While I don't really like the site politics.gather.com, this article Harry Reid Was Right: Mitt Romney Paid No Taxes for 15 Years is a good overview, despite the not-quite-accurate headline, of the original story in Bloomberg. The tax code is so arcane that it's a good idea to read this summary before following the link to the Bloomberg article, Romney Avoids Taxes via Loophole Cutting Mormon Donations, which
"gives an in-depth explanation of Romney's legal tax evasion since 1996. His tax avoidance was completely legal, although most hardworking Americans might question its ethical qualities. As President Obama said in the second debate, the GOP candidate paid less money in taxes than people earning less than $30,000 per year. How can that happen? Well, up until 1997, if you were rich, you could rent non-profit status from your favorite charity."
According to a trusts and estates lawyer quoted in the Bloomberg article,
"'The main benefit from a charitable remainder trust is the renting from your favorite charity of its exemption from taxation,' Blattmachr said. Despite the name, giving a gift or getting a charitable deduction 'is just a throwaway,' he said. 'I used to structure them so the value dedicated to charity was as close to zero as possible without being zero.'”
I don't give a flying frack if this was legal. It was immoral and unethical; the law itself was flawed. Slavery used to be legal, too--but that didn't mean that all people participated. Any person of good conscience would not take advantage of that--not only because you're withholding money
owed to the government, you're cheating the goddamn
charity who gave you tax-exempt status in return for a donation. This is a textbook example of the top 1% strategy: cheat the government
and the poor and hiding behind the grotesque veneer of legality.That's pretty fucking despicable.
And you're still voting for Romney because ... ? And you're still undecided because ... ?
Romney has done nothing to further the cause of humanity on earth; he makes his money by lying and cheating and firing people. He takes money from the government and gives nothing back; not even interest on his hoards of gold that he keeps out of the United States. He is a bad businessman and a bad human being.
But I don't detest him as much as I detest those of us who can't see through this, who think this kind of selfishness, greed, and cruelty are not just the cost of doing business, but are admirable qualities in a businessman. We have allowed this kind of scum to take over our country, forgetting our humanity, our compassion, and our social contract so eloquently stated in our Constitution.
We have an education system that, by and large, values remembering data over critical thinking and imagination; we have a hero system that venerates success by any means possible. Organized faith has been not only complicit but active in promoting intolerance, hatred, and narrow-minded ignorance, and our media no longer distinguishes between the truth and lies and refuses to call out liars. Even those of us who want to promote unity often cannot see the forest for the trees and are divisive by insisting on, as Voltaire said, making perfect the enemy of good.
I can't help but quote Yeats:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world;
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
…
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
How to stop this slouching beast? We have to put aside our personal wish lists and focus with the passionate intensity born of the desire to keep this country from falling apart, to keep our government of the people, by the people, for the people, and
about the people. That means voting
for President Obama; that means voting
for such wonderful progressives as Sherrod Brown in Ohio; Tammy Baldwin and Rob Zerban in Wisconsin; Alan Grayson in Florida; and, of course, Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts.
Vote on Tuesday, November 6. Vote like your country depended on it. Vote like your life depended on it. Because it does.