Category: Mitt Romney

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VIDEO: Paul Ryan’s Budget Will Give Mitt Romney a 1% Tax Rate – Up From 0%!

PrioritiesUSA, the SuperPac supporting President Obama has created another video. We all remember how Republicans and Mitt Romney got up-in-arms over the SuperPac’s video about Joe Soptic – a factory steel worker fired when Romney’s Bain Capital closed the company that employed him. Joe’s wife later died of cancer because the unemployed couple had no health insurance.

In their new video, PrioritiesUSA is highlighting the Budget framed by Romney’s VP choice Paul Ryan. Did you know that under Ryan’s plan people in Mitt Romney‘s income bracket would only pay a rate of 1%? And for Mr. Romney, that 1% might actually be a rate increase. Word on the street is that he’s paid zero taxes in earlier years. Of course no one has come forward with concrete evidence to prove this claim, but this is what we’re hearing and Mitt Romney is too scared to release his taxes to prove us wrong.

Video…

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Mitt Romney Politics

Another Verse To The Song – Mitt Romney Is A Liar

Here’s an old song I’m sure you have heard before – Mitt Romney is a liar! See? You’re all shaking your heads in agreement.

Well, I here’s another verse to add to our little song. We have all the new claim from Mitt Romney that President Obama has “stolen” $700 billion from Medicare. Well PolitiFact checked into these claims and found…shockingly…that Mitt Romney is a liar!

Here’s how Romney put it in an interview with 60 Minutes shortly after selecting Ryan:

“There’s only one president that I know of in history that robbed Medicare, $716 billion to pay for a new risky program of his own that we call Obamacare.”

Here, we’re checking whether Obama “robbed” Medicare of $716 billion dollars to pay for Obamacare.

$700 billion from Medicare?

The claim that Obama cut $700 billion out of Medicare is relatively new. Not long ago, the oft-cited number was $500 billion. How did he manage to cut another $200 billion when no one was looking?

First things first: Neither Obama nor his health care law literally cut a dollar amount from the Medicare program’s budget.

Rather, the health care law instituted a number of changes to try to bring down future health care costs in the program. At the time the law was passed, those reductions amounted to $500 billion over the next 10 years.

What kind of spending reductions are we talking about? They were mainly aimed at insurance companies and hospitals, not beneficiaries. The law makes significant reductions to Medicare Advantage, a subset of Medicare plans run by private insurers. Medicare Advantage was started under President George W. Bush, and the idea was that competition among the private insurers would reduce costs. But in recent years the plans have actually cost more than traditional Medicare. So the health care law scales back the payments to private insurers.

Hospitals, too, will be paid less if they have too many re-admissions, or if they fail to meet other new benchmarks for patient care.

Obama and fellow Democrats say the intention is to protect beneficiaries’ coverage while forcing health care providers to become more efficient.

And Romney’s claim that President Obama is the only president in history to deal with Medicare? This is what PolitiFact found:

“We reviewed this history in detail in a fact-check of Romney’s statement from December, “Only one president has ever cut Medicare for seniors in this country . . . Barack Obama.” We rated that False. Many presidents have sought to rein in Medicare spending.

Here are a few highlights from that fact-check:

• President Ronald Reagan cut Medicare by reducing payments to hospitals, and he cut benefits by raising deductibles.

• President George H.W. Bush cut benefits by repealing a law that would have expanded coverage for drugs and catastrophic illness.

• President Bill Clinton cut Medicare by changing payments to doctors and other providers, which could be considered to have an indirect effect on beneficiaries.”

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics

Hey, Paul Ryan Could Flip Flop Too – Video

He once credit Ayn Rand and particularly her book “Atlas Shrugged,” for teaching him about his “belief system.” But now, Paul Ryan – the newly appointed Republican vice presidential candidate – is trying to run far away… far far away from Ayn Rand, and he is leaving Mitt Romney in the dust on the road to Flip Flop City.

In 2005, Paul Ryan spoke to the Atlas Society and said this about Ayn Rand;“There is no better place to find the moral case for capitalism and individualism than through Ayn Rand’s writings and works.”

