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One of the many ways
in which Democrats are losing in the national arena, big time, is that try
as they might they just cannot be as mean and nasty as Republicans. There is no Democratic counterpart to Rush
Limbaugh, whom despite his agenda of
attacking the person rather than the policy seems to be firmly locked in step
with Republicans, no matter what he says.
But Harry Reid has
taken the proverbial gloves off.
First of
all he accuses Mr. Romney of not paying any income taxes for a period of
the last 10 years, an assertion based on a dubious, unknown source.
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| Mr. Reid - Probably Having A Lot of Fun |
Reid suggested that
Romney’s decision to withhold tax information would bar him from ever earning
Senate confirmation to a Cabinet post. Then, Reid recalled a phone call his
office received about a month ago from “a person who had invested with Bain
Capital,” according to The Huffington Post.
Reid said the person
told him: “Harry, he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years.”
“He didn’t pay taxes
for 10 years! Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain,” Reid
told HuffPo. “But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it
look?”
Neither Reid nor his aides
would identify the alleged investor, HuffPo reported.
Quite frankly, The
Dismal Political Economist is dubious of that claim, in large part because
Mr. Romney has both ordinary income and capital gains. The losses from capital gains, if any cannot
be used to offset ordinary income. So it
would seem Mr. Romney had to have paid some tax. Of course, Mr. Reid may be playing a very
strong political hand, knowing that Mr. Romney could easily refute the
accusation by releasing his tax returns, and knowing that he probably won’t.
On a more sound
footing, Mr. Reid makes fun of the group of billionaires bankrolling the
takeover of the election.
“Where
the problem is, is this: Because of the Citizens United decision, Karl Rove and
the Republicans are looking forward to a breakfast the day after the election,”
Reid said. “They are going to assemble 17 angry old white men for breakfast,
some of them will slobber in their food, some will have scrambled eggs, some
will have oatmeal, their teeth are gone. But these 17 angry old white men will
say, ‘Hey, we just bought America
And one look at
people like Sheldon Adelson says Mr. Reid’s vision is not that far off the
mark.
So yes, Mr. Reid is highly partisan, somewhat off
base and is engaging in dubious attacks.
Sorry Republicans, but you started it.
Go, Harry!
ReplyDeleteI'm getting concerned about Reid. First he made bizarre comments about the U.S. Olympic team wearing nothing but sashes saying "Made in America" rather than outfits made in China. Now he's talking about tax evasion conspiracies and slobbering.
ReplyDeleteI expect Romney/Republicans will respond that they are shocked by this partisan attack and consider it proof that Obama/Democrats don't want to talk about their policies.