Mitt Romney Fails to Qualify as President
There are certain things that offshore bank accounts don’t do:
- They don’t provide access to convenient ATMs in over 300 locations.
- They don’t give out toasters or hunting rifles when you open an account.
- They don’t provide a friendly face at your local shopping center or extended hours on Fridays.
- They don’t offer car loans or home mortgages.
- They don’t sponsor little-league teams or send a few dollars to the local food bank.
There are really only four things they do: 
- They help you hide assets from your spouse or business partner.
- They help you avoid paying taxes.
- They convert dollars to the local currency so that you can bet against your own country’s currency.
- They keep your deposits a secret.
Now take a moment to parse the message of the Romney campaign: Hey, it’s legal. So anyone who questions whether it is right is un-American.
These schemes are legal because people who have bucket loads of cash have bought loopholes in the federal tax code with campaign contributions. These loopholes allow them to take some of those cash buckets out of the country. They can do this without first having to contribute a share to the general welfare of our nation. That’s what they bought with their campaign donations – the legal opportunity not to pay a fair share.
You might think that’s great if you don’t believe in government. You may like that the money doesn’t go to things you don’t support like poor people or health care or drug rehabilitation. But when other Americans avoid paying taxes, they also don’t pay for roads or police or body armor for soldiers or even aid to local governments that pay health inspectors to close abortion clinics.
In short, everyone’s ox is gored – no matter what kind of government you like. Legal? Perhaps. But is it presidential? Not hardly.
Romney already pays far less taxes than most people. You probably pay 18% or more on your income of $80,000 or less. Even that is too low. It is not enough to pay for our modest menu of citizen services (like your mom’s Social Security) and our huge subsidy of defense contractors and exotic weapons procurement. So we carry a deficit.
But Mitt Romney in 2010 – apparently his least embarrassing year – paid even less. In the only year Romney is willing to let us see, he paid 13.9 percent on $21 million. Who knows what secrets he might be hiding?
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati