CONNECT
The Real Mitt Revealed
NationofChange / Video Report
Published: Wednesday 19 September 2012
“Some of us thought Romney was without core or principle, an empty suit that would say anything to be elected.”
First are the distortions. Romney says 47 percent of Americans don’t pay income taxes. That’s literally true, except it’s misleading because it includes every retiree who hasn’t enough income to pay income taxes (most retirees), every poor and lower-income person who doesn’t have enough income to pay, and a few multi-millionaires (perhaps like Romney himself — we don’t know because he won’t release his tax returns), who don’t pay because of tax loopholes and tax-avoidance schemes. Moreover, just about all working Americans, regardless of income, pay federal payroll taxes. Everyone pays state and local sales taxes. And so on.
Romney also distorts reality by purposely mixing “entitlements” with “a sense of entitlement,” and lumps in all recipients of Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment benefits into his 47 percent. Even though these programs are considered “entitlement” spending, their recipients are not undeserving; they don’t consider themselves entitled to handouts. They’ve paid into these insurance plans through their payroll taxes.
But the the most important revelation here isn’t Romney’s witting distortions. It’s his indignant condemnation of almost half the American electorate. A president is supposed to represent all of America, not just the 51 percent who elect him, and have a modicum of sympathy for the less fortunate among us.
Yet here is the real Mitt Romney — a fabulously wealthy financier, presumably speaking to other wealthy people (note the waiters scurrying about), with a passion we haven’t before seen in him — saying it isn’t his “job” to worry about Americans who he describes as “irresponsible,” who fail to take care of themselves, and whose neediness is presumably their own fault.
Some of us thought Romney was without core or principle, an empty suit that would say anything to be elected. But here, evidently, is the real Mitt — a man whose core principle is clearly on display, and articulated with deep conviction: social Darwinism — survival of the richest, the hell with those who need a helping hand.
In a subsequent news conference he attempted to make it sound as if he was talking here about political strategy, not social conviction. Watch and see for yourself.
Get Email Alerts from NationofChange
ABOUT Robert Reich
ROBERT B. REICH, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.
Top Stories
By Tara Culp- Ressler
20 comments on "The Real Mitt Revealed"
September 20, 2012 9:55am
The question which remains is the following: How big is Romney going to lose on Nov. 6? As big as John McCain in 2008? As big as Jimmy Carter in 1980? Or as big as Barry Goldwater in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson won with the widest popular margin in American history - more than 15 million votes - after Goldwater scared the people off with his famous comment: Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice... and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue... That comment is totally wrong, of course, as Aristotle taught us, extremism being always wrong. My guess is that Romney will not lose as badly as Goldwater, but probably he will do worse than McCain, as almost as badly as Jimmy Carter...
September 19, 2012 9:01pm
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, consulted with the angel Moroni. Unfortunately when Mitt called for advise Moroni was out of town so they sent his little brother, Moron. Explains a lot.
September 19, 2012 5:19pm
Revenge is so sweet. Romney put former President Jimmy Carter down in a speech one time and indicated that President Obama would go down the same way as a weak, one-time president. How sweet it is then that Mr Carter's grandson is the one to contribute to his difficulties. I say contribute because Romney is doing most of the self-destruction himself.
For a long time it was believed that most welfare recipients and people dependent on government assistance were minorities, even though many studies proved that wrong. I may be wrong but my guess is that his anger and disdain was towards minorities but he was afraid to say so. His disdain for the President though is quite obvious. He didn't even take the time to analyze what the 47% comprised of.
The reason he doesn't have any specifics as to what his platform is, is that he didn't prepare anything. He thought the choice was obvious - a rich, white, successful business man, in this tough economic climate, why would anyone vote for anybody else but him.
I have to say that for a guy who professes to be a christian, he is cold and unfeeling towards people less fortunate than he is.
September 19, 2012 4:36pm
His comments also fail to take into account that even for hard workers, the wages paid by the free market and the costs charged by the free market are insufficient to pay for housing and medical.
The "free" market is not providing affordable health care or a decent wage, or steady jobs. The referee needs to step in and level the playing field.
September 19, 2012 2:56pm
"The emperor has no clothes!"
September 19, 2012 2:33pm
This is typical conservative thinking: Wedge tactics meant to pit American against American. It's the best they can do.
September 19, 2012 2:30pm
To be fair to Romney he was saying that he would not work for the vote of the 47% who pay no taxes. Still, his ignorance of who those people are, his misunderstanding of WHY people vote (reflected in Obama's "religion and guns" comment) and his (an Paul Ryan's) dismal understanding of foreign affairs, makes this a Ticket of DOOM for the USA.
September 20, 2012 10:29pm
So Rmoney isn't working for the vote of the 47%? Here is a quote from republican David Brooks: "The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees."
September 19, 2012 1:44pm
I saw his comments a couple of days ago, and I felt a bit of a thrill, then started laughing. This is the guy who's carrying the banner for the Greedy Old Plutocrat party?
Any other candidate who made such arrogant remarks would have stalled his campaign right there. Still, before we begin to count Willard out, we have to consider the uncounted millions from rich scoundrels that defeated all his Republican rivals, and the lesson from that was that Money Talks. With all that big money behind him, they can run slick and emotionally arousing TV ads over and over again, from now until Election Day, and hope that his base of billionaires and gut-voting Obama-haters will pull his fat from the fire.
Can anyone doubt that it could happen?
Does Mitt even know that he insulted the overwhelming majority of retired seniors with his arrogant remarks? And doesn't he need their votes to get elected?
