Thom Hartmann: MItt Romney Wants a 12.5% Tax Break that you Pay For

[thomhartmann]

There's a picture floating around of Congressman Paul Ryan and MItt Romney. Congressman Paul Ryan wants to give Mitt Romney a tax break worth millions of dollars. And if Paul Ryan wanted to give you the same sort of tax break - then you'd probably be hugging him too. But he doesn't want to give you a tax break - in fact - he wants to raise your taxes in order to pay for the tax break he wants to give to Mitt Romney. Here's what's going on...The congressional joint economic committee just released a new study on the paul ryan republican budget - which passed out of the house earlier this year thanks to the support of nearly every single republican. And what they found is - millionaires like Mitt Romney would get a 12.5% tax break. Considering Mitt Romney is worth about $260 million bucks and makes tens of millions a year - that comes out to a pretty hefty million tax break courtesy of his buddy Paul Ryan. That goes on top of the sizeable $77,000 tax break romney got by writing off his wife's horse as a tax deduction. A side note: Ann Romney really loves horses. Unfortunately for the rest of us, who aren't worth $260 million and don't have an addiction to dressage horses that we can write off as tax deductions -

The Ryan plan would actually raise our taxes. As the Washington Post points out: "the tax reform plan that house republicans have advanced would sharply cut taxes for the wealthiest americans and could leave middle-class households facing much larger tax bills." Here's how it all breaks down - the Ryan plan creates just two tax brackets - drastically lowering the top income tax down to 25% and creating a second income tax rate of 10% for working people. That might looks like a good deal for everyone - but paul Ryan also eliminates a lot of tax deductions used by working people - so the end result actually works out to a tax increase for low and middle income Americans. These are the facts - the Paul Ryan budget, which - again - was voted on by nearly every single republican in the house - raises taxes on working people. I guess we've found the unwritten exception to millionaire and k street lobbyist grover norquist's pledge - tax increases are ok when they hit working people, but not okay when they hit rich people like Mitt Romney, Grover Norquist, and the Koch Brothers.

But the Paul Ryan plan - as well as Mitt Romney's tax plan, which also includes a tax cut for billionaires - also explains why so many millionaires and billionaires like Foster Friess, the Koch Brothers, and Sheldon Adelson are willing to spend millions to hundreds of millions of dollars to get romney and the republicans elected in november. These aren't actual campaign contributions, they're investments. It's a pretty simple premise really...if i'm a billionaire like sheldon adelson, or a wall street guy who earns a billion dollars a year - and there are a bunch of them who are literally bringing home that much money every year - and i know that if mitt romney and the republicans win, i'll get a 12% tax cut - then why wouldn't i invest in their cause?

A twelve percent tax cut on a billion dollars is $120 million. Adelson already hinted that he's willing to invest $100 million on getting Romney and the republicans elected - so if his investment works out and his income next year is a billion dollars - then he'll show a net profit of $20 million bucks on his investment in romney and the republicans. And Adelson is actually worth around $25 billion - so he'll end up profiting a lot more. What citizens united did - is turn our politics into a gambling ring, where the super rich can pick out a candidate - or racehorse - invest - or bet - huge amounts of money into making sure their racehorse wins - knowing that if they bet wisely - then they'll get a tax break that's even bigger than their initial investment. And in the case of Mitt Romney - collect a nice fat tax break on that horse too. As for us working americans who are facing a tax increase thanks to Paul Ryan, and can't afford to buy a politician like Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell, the only way we can fight back is to overturn citizens united and get money out of politics. Put an end to the billionaire's gambling ring that's taken over our Democracy. Go to move to amend.org to get involved.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[MichiganVote]

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