Below, Lawrence O’Donnell explains how fast Paul is running…

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hypocrite Mitt Romney Politics Republican

Romney Cries “Dirty Politics,” While Perfecting The Art of Dirty Politics

Get this! Someone is accusing the other person of running a “dirty” campaign. Can you guess who the accuser is?

If you said Mitt Romney, you would be right.

The man who used his money to destroy all of his Republican primary opponents is now accusing President Obama of playing dirty politics. At a campaign event yesterday, Romney said the president is trying to “smash” the country apart to win the election. Romney’s claims was in reference to a statement Vice President Joe Biden made about Republicans putting “y’all back in chains” if they win the White House. Biden was talking about Republicans’ desire to eliminate regulations on businesses, allowing them free rein to do whatever they want.

Here’s his full statement:

“Look at what they [Republicans] value and look at their budget, and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to … He said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”

That statement was an open door for Mitt Romney who, over the last month or so, found himself in defensive mode as the Obama Team brought daily questions about his taxes, policies and his negative ads. Not one to miss an open door opportunity, Romney pounced on Biden’s statement;

 “This is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like. President Obama knows better, promised better, and America deserves better … His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then try to cobble together 51 percent of the pieces.

“Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting America.”

Romney’s record clearly speaks for itself. His very first ad against the president was called a lie by all the fact-checking news agencies. In that ad, Romney used a clip of Obama quoting John McCain in 2008 where McCain said, “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re gonna lose.” In Romney’s ad however, Romney edited the clip to make the audience think President Obama was saying those words.

The ad was just the first in a long list of Romney ads that fact-checkers have called lies or highly misleading. But as you read Mitt Romney’s statement above, you’ll think he was a poster boy for the Mormon Church or something, and based on his almost record-setting campaign lies, a poster boy for the Church he’s not.

Asked to respond to Romney’s statement, Ben LaBolt – Obama’s Campaign Spokesman said, “Governor Romney’s comments tonight seemed unhinged and particularly strange coming at a time when he’s pouring tens of millions of dollars into negative ads that are demonstrably false.”

We agree with you Ben!

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics Sarah Palin

Confessions Of A VP Voyeur

Sarah Palin scared the crap out of me. Paul Ryan? Not so much.

When John McCain announced that he was choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, I got a cold shiver down my spine. Not the same cold shiver I got two or three weeks later when it became clear that Governor Palin’s talking alone created a threat to our national and educational security, but a cold shiver that entertained the idea that these two could win the White House. And let’s be fair: Sarah Palin was a “fresh face,” she was “energetic,” she was a “woman,” (okay, lol. No quotations needed for that last one…), she could energize a crowd and she was very darned compelling. Next to her, Barack Obama looked plodding and dull. I thought the race was over.

We all know how that worked out, and America is a stronger country because of it.

All of this came back to mind over the past few days after Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate. My reaction? Very little emotion. I didn’t feel threatened. I wasn’t scared. None of that adrenalin fueled fear I had in 2008. Nope, Paul Ryan does not scare me in the least. And that’s interesting because Ryan has a wealth of ideas and proposals and serious thoughts that would never take an overnight in Sarah Palin’s amygdala.

I searched a bit deeper, and this is what I found.

Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney are too much alike. When they stand together, they look like the corporate jerks who sent your job to Hyderabad and your health care to the local EmergiCenter. They even talk that way. I always admired how the GOP could take an image and make it work on television, but they’ve come a cropper this time. Looking at Romney-Ryan is not a compelling visual. As a matter of fact, it’s a bit boring.

The press narrative so far is that Mitt chose someone as a counterweight to his emerging image as a gaffe prone slice of white American cheese, but that’s exactly what Mitt didn’t need. He needed to move towards the center of the political spectrum with a politician who didn’t threaten the middle. Ryan looks the part of the counterweight, but his ideas are easily packaged as a scary, program-cutting menace who will throw your grandma under select vehicles that, at this point, you can’t afford anyway. And that’s exactly how the Obama campaign is playing it.

