Tag: GOP Hypocrisy

Romney Has Millions Stashed in Offshore Accounts

Jon Ponder

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ABC News:

Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven.

A spokesperson for the Romney campaign says Romney follows all tax laws and he would pay the same in taxes regardless of where the funds are based…

Official documents reviewed by ABC News show that Bain Capital, the private equity partnership Romney once ran, has set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Caymans.

Romney campaign officials and those at Bain Capital tell ABC News that the purpose of setting up those accounts in the Cayman Islands is to help attract money from foreign investors, and that the accounts provide no tax advantage to American investors like Romney. Romney, the campaign said, has paid all U.S. taxes on income derived from those investments.

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Newt Pledges to Uphold 1996 Defense of Marriage Act – Even Claims Credit for DOMA, Which He Enacted While Having an Affair

Jon Ponder

art-newsweek-cover-newt-akimboIn a letter this week to an Iowa anti-gay hate group, Republican frontrunner Newt Gingrich pledged that, “[as] President, I will vigorously enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted under my leadership as speaker of the House, and ensure compliance with its provisions, especially in the military. I will also aggressively defend the constitutionality of DOMA in federal and state courts.” (Emphasis added.)

I had promised myself I was going to lay off Newt during the primaries because I don’t want anything to jinx his chances of winning the Republican nomination, which is the clearest path to reelection for Pres. Obama. But this is too rich to resist.

First of all, why would anyone believe anything an old philanderer like Newt would say about marriage? Secondly, what Newt doesn’t say, of course, is that at the same time he was pushing DOMA through Congress, he, was in the second year of an adulterous affair that was as risky to his party — Republicans were still posing as paragons of family values back then — as it was reckless and damaging to his family.

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Republicans Twisted Up in Hypocritical Knots – Rank and File Defy Leaders, Insist on Raising Taxes on Middle Class

Jon Ponder

Steve Benen sums it up:

The political world has come to accept a basic truism: the Republican Party is, above all else, an anti-tax party. GOP officials always want to cut taxes, regardless of merit or circumstances.

The maxim is incomplete — Republicans love tax cuts, but their affection is limited to cuts for the very wealthy. An extension of the payroll break largely benefits the middle class, and that immediately gives the GOP pause.

Indeed, the very debate has tied Republicans in knots. They want to cut taxes, except for these taxes. They don’t believe tax cuts should be paid for, except these tax cuts must be paid for. They believe tax breaks always work to benefit the economy, except these tax breaks don’t do much of anything, no matter what economists say. They believe letting tax cuts expire counts as a tax increase, except these tax cuts, which don’t.

GOP Flip-Flops on Paying for Tax Cuts – Unnecessary When Cuts Benefit the Rich, But Required When Cuts Help the Middle Class

Jon Ponder

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Before the debate this week on extending the payroll tax holiday, Republicans used to insist that tax cuts paid for themselves:

CARLY FIORINA (R-CA), FORMER U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Let me just propose something that may seem crazy to you. You don`t need to pay for tax cuts. They pay for themselves.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: You need policies like an extension and making permanent the `01 and `03 tax cuts. They will be paid for because they create economic growth.

SEN. JON KYL (R) ARIZONA, second ranking Republican in the Senate: You should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

MADDOW: You should never have to pay for tax cuts. Tax cuts pay for themselves. That was Jon Kyl then.

Here`s Jon Kyl now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYL: I`ve never said that all tax cuts always pay for themselves.

Full Transcript:

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House Republicans Finally Found Taxes They Are Eager to Raise

Jon Ponder

Charles Babbington, Associated Press:

News flash: Congressional Republicans want to raise your taxes. Impossible, right? GOP lawmakers are so virulently anti-tax, surely they will fight to prevent a payroll tax increase on virtually every wage-earner starting Jan. 1, right?

Apparently not.

Many of the same Republicans who fought hammer-and-tong to keep the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts from expiring on schedule are now saying a different “temporary” tax cut should end as planned. By their own definition, that amounts to a tax increase.

