Tag: Republican Lies

Salt Lake City Winter Olympics: Hey Mitt, You Didn’t Build That

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SLFireworks
Did the government pay for the fireworks over the Mormon Temple during the 2002 opening ceremony?

We’ve been stupefied at the public relations disaster that has been Mitt Romney’s European vacation.

Especially amazing is that the candidate would want to draw attention to his role in the 2002 Winter Olympics, particularly in light of his effort to disavow the impact of infrastructure and public works in American business success (and if you don’t think it makes a difference, just ask a Somalian).

Romney used his role as CEO of the 2002 games, held in Mormon world headquarters, aka Salt Lake City, Utah, to jump-start his successful bid for governor of Massachusetts. But as this article in the Washington Examiner notes, the event wasn’t exactly a one-man show.

Romney: “No matter how well we did cutting costs and raising revenue, we couldn’t have games without the support of the federal government’

In Romney’s book “Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games,” Romney describes in a chapter entitled “Funds from the Feds” how he lobbied Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for funding, saying he “would need hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federal support from a long list of departments.”

“No matter how well we did cutting costs and raising revenue, we couldn’t have games without the support of the federal government,” Romney wrote.

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Be Careful What You Ask For: CBO Tells Boehner That Obamacare Saves Money and Its Repeal Would Cost More

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BoehnerCry
Don't cry, John!

Pity poor John Boehner. The Republican House Speaker from Ohio asked the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which exists to measure all things mathematical for the legislative branch, how much the most recent bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would save.

The answer? Nada. In fact, the CBO found that the ACA will decrease the deficit while its repeal would increase it. Here are parts of the letter sent to the honorable JB.

As you requested, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have estimated the direct spending and revenue effects of H.R. 6079, the Repeal of Obamacare Act, as passed by the House of Representatives on July 11, 2012…

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

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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

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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

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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?

Time Travel

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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!

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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?

Point of Order: Obama Wants to Give Everyone a Tax Break

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PointofOrder

Whether ignorance or deliberate spin is to blame, we keep hearing that Pres. Obama wants to end the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 annually. This is true. And false, false, false.

The president is proposing, as he has since he took office and knew Bush’s tax cuts would expire during his first term, to end the tax breaks on family incomes above $250,000.

That means everyone pays at the lower rate on the first $250,000 they earn. So if your family earns $220,000, you continue to pay at the Bush rate on your entire income. If you earn $280,000, then you continue to pay at the Bush rate on $250,000 and pay at the higher, Clinton-era rate on $30,000.

As Daily Finance’s Bruce Watson explains:

When discussing the tax code, most analysts and pundits — not to mention average citizens — focus on the highest rate that an individual pays. One rarely hears about the fact that everybody pays only 10% tax on their first $8,700, 15% on everything between $8,701 and $35,350, and so forth. In other words, a millionaire pays the exact same amount in taxes on that piece of their income as someone who makes $35,350 per year…or $85,000, or $150,000. (Before deductions, of course.)

It’s not hard to see why tax issues are drawn along wealth lines — after all, creating barriers between the rich and the middle class makes for good headlines and hot political battles. In truth, though, the line isn’t between cutting taxes for the rich and cutting them for the middle class; it’s between cutting taxes for the rich, and cutting taxes for the rich more.

Emphasis added

Update: The misstatement bothers Robert Reich too.

Florida Wants to Know: Is Our Lt. Gov. Gay?

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Carroll
Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll

After a term with Gov. Charlie Crist, you’d think Floridians would be used to rumors of gay goings-on in the governor’s suite. But even normally unflappable Floridians are reeling at the news that Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll (R) might be…How did that one really rude web site put it? Oh yeah, a “carpet muncher.”

Carroll, 52, a former Navy veteran born in Trinidad and married mother of three, including Miami Dolphins player Nolan Carroll, is known as an ultra social conservative, pushing abstinence-only education, among other favorite rightwing initiatives. She’s also had to explain shifting income reporting (her net worth has varied depending on whether she was filling out tax returns or applying for low-income minority business set-asides), how she made speeding tickets in her former legislative district disappear without paying any fines, and how she rented an office whose location would have shown eligibility to bid for additional female-owned business set-asides, except it was already occupied by a private detective.

Report: ‘When she entered the office, she found the Lieutenant Governor and her Travel Aide, Beatriz Ramos, in what can only be described as a compromising position’

Carroll, like her boss, Gov. Rick Scott, also has a reputation for dealing harshly with perceived enemies. Scott, for example, recently tried unsuccessfully to have three judges that he considered liberal prosecuted for improper election filings because they had their paperwork notarized by a state worker, a practice so common no one realized it was verboten.

Carroll took it even further with a former aide, having her arrested for disclosing to the press a conversation recorded in the lieutenant governor’s office. The practice of taping visitors and colleagues was said to be routine under Carroll, but the aide, Carletha Cole, shared the recording with a newspaper. The tape confirmed the chaos and dysfunction alleged in Carroll’s office.

But the arrest and resulting investigation might have consequences Carroll never envisioned, like allegations of an affair with her female travel aide, Beatriz Ramos.

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