Mitt Romney followed up a bizarre speech at the NAACP convention that drew boos yesterday with a combative message last night that if people want “free stuff” they should just vote Obama. And this after he’d said black people would vote for him if they could only understand what’s in his “heart.”
“If you understood who I truly am in my heart, and if it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real, enduring best interest of African-American families, you would vote for me for president,” Romney said yesterday.
So, basically he’s saying that black people don’t understand him because it’s impossible to fully communicate what he believes in his heart is in the best interest of African Americans. But if it were possible, they’d understand him and vote for him.
What? Why is it so hard to communicate what’s in his heart? Is it so complex it literally can’t be comprehended? Shouldn’t the best interest of black voters be pretty straightforward? How about increasing upward mobility and social equality? Seems like it should be pretty simple.
Romney also displayed major tone-deafness in using the derisive term “Obamacare” to describe the Affordable Care Act to a crowd with great pride in Obama’s accomplishments and a vested interest in actually receiving affordable health care. “You cannot possibly talk about jobs for black people at the level he’s coming from. He’s talking about entrepreneurship, savings accounts—black people can barely find a way to get back and forth from work,” Charlette Stoker Manning, chair of Women in NAACP, told BuzzFeed“BuzzFeed.
“I believe his vested interests are in white Americans,” said Manning—and that was before Romney’s “free stuff” retort, which probably didn’t convert a windfall of new fans.
“The rich will do just fine whether I’m elected or not,” he acknowledged according to Bloomberg. “The president wants to make this a campaign about blaming the rich and I want to make this a campaign about helping the middle class in America.”
Which sounds all well and good, but the fact is Romney’s plans benefit the wealthy more than anyone else, and everyone knows it. Which is why so far he’s polling much better with affluent white voters than anyone else. Romney is going to have to come up with a better approach if he wants to connect with anyone else. Until he does, he should probably stick to talking about the deficit and leave “heart” out of it.
July 12, 2012 at 2:13 pm, Eugene Patrick Devany said:
Mr. Romney used the NAACP speech to say that he was primarily concerned about the economy and jobs for the middle class. He made a point of saying that he was not concerned about the wealthy and assured the audience that they would be just fine.
It is ironic that boos came when Mr. Romney said he would repeal Obama-care because we cannot afford it (even though it has worked in Massachusetts, in part, because this former Governor knew how to make it work).
I wanted to hear him say, "Jobs first and then health care" but I have come to learn that we really need tax reform to create sustainable jobs and a stable economy that can afford the 'luxury' of health care for all. Mr. Obama has unsuccessfully attempted to accomplish these reforms in reverse.
The wealth gap was last this extreme at the start of the Great Depression when the unemployment rate was also as bad. At the time there was a top tax rate of 24% and the well-to-do had so much fun they called it the Roaring 20′s. It is worth remembering that the depression was followed by tax increases to: 63%, 79%, 81%, 88% and finally to 94% in 1944.
Before the economy and the federal debt get much worse I expect my elected officials to stop the roar and save the rich from themselves. Our tax code has destroyed middle class consumers with regressive payroll taxes and each year an amount equal to all the payroll taxes is redistributed to the investment class in the form of tax expenditures. This massive redistribution of income has really been a redistribution of wealth.
We need to steer the ship away from the iceberg by eliminating payroll taxes and paying for Social Security and Medicare with a 2% net wealth tax (excluding $15,000 cash and retirement funds). That will save the middle class and most of the rich by giving middle class consumers more to spend and creating jobs and profits in the process. The wealth tax is really like a 2% rate of inflation that targets those who can afford it without hurting the consumer economy.
We also need to really "punish" the wealthy by lowering the income tax rate to 8% and eliminating capital gains, estate and gift taxes. These changes will create the ultimate in business freedom and complement the negative reinforcement ("use it or lose it") of the wealth tax. Without payroll taxes businesses will have 7% more money to hire workers. By enabling the business owners and investors to buy and sell capital assets without being taxed and providing a 92% after tax return on investment, the new tax code would greatly help entrepreneurs and the idle rich will get what they deserve.
Completing the perfect tax reform plan would be a 4% value added tax (VAT) on business and an 8% corporate tax rate for the most competitive business rates in the world.
Imagine a sustainable economy that does not depend on government spending or tax expenditures.
Imagine a stable economy based upon broad tax bases with the lowest rates possible.
The reform is called the 2-4-8 Tax Blend.
July 12, 2012 at 4:06 pm, Dustin Price said:
Shew! Eugene, you should be winded.
July 12, 2012 at 10:13 am, Romney’s bizarre NAACP speech shows why he should never go for ‘heart’ | Death and Taxes said:
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