in Mitt Romney - Class Warrior a New York Times editorial, on the opinion page, notes that Mitt Romney has proven there is class warfare going on, but of the opposite sort we usually think of. The NYT thinks Romney is turning the concept of class warfare upside-down, and he is now rallying the rich to fight against the poor.
When you think of class warfare, you probably think of inciting anger, resentment and jealousy among the have-nots against the haves. That’s what Mr. Romney has accused Mr. Obama of doing, but those charges have always been false. The truth is that Mr. Romney has been trying to incite the anger of a small slice of the richest Americans who need no government assistance but get it anyway, against the working poor, the elderly, the disabled workers and veterans, and even a significant chunk of middle-class Americans.... Mr. Romney spoke with a bone-chilling cynicism and a revolting smugness. If he is elected, he said, capital will come back and “we’ll see, without actually doing anything, we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.”
After elaborating the real composition of the 47% he does not care about are not "freeloaders," but include those in low paying jobs, and include middle income people benefitting from Republican sponsored Bush tax cuts, the NYT notes that he leaves off people like himself who benefits from large mortgage deductions, tax shelters, deductions for dancing horses, overseas banks accounts, and loopholes. Mitt Romney, only pays 13.9% in the one year he has partially reported. I hope this lastest gaffe renews calls for Romney to release all of his taxes back to the controversial 1999 period, when he purportedly left Bain Capital.
Everything about Mr. Romney’s characterization of this mythical slice of lazy, shiftless Americans was wrong. ... The government’s revenue problem does not start with the poor, but with the richest people, through the Bush tax cuts and other changes. The tax cuts for the richest people should expire now, and the middle-class cuts should do so eventually. But that will not happen as long as people like Mr. Romney protect the rich by turning the working poor and middle class into the enemy. ...
The right wing has long been whining about people who don’t pay taxes and who therefore don’t deserve a say in government. They have it exactly backward. The shame is not that those people don’t pay income taxes. The shame is how many poor people there are when the top 1 percent can amass uncountable fortunes fed by tax breaks and can donate tens of millions of dollars to political candidates to keep it that way.
Yes, the problems with our tax code is not that the poorest among us are not paying more taxes, but rather that the rich, and corporations who can afford accountants and tax lawyers, are not paying their fair share.