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Opinion
It's been infinitely amusing to witness “class warfare” break out among the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, given that most of them are resolute guardians of the well-heeled .01% class whose income derives principally from capital investments.
Gingrich and Santorum have focused on front-runner Romney's history with Bain Capital, which more appropriately could be spelled “Bane Capital,” as in bane of the middle-class (or working class, as it's known in other countries).
Romney and his partners made millions by capital intervention with distressed companies, with a very mixed record: Some were rescued and returned to viability; for others, it was more profitable to break them up and sell the parts, destroying thousands of jobs in the process. As ever in our unbalanced system, the prerogatives of stockholders trump the needs of jobholders, or those seeking them. Running as the man who will finally rescue our moribund economy and provide some greater opportunity for Main Street over Wall Street (which is flourishing), Romney's history is just fodder for examination.
He was also chagrined at the exposure that he pays an income tax rate below 15% — less than his secretary and the janitors cleaning Bain Capital's offices. Apologists say that the actual net rate on all loot, including corporate taxes, is more like 45% — but that's true only if your money is parked here in the 50 states, not hidden in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and other foreign venues in the tax dodger archipelago that Bain Capital specializes in.
We don't know the exact figures, but it's possible that Bain Capital is in company with General Electric and about two dozen of America's largest corporations that have paid $0.00 in federal taxes, or even gotten a refund in the last several years. So many loopholes and deductions have been engineered by corporate lobbyists that the “highest corporate tax rates in the world” claim that many are fond of repeating is a widely acknowledged joke. And who makes up the difference for this colossal evasion? The humble and beleaguered middle class.
We are told, of course, that this is all for the common good: That the historically low tax rates on capital gains and the .01% are a great boon, freeing up the “job creators” to fertilize the economy. But these tax cuts have been in effect since Dubya was in the White House — a period of record low job creation — so is it too much ask now “where are all these jobs?” We know where they are — in China, S. Korea, Mexico, and anywhere but the United States. They fled overseas, along with Bain Capital's bank deposits.
According to research by the IMF, the world's new international Superclass (see the book by that title) amounts to an aristocracy every bit as fat, pampered, and ravenous as the old lords of Europe, with an estimated $18 trillion hidden in offshore banks.
Every time I hear this “untax the job creators” battle cry, despite the reality of nearly 10 years of abysmal job creation, I'm reminded of Mikhail Suslov, chief theorist of the old Soviet Union in the Brezhnev era, promising that the bountiful rewards of Communism were lurking over the horizon. Inflexible ideology, ignorant of changing reality, dies hard— but die it must.
Our current reality, acknowledged by the likes of Nouriel Roubini, Joseph Stiglitz, Mark Cuban, Warren Buffett, and the worthies attending the recent Davos summit, is that, as the global recession deepens in its fourth year, capitalism is in a state of crisis. Is Romney the man to rescue it
When I read that his top campaign contributor is Goldman-Sachs, followed by Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase, it's hard to see him as anything but another wind-up doll for the same Wall Street banksters that created this crisis and lobbied vigorously to sabotage desperately needed reforms. They bought and owned Bush and Obama, and they will also own Romney if he makes it to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Neither is it encouraging that Romney, his son, Tagg, and his chief fundraiser, Spencer Zwick, have extensive financial ties with three men who participated in the $8.5 billion Ponzi scheme run by Stanford Financial Group — the largest such scam since Bernie Madoff.
In the With Mitt in charge, “you ain't seen nothin' yet.”
-----------------------------
Travis Kelly is a web/graphic designer, writer and cartoonist in Grand Junction. See his work or contact him at www.traviskelly.com.
Gingrich and Santorum have focused on front-runner Romney's history with Bain Capital, which more appropriately could be spelled “Bane Capital,” as in bane of the middle-class (or working class, as it's known in other countries).
Romney and his partners made millions by capital intervention with distressed companies, with a very mixed record: Some were rescued and returned to viability; for others, it was more profitable to break them up and sell the parts, destroying thousands of jobs in the process. As ever in our unbalanced system, the prerogatives of stockholders trump the needs of jobholders, or those seeking them. Running as the man who will finally rescue our moribund economy and provide some greater opportunity for Main Street over Wall Street (which is flourishing), Romney's history is just fodder for examination.
He was also chagrined at the exposure that he pays an income tax rate below 15% — less than his secretary and the janitors cleaning Bain Capital's offices. Apologists say that the actual net rate on all loot, including corporate taxes, is more like 45% — but that's true only if your money is parked here in the 50 states, not hidden in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and other foreign venues in the tax dodger archipelago that Bain Capital specializes in.
We don't know the exact figures, but it's possible that Bain Capital is in company with General Electric and about two dozen of America's largest corporations that have paid $0.00 in federal taxes, or even gotten a refund in the last several years. So many loopholes and deductions have been engineered by corporate lobbyists that the “highest corporate tax rates in the world” claim that many are fond of repeating is a widely acknowledged joke. And who makes up the difference for this colossal evasion? The humble and beleaguered middle class.
We are told, of course, that this is all for the common good: That the historically low tax rates on capital gains and the .01% are a great boon, freeing up the “job creators” to fertilize the economy. But these tax cuts have been in effect since Dubya was in the White House — a period of record low job creation — so is it too much ask now “where are all these jobs?” We know where they are — in China, S. Korea, Mexico, and anywhere but the United States. They fled overseas, along with Bain Capital's bank deposits.
According to research by the IMF, the world's new international Superclass (see the book by that title) amounts to an aristocracy every bit as fat, pampered, and ravenous as the old lords of Europe, with an estimated $18 trillion hidden in offshore banks.
Every time I hear this “untax the job creators” battle cry, despite the reality of nearly 10 years of abysmal job creation, I'm reminded of Mikhail Suslov, chief theorist of the old Soviet Union in the Brezhnev era, promising that the bountiful rewards of Communism were lurking over the horizon. Inflexible ideology, ignorant of changing reality, dies hard— but die it must.
Our current reality, acknowledged by the likes of Nouriel Roubini, Joseph Stiglitz, Mark Cuban, Warren Buffett, and the worthies attending the recent Davos summit, is that, as the global recession deepens in its fourth year, capitalism is in a state of crisis. Is Romney the man to rescue it
When I read that his top campaign contributor is Goldman-Sachs, followed by Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase, it's hard to see him as anything but another wind-up doll for the same Wall Street banksters that created this crisis and lobbied vigorously to sabotage desperately needed reforms. They bought and owned Bush and Obama, and they will also own Romney if he makes it to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Neither is it encouraging that Romney, his son, Tagg, and his chief fundraiser, Spencer Zwick, have extensive financial ties with three men who participated in the $8.5 billion Ponzi scheme run by Stanford Financial Group — the largest such scam since Bernie Madoff.
In the With Mitt in charge, “you ain't seen nothin' yet.”
-----------------------------
Travis Kelly is a web/graphic designer, writer and cartoonist in Grand Junction. See his work or contact him at www.traviskelly.com.
