Mitt Romney, smarting from the fact that President Obama publicly commented on his rather protuberant silver spoon, decided to go on the offensive, pouting that Obama “likes to attack” people who are “successful,” and, in a comic effort at misdirection, notes that he, Romney, won’t apologize for the success of his self-made father. We can only assume that he’s not willing to apologize for own silver-spoon-fed self either.

Mitt’s defense of success will probably work better, though, than his wife’s efforts to claim fellowship with struggling Americans by sharing her stories of their youthful hardships. According to Ann, in order to make ends meet and ensure that she could stay home with the brand new little Romneys, graduate student Mitt actually had to cash in some of the stock portfolio with which his father endowed him. Oh the horror!  At least Mitt’s response makes his allegiances clear.

The sad thing is that Mitt’s loyalties don’t differ much from the rest of the GOP. While Mitt’s defending the successful, the U.S. House is going after food stamps. These are the same GOPers who voted uniformly for the cruel Ryan Budget that would gut the safety net, Medicaid and Medicare while giving Mitt and his wealthy friends even bigger tax breaks than they already have – all of which Romney, ever the champion of the successful, adamantly endorses.

Certainly, our Missouri GOP has bought into the defense of the successful big time – although they seem to prefer the other GOP designation for wealthy corporate elites, “job creators.” Efforts by a few rogue Democrats to reform the individual income Missouri tax code are routinely ignored – in spite of the fact that the current outmoded tax structure not only fails to bring in sufficient revenue to meet state needs, but puts the greatest burden on low and middle income tax payers. But that doesn’t mean that the GOP anti-tax drones don’t want to fiddle with the tax code. In fact they’re proposing to cut the state’s insufficient revenue by many more millions by halving the Missouri corporate tax rate – a rate that is already one of the lowest in the country.

And what does the GOP defense of the successful do for Missourians? It certainly doesn’t seem to create many jobs. But on the other hand, we here in Missouri have been treated, thanks to our legislators, to a most edifying debate about whether or not to slash services to the blind or to higher education. Most recently, our stalwart defenders of the successful have been pondering massive cuts to children’s services.

The cuts could affect over 5000 children in day care, many of whose parents might have to give up jobs and return to welfare; result in the loss of 42 jobs and the loss of over $500,000 in federal funds; threaten the Children’s Division’s standing with the Council on Accreditation, and reduce adoption subsidies at a time when the number of children entering the foster system has increased by 10% over past years.

But hey, no matter what pain he’s willing to inflict on folks struggling with hard times, Sen. Kurt Schaefer and his GOP pals on the Senate Appropriations Committee he chairs, the folks who are floating this latest attack on poor Missourians, will no doubt be more than willing to stand with Mitt Romney and continue to proudly defend those who have been successful.

Via the Economist’s View.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

What the republicans believe:

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Should We Feel Sorry for the Wealthy?

….Are the wealthy paying to much in taxes?: Ari Fleischer, the former White House Press Secretary for U.S. President George W. Bush, has been trying to make the case on Twitter that the wealthy are taking on more of the tax burden than ever….

What the republicans leave unsaid:

….Let’s take the top 1% first. Between 1979 and 2007 income for this group grew by 275 percent, and the share of income doubled from around 10 percent to around 20 percent of total income. However, the share of taxes for this group less than doubled. Thus, a doubling of income resulted in less than a doubling of taxes. Given that income growth outpaced tax growth, it’s hard to see how we can describe this as an increase in the tax burden for the top 1%….

[emphasis added]

It’s a wash for the “middle class”, but:

….Thus, the notion that the rich are paying more, and middle income families are paying less — that income is being redistributed from the rich to the middle — does not hold up to further scrutiny. The rich are doing better than ever, tax rates are at historic lows for this group, and their share of taxes has not risen by as much as their share of income….

[emphasis added]

And the bottom?:

….First, it’s highly misleading to just look at federal taxes for this group. The federal tax burden is relatively low for this group, but when state taxes, sales taxes, and the like are factored in the burden is relatively high….

….Mitt Romney pays 15 percent, or thereabouts (probably a bit more when state and local taxes are accounted for), while this group pays more than 15 percent in taxes even though their incomes are very low. Enough said about who faces a larger tax burden….

[emphasis added]

Go. Read the whole thing.

There’s a class war and the 1% are winning.