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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe 1% con game in Mitch Daniels' speech
The republican STATE OF REPUBLICANS speech delivered by Mitch Daniels had a crafted veneer of seriousness in that he repeatedly called for making the very rich ineligible for certain entitlement benefits. (Tweety thought that was super serious.)
Good News: They recognize that the public relations situation is dire enough that they have to throw something to the wolves (aka The People)
Bad News: Consider what Governor Daniels was really saying. We cannot raise taxes on the job creators, but of course the rich should not get entitlement benefits they don't need.
Now consider what he was really, really, really saying: Mitt Romney makes $57,000 per day. Mitt is willing to give up his $2,366 per month social security check (that number is the maximum SS payout) as a show of reasonableness to avoid higher taxation of his large income, or even in exchange for massive new tax cuts... as long as the littles dependent on entitlement programs also suffer. Fair and balanced.
(Plus the republicans could then start calling social security a welfare program starting with the next election cycle)
FarLeftFist
(6,161 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)forbids rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges"
Bandit
(21,475 posts)By the same token though I believe very strongly in "Progressive Taxation". Mitt makes $57,000 a day. I wonder if he could possibly get by if he only made say $45,000 a Day.. A fucking Day. Every fucking day, 365 days a year. What if the people took $12,000 for country upkeep and it still would be no where close to 30%......I say cry me a fucking river all you billionaires that simply can not survive on tens of thousands of dollars every single day...
annabanana
(52,791 posts)argue away simplistically (which, of course, is what is required for the American electorate)
Don't make our heads hurt with even moderately complex arguments.
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)I didn't want to over-burden the original post with math, but I think Mitt giving up his SS check would constitute a tax increase of 0.14%.
And Mitt's income is really not very high by the standards of rich people. Mitt makes what a top sports star makes, not a tenth of what a top hedge-fund manager makes.