The tax break extension they oppose is sought by President Barack Obama. Unlike proposed changes in the income tax, this policy helps the 46 percent of all Americans who owe no federal income taxes but who pay a “payroll tax” on practically every dime they earn.

More evidence, if any was needed, that Republicans are out to sabotage the economy, even if it hurts their constituents, in order to ensure the election of Mitt Romney or Rick Perry next year.

Next up: Complete and utter silence from Republican Party boss Grover Norquist when these House Republicans vote en masse against extending these tax cuts, thus breaking their oath to him that they would never vote for a tax increase in any shape or fashion.

The Line: Republicans Secretly Love Government Spending

Jon Ponder
  • Sam Stein at Huffington Post, Aug. 10, 2011: “A Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Huffington Post with three separate federal agencies reveals that on at least 16 separate occasions, [Tea Party Caucus Chairwoman Michele] Bachmann petitioned the federal government for direct financial help or aid. A large chunk of those requests were for funds set aside through President Obama’s stimulus program, which Bachmann once labeled “fantasy economics.” Bachmann made two more of those requests to the Environmental Protection Agency, an institution that she has suggested she would eliminate if she were in the White House … Combined with previous revelations that Bachmann personally relied on a federally subsidized home loan while her husband’s business benefited from Medicaid payments, it appears that one of the tea party’s most cherished members has demonstrated that the government does, in fact, play a constructive role — at least in her life and district.
  • Sam Stein, Huffington Post, July 5, 2011: “Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio). On March 8, the freshman Republican co-signed a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration requesting that the Department of Transportation fund a project to improve a runway at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. The cost of the improvement: $4.365 million. Less than a month later, on the floor of the House, he declared that ‘our nation is broke. The federal government has maxed out its credit card.'”
  • Blogging Blue, July 6, 2011: “[Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn.] spoke directly with Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood about federal funding for the Cates Landing port project after funding for the project was imperiled by House Republicans who wanted to cut transportation spending as a way of cutting overall government spending. Following his conversation with Secretary LaHood, Rep. Fincher wrote a follow-up letter seeking assistance in “obligating” the $13 million federal grant for the Cates Landing port project.”
  • New York Times, July 19, 2011: “An examination of spending bills, news releases and communications with federal agencies obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows that nearly two dozen freshmen have sought money for projects that could ultimately cost billions of dollars, while calling for less spending and banning pork projects.” Republican hypocrites on spending include Reps. Tim Scott, S.C.; Jon Runyan, N.J.; Sean P. Duffy, Wisconsin; Michele Bachmann and Steven M. Palazzo, Miss.
  • Quad-City Times in July: “[Tea party favorite Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Ill.,] has been critical of the stimulus law, which was enacted before he was elected. But he said Friday more of the money should have been devoted to infrastructure projects. “If the government would have taken a lot bigger chunk of that money and put it into infrastructure, we’d be doing a lot better today,” he said.
  • Airport Business, March 17, 2011: “[Tea Party Caucus member] Congressman Allen West (FL-22) announces today the award of a $21 million dollar Federal grant to the Fort Lauderdale -Hollywood International Airport to be used towards the construction of a much needed, second commercial runway. The runway project will generate at least 11,000 jobs and be complete in the fall of 2014 with an estimated budget of $791 million.”
  • DCCC.org, autumn 2010: “[Right-wing extremist Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.,] signed a letter to Secretary LaHood, along with 14 other members of the North Carolina Congressional Delegation, requesting funds from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant in order to ‘reroute and construct a new bridge over the Yadkin River on Interstate 85,’ saying the existing bridge has ‘far exceeded its design lifespan.'”
  • Steve Benen, Washington Monthly, Feb. 16, 2010: “Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the stimulus “misses the mark on all counts,” but encouraged the Labor Department to invest stimulus money in his district, highlighting a project he said would create 1,000 jobs. Reps. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) and Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), both right-wing opponents of the recovery efforts, did the same thing.”
  • Right-wing Korean cult-owned Washington Times, February 9, 2010: “[Tea Party Caucus member] Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican who became famous after yelling, “You lie,” during Mr. Obama’s addresses to Congress in September, voted against the stimulus. Nonetheless, Mr. Wilson elbowed his way into the rush for federal stimulus cash in a letter he sent to Mr. Vilsack on behalf of a foundation seeking funding. “

