Tag Archives: wealthy

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Mitt Inserts Foot In Mouth – Again

Over the weekend, Romney had a remarkable weekend of opening his mouth and letting stupid stuff come out. Not that this is any surprise. But at this point, he might be giving Joe Biden a run for his money…

On Friday, Romney talked, in Michigan, where he was willing to let the auto industry go belly up, about the fact that he likes cars. Has two of them. And then, he volunteered that his wife owns two Cadillacs. Apparently, it never dawned on the guy that the people he wants voting for him can’t afford one Cadillac.

So, on Sunday, he headed over to a NASCAR event – should be simple, right? Shake a few hands, smile a bunch, get out of town. Except, we’re talking about Romney.

No, when he was asked about NASCAR, he said he didn’t follow it as much as avid fans, but “I have some great friends that are NASCAR team owners”. Don’t we all?

He topped off the gaffe-fest when he walked by a bunch of NASCAR fans wearing plastic ponchos to ward off the rain. Via The Maddow Blog:

In case it seemed as if Romney’s NASCAR visit wasn’t awkward enough, this was pretty remarkable, too: ”The crowd initially booed Mr. Romney, who occasionally struck a discordant note, as when he approached a group of fans wearing plastic ponchos. ‘I like those fancy raincoats you bought,’ he said. ‘Really sprung for the big bucks.’”

Yup. He taunted NASCAR fans because they were wearing inexpensive ponchos. I guess they didn’t have enough corporate sponsorship for him.

You’d have thunk that by now, he would have clued into the whole idea that he’s sounding less like the average guy and more like the rich, self-entitled corporate raider he has always been. Not a very voter friendly persona. But what lies at the heart is simple.

He doesn’t see a difference.

To Romney, everyone is rich. Everyone has four cars. Everyone has investment income. It’s why he says things like “I’m not concerned about the very poor”. He thinks they have a safety net. He doesn’t realize the whole problem is that they’re in the safety net. If you need that safety net, something has already gone wrong.

He thinks corporations are people because he thinks like a corporation. Plain and simple. It’s why he can’t connect with people – he just doesn’t see the difference.

We’ll see more of these gaffes in the upcoming weeks. But if he keeps this up, he may give Santorum a real opening.

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Gov. Rick Perry Thinks Economic Crisis God’s Idea

Oh, good grief.

Rick Perry feels that the economic crisis isn’t the fault of Wall St. greed, but divine intervention. From ThinkProgress.:

As Perry is poised to sign the most draconian state budget in recent history that slashes essential services for the poor and middle class while potentially laying off 100,000 teachers, Kyle Mantyla of Right Wing Watch Kyle digs up this gem of an interview from May in which the governor sheds some light on his motivations. During an appearance on James Robison’s Life Today television program, Perry says he sees a silver lining to the devastating recession that has cost millions of families their jobs, homes, and livelihoods: it will return America to “Biblical principles” and free us from the slavery of big government:

PERRY: I think in America from time to time we have to go through some difficult times — and I think we’re going through those difficult economic times for a purpose, to bring us back to those Biblical principles of you know, you don’t spend all the money. You work hard for those six years and you put up that seventh year in the warehouse to take you through the hard times. And not spending all of our money. Not asking for Pharaoh to give everything to everybody and to take care of folks because at the end of the day, it’s slavery. We become slaves to government.

That’s right. We’re being taught a lesson in saving our money. That’s why we’re having an economic crisis.

Not Wall St. greed. Not Massive tax cuts to the folks who need it least. Not tax loopholes for companies that are making billions in profits every quarter. Not a failure of the Republican-controlled House to deliver a single jobs bill in the last five months. Nope. It’s all a divine lesson we are being taught.

Remember, he’s thinking about running for President. But if he does get elected, and things don’t work out, it was obviously God’s plan, not his.

Grrr.

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Jan Brewer’s Arizona Death Panel – 2 Down, 97 To Go

Jan Brewer’s policies claim another life - via Arizona Death Panel Claims Another Victim – Rick Ungar – The Policy Page – Forbes.

Tucson University Medical Center has confirmed that a patient who was refused a liver transplant due to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s decision to cut the state benefit that would have made the transplant possible, has died. The patient had been scheduled for the needed transplant but was dropped from the waiting list on October 1st when the cuts went into effect.

Please allow the preceding paragraph to sink into your consciousness for a moment.

The Arizona budget that previously provided transplants to people in need was $1.4 million. As there were 99 people on the waiting list for transplants at the time the cuts went into effect, the net result is that the State of Arizona valued each of these lives at something less than $14,000 a person.

Today, there are only 97 on the waiting list as two have passed away.

We’ve talked about this before on the show.

The funding that was canceled by Jan Brewer has actually delivered the “death panels” that were used as scare tactics during the debate on healthcare. To date, the policy of cutting funding for those on the transplant list has claimed two lives. Meanwhile, Brewer and her Republican cronies continue to push for more and more tax cuts for the wealthiest in the country.

How on earth did we get to the point where it is more important to give more money to the uber-rich, while allowing transplant candidates to die? Answer: We were asleep at the switch when it came time to vote.

Republicans are hoping to take the Senate and the Presidency in the 2012 elections. If for some reason you think things will get better if they do, you need to talk to two grieving families and explain to them why there was enough money for tax cuts to the rich, but not to pay to save their loved ones.