Friday, August 17, 2012

Never Mind the REAL Issues: Let's Talk About Romney's Taxes

Never mind that nuclear war could break out in the Middle East at any moment. Never mind that unemployment has sustained its sky-high rate for longer than any other time since the Great Depression. Never mind that gas is expected to shoot up to record highs. Never mind that Obama's plan to have energy prices "naturally skyrocket" is coming true in spades. Never mind that in four short years, Obama's foreign policy has nearly achieved its objective: Lowering our status in the world to that of any other big country. Yes, don't worry about any of these REAL, pressing issues. It's time to talk about Mitt Romney's and Paul Ryan's taxes.

The ever-pompous Bob Schieffer led the CBS Evening News with a rectal exam of middle class dude Paul Ryan's 2012 tax return. I marvel at the Evening News editor's astute sense of what's really important. Their ability to pick as their lead the story that has the absolute maximum impact on the life of their average viewer is astounding.  The fact that Ryan made $215, 000 in 2010 -- well below Chairman Maobamas's arbitrary definition of "rich" -- and approx. $325,000 in 2011 is of utmost importance to me and millions of other folks. The news that Paul Ryan's family of five pulled in a tad bit more than his annual congressional salary in 2011 has almost as much impact on my life (and every other American's) as the color of my neighbor's belly button lint. But as a respected news organization, CBS News has its priorities straight by golly. And the fact that Ryan's income in 2011 was roughly six times the per capita household income in America is bound to piss someone off. If, as I'm sure Bob Schieffer hopes, it pisses some people off enough to vote for the other guy -- Barack Obama -- CBS News will have done its job as a shameless liberal shill for the Democrats campaign to re-elect their messiah.

CBS News does indeed have a bloodhound's sense of what the important stories of the day are, which is why they also diligently covered the REALLY important story of the day: The Obama campaign's generous offer to stop harassing Mitt Romney about releasing years and years of his tax returns if he'll just release years and years of his tax returns. Why is the Obama campaign extending this "generous" offer to the Romney camp?  So they an get their grubby paws on actual fodder for the class warfare game they want to wage against the Romney campaign. No need to have to resort to the reckless innuendo Dirty Land Deal Harry Reid and other rich Democrats have been slinging around for weeks if they can trick Romney into handing over the tax returns.

So far, the Romney camp has held fast against Obama's naked attempts to take his class warfare to a higher level. The answer to the Obama camps blackmail should be pretty straightforward: Screw you! As Paul Ryan has pointed out recently, this country was founded on the principle of equality of opportunity, not equality of outcomes. The only thing Mitt Romney's income and the way he made it says about him is that he is an extraordinarily successful businessman and apparently posesses all the qualities we need in a president right about now. In order to recover from the failed policies of a president who has spent like a drunken sailor and run up more debt in three years than most of the previous 235+ years combined, we need someone who has demonstrated that he can successfully turn around organizations that are in serious financial crises. Our nation finds itself in the middle of an epic financial crisis and Mitt Romney is the candidate who is capable of turning it around because he's proven his worth in the private sector and been richly rewarded for his hard work in doing just that.

Romney's not like the Democrat's recent presidential candidates: He's not in the race because he sees an opportunity to parlay a presidential resume into big bucks as Slick Willie the alleged rapist and proven sexual harasser did or Barack Obama, the closet Communist, will after November 6, 2012. He doesn't need the job, he doesn't need the hassles and he certainly doesn't need the harassment from jealous leftists who want to exploit his monetary success for political gain. The only reason why a self-made, straight-arrow guy worth $250 million would campaign for the highest pressure job in the world that pays a measly $400,000 a year is because of a sense of patriotism and because he wants to give back to the country that enabled him to achieve great success.

 It should be obvious to anyone that the Dems and their failed president are simply exploiting Romney's wealth for political gain. After all, the richest group of senators and congressmen are Democrats and Democrats don't seem to be concerned at all about exposing THEIR wealth. So here are some simple questions about Democrat hypocrisy on the issue of wealth and taxes:

  • Did anyone accuse John Kerry who twice married into hundreds of millions of dollars, of trying to hide his wealth when he purposely filed his taxes separate from his wife who at the time he ran for president was worth better than $500 million? 
  • Does anyone point out the absurdity of someone like the vapid Nancy Pelosi, who is worth between $50 and $75 million or more, holding a press conference to talk about Mitt Romney's wealth? 
  • When Harry Reid repeatedly slanders Mitt Romney on the issue of his taxes and refuses to provide any proof of the allegations, does anyone bother to point out that Harry Reid is worth upwards of $5 million himself -- money that he made on questionable land deals during his decades in the U.S. Senate? 
  •  Why doesn't someone point out that Vice President Algore -- the second most worthless veep in modern history next to the current veep -- was worth about $2 million when he left office 12 years ago and made better than $50 million in the intervening years by scaring the crap out of everyone about global warming? Or that the $9 million estate he just bought in California less than two years ago will be underwater within the decade if his predictions about rising sea levels come true? 
  • On that same note, is it worth noting that Bill Clinton, who is staunchly in favor of full disclosure when it comes to Romney's wealth, was a virtual pauper before he assumed the presidency but is worth upwards of $75 million now? 
  •  Finally, isn't it just a tad bit hypocritical that a president who is himself worth around $10 million, mostly earned on the sales of his ghostwritten books, will implore Romney to engage in full disclosure when we still don't know how that president managed to get into Ivy League schools despite admitting he was a poor student in high school? 

No one does class warfare better than the Democrats. With three and a half years behind him no record to run on, what else can Obama and his supporters resort to besides baseless attacks and naked attempts to foster envy and resentment in voters over the fortune Mitt Romney worked hard to earn? I have faith that voters will be smart enough to see through this naked class envy exploitation. And I certain hope the Romney camp is savvy enough not to get entangled in Obama's class envy trap.

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