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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (179884)	1/22/2012 12:28:42 AM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542946

Gingrich's tax proposals. Newt Gingrich Would Eliminate Federal Income Tax for Mitt Romney By Michael Scherer \| @michaelscherer \| January 20, 2012 \| The tax proposals of Newt Gingrich could yield a windfall in tax savings, both for himself and his primary opponent, Mitt Romney, if they were enacted into law, according to a new analysis by the liberal group Citizens For Tax Justice. The reason is simple: Gingrich has proposed zeroing out capital gains taxes, which would effectively reduce Mitt Romney’s tax burden to zero, according to the analysis, saving Romney millions of dollars a year. Gingrich himself would also benefit from a reduction in the regular income rate from more than 30 percent for high-income individuals to a standard 15 percent rate. “Gingrich is complaining about Romney paying less than the American people, but he wants him to pay nothing,” says Bob McIntyre, who did the analysis. (MORE: New Newtmentum) In recent days, Gingrich has had some fun with Mitt Romney’s tax returns at his rival’s expense. “I think we ought to rename our flat tax,” Gingrich said at a campaign stop in Columbia, S.C., this week, “so this would be the ‘Mitt Romney flat tax.’ All Americans would pay the rate that Mitt Romney paid. I think it’s terrific.” Gingrich did not add that his plan would also provide a huge boost to Romney’s own pocketbook, effectively reducing his income tax rate to nothing by eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends for all earners. Under McIntyre’s analysis, based on estimates provided in financial disclosure forms, Romney paid an estimated $3.3 million in income taxes in 2010, on estimated income of more than $20 million. If Gingrich’s proposed rules had been in effect, Romney would have paid no income tax, since his deductions would have more than compensated for his non-capital gains sources of income. Gingrich would also benefit from his own policies. In 2010, Gingrich paid about $990,000 in income taxes, or about 31.5% of his gross income, according to his recently released income tax forms. If his own plan had been in place, Gingrich would have paid just $450,000 in 2010, or less than half as much, McIntyre said. Romney’s tax plan would also zero out taxes on capital gains, but only for families making less than $200,000 a year, disqualifying Romney and other high-income investors from the windfall. Under the same plan, Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax breaks would be permanently extended, and the estate tax would be eliminated along with assessments included in Obama’s health reform law, thus decreasing both Romney’s and Gingrich’s tax burden in the long term. The Gingrich campaign released its candidate’s tax returns while Gingrich was standing next to Romney on stage at Thursday’s debate. The move, among other things, had the effect of highlighting Romney’s wealth, which Romney has had a difficult time speaking about in public in recent months. Romney reacted defensively. “I know there are some who are very anxious to see if they can’t make it more difficult for a campaign to be successful,” Romney said. “I know the Democrats want to go after the fact that I’ve been successful. I’m not going to apologize for being successful.” Earlier this week, Romney told reporters that he pays about 15% of his total income in federal taxes, a number that closely matched the 14% that McIntyre had estimated in October, based on a review of Romney’s financial disclosure forms. Romney has said he plans to release his tax returns to the public in April, after he has filed his 2011 returns. He says he has not yet decided how many years of returns he will release. Read more: swampland.time.com

To: Sam who wrote (179884)	1/22/2012 1:41:03 AM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 542946

Contrary to usual practice, I watched some TV about the SC primary tonight, mostly MSNBC. ( I checked Fox for "balance", but after 9 they seemed to throw in the towel, first they were running something about the Italian shipwreck, after 10 they were running some panel on Iran. ) MSNBC people were having fun though. One factoid I recall was that they said they only demographic Romney won was income >$200k. They had McCain's campaign manager Steve Schmidt and former RNC head Michael Steele on for Republican view, both seemed to think Romney had problems going forward. They also predicted big super PAC money going into Florida. Newt's super PAC in SC outspent his official campaign 8:1, while the better funded Romney managed to match his super PAC in spending. Gingrich's main super PAC benefactor, Adelman, is supposed to be the 8th richest man in America, worth a few billion. So it's like Romney the 1%er and friends versus Newt and his 0.000001%er sponsor I guess. Newt's rumored to have 5 or 10 more sponsors willing to throw $millions more into Florida. Personally, I would greatly love it if the Republican party was totally messed up by super PAC money. It'd be sweetly ironic if the conservative ideologues on the SC that engineered Citizens United had it blow up in their faces, but boy, it's going to be ugly on the airwaves this year. Many on MSNBC seemed to think Newt did better running from behind and was likely to blow himself up as a frontrunner. I think Steve Schmidt advised him to cancel Meet the Press tomorrow, where Newt was scheduled to have a one-on-one interview. They thought Newt did better in debates where he could prepare his answer during opponents time. Me, I just think it's bizarre that Newt seemed to get a lot of mileage from blaming his personal issues on the media. Mad as hell baggers and super PAC money might get Newt the nomination, but hothead Newt versus no-drama Obama doesn't seem like a real good contrast outside the red meat districts. Earlier today I looked up the source of Newt's Obama/Kenyan thing that's been referenced in the news lately. I thought it was maybe an oblique Mau Mau reference or something but Newt's not quite that obscure. But it's pretty offensive nevertheless. Here's Newt, quoted in National Review over a year ago: Gingrich: Obama’s ‘Kenyan, anti-colonial’ worldview By Robert Costa September 11, 2010 10:52 P.M. Comments Citing a recent Forbes article by Dinesh D’Souza, former House speaker Newt Gingrich tells National Review Online that President Obama may follow a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview. Gingrich says that D’Souza has made a “stunning insight” into Obama’s behavior — the “most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama.” “What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?” Gingrich asks. “That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.” “This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president,” Gingrich tells us. “I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating — none of which was true,” Gingrich continues. “In the Alinksy tradition, he was being the person he needed to be in order to achieve the position he needed to achieve . . . He was authentically dishonest.” “[Obama] is in the great tradition of Edison, Ford, the Wright Brothers, Bill Gates — he saw his opportunity and he took it,” Gingrich says. Will Gingrich take it back in 2012? “The American people may take it back, in which case I may or may not be the recipient of that, but I have zero doubt that the American people will take it back. Unlike Ford, the Wright Brothers, et cetera, this guy’s invention did not work.” “I think Obama gets up every morning with a worldview that is fundamentally wrong about reality,” Gingrich says. “If you look at the continuous denial of reality, there has got to be a point where someone stands up and says that this is just factually insane.” Gingrich spoke with NRO after the premiere of his new film, America at Risk. Original at nationalreview.com . As a card carrying member of the reality based community that Karl Rove found so amusing, I love being lectured on reality by fatuous conservatives. Remarkably, the D’Souza piece that inspired that Newtron bomb is even more offensive than Newt's take on it. Viewable at forbes.com but don't say I didn't warn you.