The Politics Thread

[quartermainefan]

He said that people who vote for Obama don't pay taxes and want free food and whatnot. As I have said before it is well documented that the states with hands out looking for handouts are the republican states. The belly of the beast, New York, sends far more money to the federal government than it receives. The southerm--make that republican--states that bemoan welfare, socialism, handouts, and godless NYC are all too happy to take that money.

Balanced does not mean "let me pretend he is at least half right". The majority of welfare recipients are white. The majority of white voters vote republican. Therefore, it stands to reason a majority of those white welfare recipients vote republican. Now apply that to Romney's theories on the great unwashed, and his theory doesn't stands up to even casual scrutiny.

Low income workers pay a low rate, then through deductions and whatnot their federal level may be brought to zero. They pay in other ways. As an example state lotteries are an onerous and vicious tax targeted squarely at the low income brackets. Sin taxes are cynically targeted at the poor who statistically do most of the smoking. The poor don't get their corporate cards that give discounts on flights, gym memberships and so on. The poor are not able to shelter their money in 401ks to avoid taxes or stocks at all. The poor have to take out $40 at a time from their atm, if they have one, giving the banks their loanshark level fees each and every time. The poor are often late on bills and wind up paying even more through penalties. And on and on and on.

The fact that billionaires at secret Romney HQ would resent the poor living it up paying no taxes when they know as well as anyone how society has so many built in measures to punish the poor sort of speaks to the lack of compassion at Romney HQ. People usually won't vote for dicks, and this is it for Romney.

Edited September 18, 2012 by quartermainefan

[ReddFoxx]

Indeed

[JaneAusten]

Remember that folks who are on social security pay no income tax unless their income is greater than I think 25,000 a year.My brother is on permanent disability and receives some additional income from his part time at home job and some investment income and he still takes in less than 25,000 a year and believe it or not, lives comfortably.

Those states don't shock me as I think aside from New Mexico, the rest are relatively inexpensive states to live in in terms of state , property, sales taxes so it would kind of make sense that some lower income Americans might gravitate to the southern states In particular. Isn't that , aside from the climate, one of the reasons seniors have gravitated to Florida is that it has a lower cost of living?

[JaneAusten]

Every president from Richard Nixon on has failed to develop and implement a decent energy policy. I'm not excusing Obama, but gasoline consumption is down in the United States . i guess we could attribute that to the economy but it hasn't stopped gasoline prices from going up.

[Ann_SS]

Those red states also take more federal money than they pay out.

Most of the elderly people (about a 1/3 of the people who do not pay federal income tax) who live on social security did in fact pay federal income tax when they were working so Romney is saying that they should pay federal income tax twice on this money. These people are mostly Republican voters although he claims that they are Democrats. Not only this, but the lower middle class people do not pay federal income tax because of the Bush tax cuts, then there are wealthy people and corporations who do not pay federal income tax. Here are Romney actual comments which you really should read.

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it -- that that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Edited September 18, 2012 by Ann_SS

[JaneAusten]

Im not excusing Romney I just have a hard time believing he understands anything he says. And I don't mean that in any way complementary or in an way as justification.

Besides running a terrible campaign and not agreeing with some of the fundamentals he believes in, I just don't understand WHY he wants to be president. I understood why Obama, Clinton, Bush, McCain, etc. did. I just don't think he gets it. The Kennedy family grew up with silver spoons, but I always felt that they really believed in public service and I believe people like Obama, Clinton, McCain, yes even Bush do. Romney seems to shudder at it. He and his father seem miles apart in that respect.

Romney also made comments in that speech about Hispanics which were very, well how can I say, derogatory, and I don't think he meant it to be. Hes just a very out of touch clueless man. He needs to go back to running Bain and sheltering his millions offshore.

[Ann_SS]

I understand why all these men/women want to be president; power, ambition, and ego. I never buy the "public service" lip service that they all offer.

By the Republicans, but I don't see even the mainstream media buying this one.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Ann_SS

[Soapsuds]

Romney is a moron. He has no clue. I cant believe as you that this man is running for president. He is stupid and Irrogant.

[DRW50]

Mary Matalin, who along with her husband was last relevant in 1992 but still sucks up airtime anyway, wants us to know that 47% of America are "parasites." This type of trash is why I think that a lot of the so-called influential media will latch on to Romney's attacks and make it seem like the truth.

http://livewire.talk...y-we-can-single

Edited September 19, 2012 by CarlD2

[GoldenDogs]

If Media Matters is considered mainstream press, we're all screwed.

Internal Department of Justice emails obtained by The Daily Caller show Attorney General Eric Holder’s communications staff has collaborated with the left-wing advocacy group Media Matters for America in an attempt to quell news stories about scandals plaguing Holder and America’s top law enforcement agency.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/18/emails-reveal-justice-dept-regularly-enlists-media-matters-to-spin-press/#ixzz26sPVaNAq

[DRW50]

Media Matters covers press, it's not really press itself. Daily Caller purports to be press - by doing things like having their reporters yell at Obama to get 15 minutes of fame.

[ReddFoxx]

Exactly, the Daily Caller is much more activist that Media Matters is, Media Matters specializes in pointing out biases or falsehoods in press. The Daily Caller just obsesses about Democrats 24/7. Hypocrisy is a ridiculous thing.

[DRW50]

Any organization run by Tucker Carlson, who spent years and years pushing his face on everyone until Jon Stewart humiliated him off TV, is going to be uber-activist while still draping itself in journalism. Media Matters doesn't lie about what it is.

[GoldenDogs]

Is the story I linked to wrong?

After you're done elevating the information sources you guys offer up and denegrating mine, how about discussing the meat and potatoes of this thing...

Did Obama's Justice Department collaborate with Media Matters to warp press coverage?

Edited September 19, 2012 by GoldenDogs

[DRW50]

Daily Caller's Media Matter screeds were described as "Anonymous sourcing and lack of independent research."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/02/daily-caller-defends-media-matters-investigation-114961.html