The other thing is that I don’t get the sense that the excitement over Romney’s choice will last very long. He’s already running away from Ryan’s budget, making the questionable assumption that his 59-point economic plan is somehow a better political plank than the reason he chose Ryan in the first place. Ryan is a darling of the far right, but not of the middle or independents. To win them over he’s got to move beyond deficit reduction to something the middle can grab hold of, but neither Romney nor Ryan has that. They have a bad economy, high unemployment and hatred of Obama on their right flank. They have to promise a vision of the country that’s better than what we have now. Cutting Medicare while saving every weapons program and keeping tax cuts for the wealthy is not the way to do that. The right-wing will vote for Mitt anyway, so he really didn’t need Ryan to shore up the base. What he will need is more independent voters in Florida and Ohio. I don’t think he gets them with Ryan.

In the end, voters want to know what’s in it for them. They say they want deficit reduction, but what they really want is a job and a home and a decent neighborhood school. Romney-Ryan has the opportunity to make the case for that, but it will be difficult because that’s not the evolving national conversation. President Obama has run a terrific campaign so far keeping Romney on his heels and controlling the message. Romney can try to change that message, but his choice of Ryan now limits, rather than expands, his choice of subjects. Just as Mitt is being defined as the rich guy, Ryan will be known as the cut Medicare guy. That’s not a winner.

And that’s why I’m not afraid of Paul Ryan.

(But Sarah Palin still scares the crap out of me.)

See more at:
www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics taxes

Paul Ryan Wants to End Mitt Romney’s Tax Havens – Video

One of the reasons Mitt Romney is bucking the American people’s wish to for him to release more of his taxes is because there are many tax havens he now enjoys. So far, we know he has millions stashed away in The Cayman Islands, we know of millions he has stored in Bermuda and we can bet you “$10,000.00” (one of Romney’s favorite betting amount) that there are many more tax havens where the Romneys bank their money to avoid paying their full share of taxes.

With that said, Paul Ryan – Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential pick – is apparently not a big fan of the tax havens and is already going against this favorite tax evasion method of Mitt Romney. Appearing with Romney on 60 Minuets with Bob Schieffer, Ryan responded to a question about the rich and their tax rate.

Schieffer asked; “You say of course the wealthiest people pay the larger share, but don’t they also pay at a lower rate? When you figure in capital gains and all of that?”

Romney replied with his usual jargon about the rich paying more taxes than anyone else, but then Ryan said this:

What we’re saying is take away the tax shelters that are uniquely enjoyed by people in the top tax brackets so they can’t shelter as much money from taxation, should lower tax rates for everybody to make America more competitive.

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Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Politics

Mitt Romney Chose Paul Ryan as VP. Let’s Learn A Little About Paul Ryan

Now that Mitt Romney has made his choice for vice president with the Paul Ryan selection, it is very important that Americans learn a little more about the man who could potentially be the next president of the United State in the unlikely event that Mitt Romney wins in November.

So to help us with that task, the Obama re-election team has put out this video touting one of Paul Ryan’s most important accomplishment, something known as The Ryan Budget.

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Mitt Romney Politics

President Obama’s Ad Denouncing Romney’s Welfare Lie

By now you’ve all heard of yet another massive lie from the Mitt Romney, accusing President Obama of getting rid of the “work” element for welfare recipients, and “sending them a check” just for being on the program.

Of course, this is just another of Romney’s growing list of blatant lies against the President and this time, President Obama is answering back.

Here’s the ad.

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Mitt Romney Politics

CNN: Romney Approved Over $70 Million In “Fictional Tax Losses”

What is Mitt Romney hiding, and why can’t he come clean with the American people about his taxes? Well maybe one reason is because he was involved in a tax scheme worth over $70 million dollars, something CNN called “fictional tax losses.”

Yea, if I had cheated the government out of $70 million dollars in fictional tax losses, I too would want to keep that a secret. Makes you wonder what else is he hiding?

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Mitt Romney Politics

Even Republicans Call Mitt Romney’s “Welfare” Ad A Lie

The Romney ad following this post has already been debunked by all the major news organizations and called a lie by many. And now, some Republicans are stepping up to the plate and calling out Mitt Romney for the lies he is telling. Ron Haskins, the Republican who was a senior adviser to President Bush on welfare policies, is the latest Republican to disagree with Romney’s attacks.

Mitt Romney’s latest television ad attacks the Obama administration for announcing a “plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements.” It’s a strong allegation, but according to a former Republican congressional aide who was key to crafting welfare reform in the 1990s, it’s also not true.

“There’s no plausible scenario under which it really constitutes a serious attack on welfare reform,” Ron Haskins, who is now co-director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on Children and Families, said in an interview with NPR that aired on Wednesday.

Haskins spent 14 years on the staff of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Human Resources Subcommittee, first as welfare counsel to the Republican staff, then as the subcommittee’s staff director. In 2002, he was President George W. Bush’s senior adviser on welfare policy.

Welfare, formally known as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, is administered by states within federal rules. Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services invited states to apply for waivers from some rules in order to run “demonstration projects” so that states could “consider new, more effective ways to meet the goals of TANF, particularly helping parents successfully prepare for, find, and retain employment.”

Haskins noted that the requirements states have to meet in order to receive the waivers are quite rigorous.

“First of all, the states have to apply individually for waivers,” he said. “And they have to explain in detail, sometimes using data, why this approach would lead to either more employment or better jobs for people who are trying to welfare or get off welfare.”

As The Huffington Post’s Arthur Delaney has pointed out, this waiver policy was sought out by Republican governors. In a release defending its waiver request from conservative backlash last month, the office of Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) said, “Utah’s request for a waiver stems from a desire for increased customization of the program to maximize employment among Utah’s welfare recipients.”

In 2005, as Massachusetts governor, Romney also signed a letter in support of a waiver policy — a fact left out of his new TV ad.

Here’s the ad:

 

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Mitt Romney Politics taxes

Mitt Romney’s Tax Plan Could Save His Family $80 Million

The U.S. tax code may be difficult to grasp, but understanding the presidential candidates‘ plans for it doesn’t have to be. President Obama wants to raise his own taxes, while Mitt Romney wants to dramatically reduce the already small slice he pays to Uncle Sam.

Of course, that simplification doesn’t shed light on just how dramatic President Romney’s windfall for his family would actually be. Mitt’s plan, which the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center forecast would cut taxes for the richest five percent of earners while increasing the tax bill for the other 95 percent of Americans, could slash his own annual IRS payment by almost half. And by eliminating the estate tax, the $250 million man would potentially divert $80 million (and possibly more) from the United States Treasury to his own heirs

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Mitt Romney Politics

Romney’s Family Trust Fund Violated Romney’s Pledge To Republican Party

WASHINGTON — Presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised in 2007 he would shed any investments that conflicted with Republican positions on hot-button domestic and foreign policy issues. But Romney’s family trusts kept some of those holdings and repeatedly bought new ones until 2010, when they were finally sold off for more than $3 million, according to a detailed review of Romney’s financial records by The Associated Press.

Recently disclosed tax returns for three family trust funds for Romney, his wife, Ann, and their adult children show scores of trades in companies whose business operations are inconsistent with Republican Party stances that Romney favors on Iran, China, stem cell research, abortion and other issues.

A Romney campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, said the former Massachusetts governor has no control over the investments made by his blind trust, but the trustee has tried to manage the trades “in a manner consistent with Gov. Romney’s publicly expressed positions.”

The continual trading between 2006 and 2010 raises questions about why the investments continued for three years, even after Romney said in 2007 that the trust would sell off any conflicted holdings. Those trades came during a period when Romney has sought to convince voters of his conservative Republican values. The trades also raise questions about whether any of the transactions were vetted for possible conflicts or political perception before they were made.

“Financially, these would seem to be completely legitimate investments,” said Thomas B. Cooke, a professor of business law at Georgetown University and former president of the National Society of Tax Professionals. “But for someone running for president, there’s also a smell test.”

Romney’s spokeswoman would not respond to questions about the timing or vetting of his investments in his blind trust. She said, however, that the lawyer running the trust occasionally makes adjustments in holdings with Romney’s positions in mind.

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