Bush Raised Debt Ceiling Five Times – With Votes from GOP Leaders Boehner, Cantor and McConnell Every Time

Jon Ponder

As you listen to Republican rhetoric on raising the debt ceiling, keep these facts in mind about their record as stewards of the economy during the Bush years when they controlled the White House, Congress and the courts: They gave billions in tax breaks to wealthy Americans (which, the record shows, did not spur job growth), put two wars on the national credit card (it’s a pleasure doing business with you, Chinese commies!) and rammed through an unfunded Medicare benefit. Remember all that? Now read this excerpt from a report from Think Progress in April:

Bush increased the debt to $9.815 trillion by the end of his term, with plenty of help from the four Republicans currently holding Congressional leadership positions.

At the beginning of the Bush presidency, the United States debt limit was $5.95 trillion. Despite promises that he would pay off the debt in 10 years, Bush increased the debt to $9.815 trillion by the end of his term, with plenty of help from the four Republicans currently holding Congressional leadership positions: Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl. ThinkProgress compiled a breakdown of the five debt limit increases that took place during the Bush presidency and how the four Republican leaders voted:

June 2002: [Republican-controlled] Congress approves a $450 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $6.4 trillion. McConnell, Boehner, and Cantor vote “yea”, Kyl votes “nay.”

May 2003: [Republican-controlled] Congress approves a $900 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $7.384 trillion. All four approve.

November 2004: [Republican-controlled] Congress approves an $800 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.1 trillion. All four approve.

March 2006: [Republican-controlled] Congress approves a $781 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $8.965 trillion. All four approve.

September 2007: [Democratic-controlled] Congress approves an $850 billion increase, raising the debt limit to $9.815 trillion. All four approve.

Gingrich Cites His Sponsorship of Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 – Fails to Note He Was Cheating on His Wife at the Time

Jon Ponder
Left, Marianne with Newt; right, Callista, with whom he had an extramarital affair when he sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act
Left, Marianne with Newt; right, Callista, with whom Speaker Gingrich was having an extramarital affair when he sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act

If all it took to be president was chutzpah and cojones, Newt Gingrich would be president for life.

With his Mediterranean cruise and its fallout — the abrupt departure of his senior campaign staff — behind him, Gingrich finally showed up in Iowa over the weekend to campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

Iowa is one of a handful of states where gay marriage is legal, so naturally reporters asked the thrice-married Gingrich for his take on the legalization of marriage equality in New York Friday night. He replied:

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Yes, Weiner Should Resign – Five Minutes After GOP Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana Quits Over His Prostitution Scandals

Jon Ponder

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In the wake of a succession of adultery-related scandals by GOP “family values” Christian politicians, including Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Sens. John Ensign of Nevada and David Vitter of Louisiana, a few years ago, Washington Republicans spoke with one voice: We should pray for their families, but these politicians should not resign — their fates should be decided by the voters in their states.

Now, hot on the heels of revelations that Rep. Anthony Weiner exchanged lewd Twitter photos with women he did not otherwise know, Republicans are again speaking with one voice: Screw Weiner’s family and his constituents, he should resign immediately.

Neither Gov. Sanford nor Sen. Ensign resigned when their adulteries were revealed — Ensign finally left the Senate this year after the Ethics Committee referred his case to the Department of Justice.

But what Weiner did pales in comparison with the criminal behavior by Sen. Vitter, who repeatedly paid prostitutes for sex, and who is still serving in the United States Senate. In case you have forgotten the details of Vitter’s prostitution scandals, here’s a five-minute video retelling, titled “Forgotten Crimes,” that was produced by the Democratic Party:

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