Tag: Mitt Romney

That Didn’t Take Long: Star of Romney “Built It With My Hands” Ad Exposed for Getting Government Loans and Contracts

Trish

The truth is, no matter who Mitt Romney had used for his spliced and diced ad misquoting Pres. Obama and claiming that there is such a thing as making it totally on your own in America would have been shown to be…let’s call it “inaccurate,” since that’s a much nicer word than what it really is.

But quicker than you can strap a dog crate to a car roof, The New Hampshire Union Leader got the goods on Jack Gilchrist of Gilchrist Metal.

In 1999, Gilchrist Metal received $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority “to set up a second manufacturing plant and purchase equipment to produce high definition television broadcasting equipment,” according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report at the time…

He also said his company received a U.S. Small Business Administration loan totaling “somewhere south of” $500,000 in the late 1980s.

He said his business has also received matching funds from the New England Trade Adjustment Assistance Center (NETAAC), which is federally-funded.

Gilchrist said about 10 percent of his company’s contracts are defense-related.

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Skin in the Game: When It Comes to Taxes, Mitt Romney Doesn’t Have Much

Trish

TaxRates

Aside from showing how badly poor ol’ Joe Biden is getting the shaft (not to mention you and me), I love this chart, provided by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, for graphically depicting the ginormous size of Mitt Romney’s income. I mean, seriously?

TPC goes on to explain that Obama’s 23.4% tax rate is based on the fact that only $394,821 of his income is from wages. Most of the rest of it ($441,369) was royalties from book sales. Why such income is taxed at a lower rate than wages, you’ll have to ask Republicans.

Speaking of which, most of Mitt’s “reported” $21 million is taxed at the much lower capital gains rate, so he is in the 15.4% range, while you and I are (hopefully) in the 16.7% bracket.

Joe, poor working stiff, gets most of his income from wages for being vice president, so he’s paying out the ying-yang at 30.5%, or about twice as high as Mitt. But knowing Biden, he probably doesn’t even mind.

It’s amazing to realize that the way Republicans have rigged the system, Mitt Romney is paying a smaller percentage in taxes than Pres. Obama, Vice Pres. Biden, or the average two-income family of four barely clinging to the middle class.

So who’s really got skin in the game?

Olympics Illustrate the Failure of Romney-esque Ideas

Trish

OlympicUniformsThe Olympics, known for being above politics yet always in the shadow of them, haven’t even started but the games are a showcase for the themes that are driving election year debate.

Privatization, a tenet of American conservatism and tea baggery, isn’t providing a very good answer to the question, “How’s that working for you?” The private security firm the British government hired at an equivalent of $444 million is unable to provide enough trained staff members in time for the games.

Guess who’s bailing them out? That’s right, Mr. and Ms. British taxpayer will provide army troops and police officers to make up the for the failure of the private sector to prepare security guards.

And then there’s outsourcing. American politicians and members of the public expressed outrage that the Ralph Lauren designed Team USA uniforms were — like almost everything else sold in this country — made in China. The company was caught short by the criticism, China was offended, and let’s face it, the entire country can be embarrassed that the lack of confidence corporations have placed in the American worker, coupled with our desire for more and ever cheaper goods, was exposed on the world stage. It did, however, lead to one of the lamest assurances ever released on company letterhead.

Ralph Lauren promises to lead the conversation within our industry and our government addressing the issue of increasing manufacturing in the United States and has committed to producing the opening and closing ceremony Team USA uniforms in the United States that will be worn for the 2014 Olympic Games.

Should we expect the role of tax cuts for the rich, issues around unionized labor, and restriction of women’s reproductive rights to make appearances before the games end?

Well, At Least They Weren’t Made in Burma

Trish

The torch relay clothes were NOT made in Burma. They were manufactured in Myanmar.

The response of the Salt Lake City Olympics organizing committee (aka, the Mitt Romney Olympics), after protests over the origin of uniforms in 2002. The committee apparently did not understand that Burma and Myanmar are one and the same, and that thousands of refugees were fleeing the military regime which had placed its rightful leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for years.

McCain 2008 Opposition Research on Romney’s Economic Record in Massachusetts: Raised $700 Billion in Taxes, Spending Went up 24%, Left $1 Billion Deficit

Jon Ponder

The hits just keep on coming. After a week of pummeling by the Obama campaign over the Romney campaign’s conflicting record about Mitt’s exit from Bain Capital — did his control over the company end when he “retroactively retired” in 1999, before it outsourced thousands of American jobs overseas, as he claims now, or in 2002, as he claimed in sworn testimony later — now Buzzfeed has obtained the document used to vet Romney as a prospective vice presidential nominee by the McCain campaign 2008.

The entire document is here [Scribd] but here’s the McCain oppo research summary of Gov. Romney’s economic record. It’s no wonder they did not choose him — and it’s too bad Fox viewers will never see this. Their heads would explode!

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Time Travel

Trish

Zimmerman stayed in the car. #Retroactively.

One of many tweets using the hashtag #Retroactively, following a statement by Mitt Romney spokesperson Ed Gillespie that his boss had retired from Bain Capital “retroactively.” Also: “Michael Jordan retiring #retroactively, denies responsibility for those two seasons on the Wizards.” Is making something disappear retroactively better than Etch-A-Sketching it away?

Mitt, Show Us the Money!

Trish

If you have things to hide, then maybe you’re doing things wrong. I think you ought to be willing to release everything to the American people.

Gov. Robert Bentley (R-Ala.), one of a growing number of Republicans who are calling on Mitt Romney to release his tax returns already and end the speculation about what they might contain. Blackmail payments to Seamus, perhaps?

Washington Post Provided Stenography Services to Romney Campaign Instead of Reporting on Cheney Fundraiser

Jon Ponder

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mediabistro’s FishbowlDC:

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow took WaPo to task for a story on Mitt Romney Wednesday night. And that’s putting it mildly. Rather, she channeled her inner Freddy Krueger and methodically butchered the story to shreds one line at a time. She called the piece “whitewash” and “non journalism.”

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