This video is priceless. It shows the real Mitt, and should be run endlessly from now until November. Hey, if I could hear gossipy blather about Monica Deepthroatsky for several months, why couldn't the media do us a favor and throw a broadcast carnival about Mitt's core principles being "flashed" with his guard down? Too much to hope for, I guess, but if the media really was as liberal as the right-wing extremists claim, they would jump at the chance, wouldn't they?
Let's keep referring our Romneyite friends and neighbors to Willard's callous (and inaccurate) remarks to some of his base. Eventually it might sink in:
This guy is no friend of theirs.
September 19, 2012 1:25pm
Romney, and really all the others of his ilk, do not know the meaning of the word "entitlement." Indeed, the liberals and progressives have bought into their crippled definition. Entitlement, meaning, of course, one being entitled to something, here being health, food, education, and shelter (besides protection from foreign powers which is about all we really do). Entitlements mean, simply, we the people ARE entitled to these things simply by virtue of being human beings. Entitlements are GOOD things. Why are liberals and even progressives apologizing for, or falling for, such a polarizing and inhumane definition? I say, like the term "Obamacare" simply appropriate it and use it to our advantage.
2 cents and done.
es
September 19, 2012 12:37pm
From the Associate Press:
"Overall, 93 percent of those who owe no federal income taxes earn $50,000 annually or less. But 5 percent of them earn $50,000 to $100,000 and the rest — around 430,000 nonpayers — earn more than $100,000 annually. That includes 4,000 households earning more than $1 million a year, thanks largely to tax-exempt interest, reduced rates on capital gains and dividends, and other deductions."
Betcha Mitt and his buddies belong to the group in that last sentence and are a part of the 47% ! As Pitch 1934 says, ". This slug has constantly stated that he has never paid less thean 13% in"taxes." He never uses the word "income" prior to the word taxes. So, he isn't lying if he pays zero income taxes."
September 19, 2012 11:20am
As Jon Stewart pointed out, the 47% would have included Mitt's father...nice.
September 19, 2012 11:02am
Even worse is that he says one thing in front of his billionaire buddy/donors, and then says something else entirely different for everyone else. It's not flip-flopping this time, it's an outright lie to one group or the other... guess which one he tells the truth to?
September 19, 2012 10:42am
So let's connect the dots:
-A bully in high school
-Chicken hawk and draft dodger during Viet Nam, (he went to France to mint more Mormons)
-Vulture capitalist after graduating Harvard, (and I guess we can presume he didn't go to college on Pell grants).
-By the 2Ks he is flush with income from dismantling American companies and/or shipping American jobs off shore and can now pursue his hobby of running for political office..... first- Governor of Mass. Next- The White House.
-And now the 47% video
I think we get it as to who this guy really is. A son of privilege that is deluded into believing that he did it all under his own steam (with a few strategic loans from his father), who believes that all that lower classes hate him because he is successful and seethe with envy, quick to point out moral hazards for others but oblivious to his own, presumes that his business experiences qualify him to be the commander in chief, pretensions of the presidency while holding a good half of the nation in abject contempt. And this is the guy that the REPUBLICANS ran from in droves during the primaries, to the point that Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Newt, Pawlenty (did I miss anyone) all seemed at one point t have a better shot at the nomination than romney. Now he's their guy because he's not Barack Obama.
I make the case that conservatives are pathologically incapable of appreciating irony. I think I might be able to rest my case here. ".... they believe they are victims"....."they are dependent on government" ..... "They pay no income taxes"........ they feel they are entitled. Sounds very much like mitt's friends on Wall St. Doesn't it?
If there has ever been a more perfect poster boy for the plutocratic class in this nation, who could it be?
September 19, 2012 2:15pm
RICONUI:
Hear, hear! Marvelous message, and hits the target in an amusing way.
September 19, 2012 12:23pm
Great post! Last two paragraphs slam home!
September 19, 2012 10:16am
Comparing Lyan Paul Aryan to the Wise and Holy Al Newman is disgraceful blasphemy.
September 19, 2012 10:01am
1. In this video, not seen here, is a statement by willie to the effect that theU.S. is in trouble if the Latino's join with the African-Americans and vote as a Democratic block. His racism is obvious here.
2. He is completely out of touch with reality. He believes that $200,000.00 is middle income.
3. He completely writes off about half of the population with his statement that we cannot take responsibility for our lives. A breakdown of the "47%" who pay no income taxes shows that either they qualify under certain deductions to reduce their taxes , are elderly on SS, or simply do ot earn enough to pa taxes.
4. This slug has constantly stated that he has never paid less thean 13% in"taxes." He never uses the word "income" prior to the word taxes. So, he isn't lying if he pays zero income taxes. Hell, I am retired, work a small part-time job and I pay more than 13% in payroll taxes before even getting to my income taxes.
September 19, 2012 9:51am
...and when asked to re-think his position, he "doubled down" on it. Should someone whisper in his ear that arrogance and ignorance of the issues is not standing strong on your convictions?.......oh, and he really ought to be told that $250,000 is not the median income of the average American. When are the Grand Old Poseurs going to put up something other than hand-puppets and Alfred E. Newman look-alikes for office that truly represent their constituency and give a damn about the country they purport to represent?
September 19, 2012 9:41am
The real irony is that most of the people who will vote for him "Southern Red States" are in this moocher category and they don't even know it.
Remember "keep your govt hands off my medicare"...ignorance is not bliss and quite dangerous for us all