tenacity and endurance of our not-so-fragile human spirit to survive and thrive against all odds and to triumph over adversity. Changing the meaning of the word as it's perceived by society diminishes those triumphs. Whether someone has been or is a victim has nothing to do with whether they believe themselves to be victims or refer to themselves as victims, it has nothing to do with how strong they are, how smart they are, their wealth or position or success in business and it certainly has nothing to do with their politics. The criminals who perpetrate crimes against others don't ask their potential victims to fill out a demographics survey, first, to screen out the potential Romney voters.

So, to recap: Mitt Romney, who has no job, refuses to provide evidence he pays income taxes every year and who wants you to pay higher taxes to continue funding tax cuts for HIM calls poor people moochers while standing in a room begging rich men for money. Wow. And poor Mitt, all of this came out just as he was about to shake his Etch-a-sketch, wipe down his dry erase board and "reboot" his campaign, yet again. Well, I have a bit of valuable advice for you Mr. Romney:

You can reboot a million times, but it won't change your operating system.