(source: Mother Jones)
A video surfaced today, first broken by David Corn of Mother Jones with Mitt Romney talking about 47% of the country (the number who roughly pay no income tax) with the edited comments in the image above.
And well, I'll just re-post Ezra Klein's twitter timeline from earlier today.
1. Here’s the policy two-step behind Romney’s remarks.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
2. Rs have spent years cutting income taxes and increasing things like the Child tax Credit. This means fewer people pay income taxes.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
3. So whenever you hear a stat like "47% don't pay income taxes," remember: Reagan and Bush helped build that.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
4. These tax cuts for the poor were partly in order to make further tax cuts for the rich political palatable.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
5. But now that fewer people pay income taxes as a result of GOP policies, they’re being called lazy and dependent.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
6. And thus the GOP's tax cuts are being used to make a case that the rich are overtaxed and that the less-rich are becoming dependent
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
7. Which thus leads to a policy agenda of tax cuts for the rich and cuts to social services for the non-rich.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
Step 1: Cut income taxes. Step 2: Not enough people are paying income taxes! Step 3: Cut income taxes. washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-kle…
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
And then after Romney gave a statement, Klein responded with another series of tweets:
1. What I like least about Romney's comments is the idea that the working poor don't "take responsibility for their lives
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
2. The thing about not having that much money is you have to take responsibility for things the rich take for granted.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
3. That's the thing about being rich: it buys you services and ease. You get to focus on what you want to focus on.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
4. The problem for the poor, often, is they don't have time or energy to focus on the things that make you rich.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
5. Romney was able to sell his dad's stock to pay for school. He didn't have to work to support his sisters at age 17.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
6. And good for him! That's the dream. But to look at the working poor and say they don't take responsibility? It's backwards.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
7. And that matters, as if Romney is president, his understanding of what stands between the poor and prosperity will inform national policy
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment