By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
richardhutnik on 25 September 2012
Edit Thread
badgenome said:
richardhutnik said:

And Romney is the one who called him on it.  This entire discussion is going crazy.  The only said answer the GOP has is to figure out where they can cut taxes even more.  The idea also is to make the budget deficit so bad that there will be forced cuts the body politic is opposed to.  And then you now add the 47% on top of this, and it is just a mess here.  Not paying income taxes is now being defined as "being a moocher".  More people DID pay taxes in the past, but they kept reducing the tax rate and knocking people off, in order to lower taxes on the higher end.  It is now, seriously, the GOP is complaining not enough people are paying taxes. 

So what's the problem here? Romney doesn't want cap gains to be 0%, he didn't write the tax code but operates within it as per the law, and like a total moron, he even pays more in taxes than he has to. Attacking him on his personal taxes just reeks of desperation and envy. His 47% comment was off the mark, but while not everyone who doesn't pay income taxes isn't a moocher, there are too many people who are net consumers rather than net contributors and are perfectly happy to be so. Those are the moochers, and whatever his many other problems, Romney is not even close to being one of them.

As far as the GOP cutting taxes without corresponding spending cuts, you're preaching to the choir. I don't think they did it to run up the deficit in order to force spending cuts any more than I think Democrats have spent like crazy in order to run up the deficit to force cuts. They're just behaving like typical politicians, focusing on the short term and paying no mind to the long term. It's no coincidence that both Cheney and Obama have said, "Deficits don't matter," and it's no coincidence that they said so when they were in power.

Several things:

* The entire attacking someone on their taxes has been a mantra floating around.  The "We are the 53%" (other side of the 47%) response to Occupy Wall Street is all about attacking people on the fact they don't pay taxes.  "Skin in the game" is what was floated about also.  

* Romney brought it up to show how daft Newt was for mentioning it.  Unless someone wants to argue that somehow the rich having lower percentage tax rate is a good thing, as in them paying NO income taxes, then Romney did show there is a problem.

* As far as cutting taxes to drive spending cuts, that is called "Starving the beast".  It has been floated around GOP and conservative circles for decades.  The belief is that if you cause the deficit to get severe enough, combine with making raising taxes poison, the government would be forced to slash spending.  You can read more about it here:

http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/06/tax-cuts-republicans-starve-the-beast-columnists-bruce-bartlett.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast