Friday, April 13, 2012

Quotation for Today: Chris Christie's Tunnel Story and Mitt Romney's Tax Havens

The quotation for today shines a light on the hypocrisy of the Republicans' budget cuts; cuts that mainly harm middle- and working-class Americans while bestowing benefits on the ultra wealthy.
One general rule of modern politics is that the people who talk most about future generations — who go around solemnly declaring that we’re burdening our children with debt — are, in practice, the people most eager to sacrifice our future for short-term political gain. You can see that principle at work in the House Republican budget, which starts with dire warnings about the evils of deficits, then calls for tax cuts that would make the deficit even bigger, offset only by the claim to have a secret plan to make up for the revenue losses somehow or other.
Paul Krugman


Paul Krugman's, writing in his New York Times column, uses the case of New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie and the cancellation of the New Jersey rail tunnel project to highlight the hypocrisy of the Republicans' debt policies.  The above quotation is an excerpt from Professor Krugman's column of today.  In addition to being a columnist for The New York Times, Paul Krugman is a Nobel Laureate (economics), author and teacher.  


Not only is the Republicans' "debt-cutting" strategy hypocritical, it is also deceptive and misleading.  Republicans want Americans to think that they keep more of their money when taxes are cut, but this claim is only true for the very wealthy.  When you read the Mitt Romney tax return tale (here) and the wealth and income inequality story (see related information section), it becomes very clear that the Republicans' tax cuts only benefit the very wealthy; people like Mitt Romney.


To read Professor Krugman's article, follow the link enclosed in the citation.  


Timothy Egan's New York Times article, cited in the related information section, provides an excellent review of the relationship between the United States tax code and Mitt Romney's utilization of foreign tax havens and his less than 14 percent effective tax rate.   


Writing on the Opiniator blog, Mr. Egan describes how the Republican-created United States tax code is stacked against people whose wages and salaries must be reported on Line 7 of the Internal Revenue Service Form 1040; the line for W-2 reported income. Yes, it is the same Line 7 that was blank on Mitt Romney's tax return for the year 2010.


Krugman, Paul. "Cannibalize the Future." The New York Times 12 April, 2012: online edition.


Related information:



Domhoff, G. William. "Wealth, Income, and Power." Who Rules America March 2012. (G. William Domhoff is a research professor at the University of California,Santa Cruz. You can read more about Professor Domhoff here.)




Egan, Timothy. "Opinionator: Tax Face-Off: Romney vs. Me." The New York Times 12 April, 2012: online edition.

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