Political posterizing redux.

[kiki5711]

58739_533078236717692_1236352246_n.jpg

REPUBLICANS ARE SLOWLY BUT SURELY CREATING POVERTY AND USA WILL BE GONE AS WE KNOW IT. THOSE PICTURES ARE WHAT WE'RE GOING TO LOOK LIKE.

[kiki5711]

Mitt Romney Tax Returns May Have Employed Legally Dubious Maneuvers, Tax Experts Say


WASHINGTON -- Tax experts who have begun to examine the Bain Capital documents released Thursday by Gawker are raising questions as to whether presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has paid all the taxes he owed.

At issue are two tax-avoidance techniques employed by Bain Capital, the firm founded by Romney, which have been commonly used in the private equity world but have come under increasing legal scrutiny.

The first scheme involves owning U.S. dividend-paying stocks in an offshore account and pretending, for accounting purposes, not to own the stock. Instead, the taxpayer tells the Internal Revenue Service that he owns a derivative product that is identical in every way to the stock -- except it isn't the stock, so therefore no U.S. taxes are owed. It's called a "total return equity swap," because the buyer still gets the benefit -- the "total return" -- of owning the stock, or equity.

"This use of total return equity swaps, such as to avoid the U.S. dividend withholding tax, was very widespread for more than a decade, and may not be dead yet, although the IRS issued a shot-across-the-bow Notice concerning the practice in 2010," writes Daniel Shaviro, the Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation at New York University School of Law. "But taxpayers who engaged in it to avoid the dividend withholding tax were coming perilously close to committing tax fraud, in cases where the economic equivalence to direct ownership was too great."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/2 ... 27632.html

[kiki5711]

[kiki5711]

[kiki5711]

[kiki5711]

Senate Republicans kill veterans' jobs bill...SEPTEMBER 19, 2012




With a major national election just seven weeks away, senators would have to be out of their minds to reject a jobs bill for U.S. military veterans, right?

Apparently not.

Veterans won't be getting a new, billion-dollar jobs program, not from this Senate. Republicans on Wednesday afternoon blocked a vote on the Veterans Job Corps Bill after Jeff Sessions of Alabama raised a point of order -- he said the bill violated a cap on spending agreed to by Congress last year.

The bill's sponsor, Patty Murray of Washington, said that shouldn't matter, since the bill's cost was fully offset by new revenues. She said Mr. Sessions and his party colleagues had been furiously generating excuses to oppose the bill, and were now exploiting a technicality to deny thousands of veterans a shot at getting hired as police officers, firefighters and parks workers, among other things.

The bill needed 60 votes to advance. The final tally was 58 to 40, and all 40 opponents of the proposal were Republicans.

As proposals go, this should have been a no-brainer. The Veterans Job Corps Act of 2012, sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), sought to lower unemployment among military veterans, giving grants to federal, state, and local agencies, which in turn would hire veterans -- giving priority to those who served on or after 9/11 -- to work as first-responders and in conservation jobs at national parks.

The bill was fully paid for, and entirely bipartisan -- Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) had his own set of ideas for the bill, and Murray incorporated all of them into her legislation.

And yet, all but five Senate Republicans voted to kill it anyway, 48 days before a national election. Even Burr sided with his party to defeat the bill, and it was filled with his provisions.


http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/ ... -jobs-bill

[kiki5711]

When asked why US military personnel return for 3, 4, 5, and sometimes 6 deployments into that combat zone, Romney responded, "they keep going back so they won't get taxed on their combat pay. They have no shame. I mean, everybody should WANT to pay taxes."

Romney continued, "THOSE PEOPLE feel so entitled that even after they're killed in action, they still want stuff. I mean, they die and expect the government to ship their corpses home and pay for funerals. They don't understand how America works. No ability or desire to develop a sense of personal responsibility."

Notice that when Romney spoke at that fund raiser, he referred to the 47% as THOSE PEOPLE.

And Ann--yeah, you remember Ann, pointing her finger at and glaring into the TV camera yelling YOU PEOPLE. You know who YOU PEOPLE ARE. That's us folks who Ann Romney believes are more disgusting than the dirt on the soles of her shoes.

[kiki5711]

if the Republicans win, they will introduce all the bills they blocked from Obama and try to claim "glory savior" for themselves. I cannot believe this treacherous human beings are so vile and disgusting.

[Ian]

When asked why US military personnel return for 3, 4, 5, and sometimes 6 deployments into that combat zone, Romney responded, "they keep going back so they won't get taxed on their combat pay. They have no shame. I mean, everybody should WANT to pay taxes."

Romney continued, "THOSE PEOPLE feel so entitled that even after they're killed in action, they still want stuff. I mean, they die and expect the government to ship their corpses home and pay for funerals. They don't understand how America works. No ability or desire to develop a sense of personal responsibility."

Did he really say that somewhere? Do you have a citation?

[Kristie]

When asked why US military personnel return for 3, 4, 5, and sometimes 6 deployments into that combat zone, Romney responded, "they keep going back so they won't get taxed on their combat pay. They have no shame. I mean, everybody should WANT to pay taxes."

Romney continued, "THOSE PEOPLE feel so entitled that even after they're killed in action, they still want stuff. I mean, they die and expect the government to ship their corpses home and pay for funerals. They don't understand how America works. No ability or desire to develop a sense of personal responsibility."

Did he really say that somewhere? Do you have a citation?

All I could find was a comment on Rachel Maddow http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/ ... -bill?lite. No links provided by the commenter.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[kiki5711]

Paul Ryan: Contraception Mandate 'Will Be Gone' On 'Day 1'




GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan sees no place for the Obama Administration's contraception mandate.

At a Saturday campaign event in Orlando, Fla., the Associated Press reports that Ryan was asked about whether he would press Vice President and fellow Catholic Joe Biden on his views in relation to the 2012 Democratic Party platform.

Ryan's answer turned straight to the piece of Obamacare providing birth control access. He vowed to remove that requirement for insurance providers, including Catholic hospitals and universities, on "day one."

"It will be gone," Ryan told onlookers at the University of Central Florida. "I can guarantee you that."

Back on February 10, Ryan offered similar criticisms of Obama's contraception plan. In a statement released on his website, the Wisconsin congressman deemed it an "affront to religious liberty."

While I am a pro-life Catholic, I believe this mandate transcends the issue of personal religious beliefs about contraception, sterilization and abortion. The Obama Administration failed to recognize this mandate is in violation of our First Amendment right of religious freedom.
...

The President's policy continues to contradict the core principles of our nation. His decision disrespects not only the religious community, but it also disrespects the Constitution. By treating our rights as revocable privileges from our government, instead of inalienable gifts from our Creator, the President has put his personal political philosophies above the principles upon which this nation was founded. I will continue to monitor this issue closely and will work to see that this policy is reversed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/2 ... lp00000003

[kiki5711]

Mitt Romney paid an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent in 2011, according to a tax return filed on Friday, a relatively low tax rate resulting from exotic deductions, the special tax treatment for his Bain Capital retirement package and the low tax rate on capital gains. Romney also opted not to deduct millions in charitable contributions from his tax bill in order to maintain a pledge from August that he has paid at least 13 percent in federal income taxes for each of the past 10 years.

Despite choosing to not take the deduction for charitable contributions, Romney can recoup that money after the election. HuffPost's Ryan Grim reports:

If the American people reject him at the polls in November -- and even if they don't -- Romney would be fully within his legal rights to file an amended return, requiring the Treasury to cut him a substantial check.

My comment: So he doesn't claim millions in charitable contributions but has a right to file an amendment the following year asking for a refund. How clever!!!


Obama Video Hits Mitt Romney On Tax Returns, Asks 'What Else Is He Hiding?'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/2 ... 06097.html

[Ayaan]

Yes, this really happened.

[kiki5711]