Katrina vanden Heuvel, WaPo: Extremism in defense of Gilded Age privilege

[highplainsdem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romneys-challenge-preserving-gilded-age-privilege/2012/08/28/de5f3700-f11a-11e1-892d-bc92fee603a7_story.html

Romney has sought to distance himself from the Republican extremes on abortion. But he is the leading advocate of the other aspect of new age Republican extremism: its Gilded Age economic policies.

For all the zealotry of the Christian Coalition or the tea party, the Romney-Ryan ticket is most notable for its fierce defense of privilege. Consider:

At a time when the top 1 percent of Americans captured a staggering 93 percent of national income growth in 2010, Romney advocates both extending the extra Bush tax cuts for the rich and another round of tax cuts that would offer those making a million or more another $175,000 annual tax break.

Romney says he’ll pay for these tax cuts by closing loopholes, but he refuses to reveal which ones. But he does state clearly that he won’t end the biggest loophole of all for the very wealthy — the 15 percent tax on capital gains and dividends. And as befits the man from Bain, he won’t condemn the ridiculous tax dodge — the so-called “carried-interest” tax rate — that allows private-equity billionaires to report their fees as capital gains rather than as wages. The result, as the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center reports, is that Romney is running on a policy that will raise taxes on working families and lower them on the rich.

-snip-

"In Tampa," she concludes, "the tea party gets its anti-government, anti-immigrant planks in the platform, and the Christian Coalition its war on women; but the big money is pouring in to support the praetorian guard of privilege at the top of the ticket."

[dtom67]

1. this is it ...

This is the only thing the republican ruling elite cares about. They don't really give a shit about abortion, family values, gay marriage, or gun rights. They are the the ruling class . That is why they picked one of their own for president. All those other issues are only intended to mobilize a group of people who will vote the way they want. But now the wealthy elite think the time is right to just "buy" the presidency.

maybe they are right...


hope not...