Liberals and Romney's taxes

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND

This is such a tangent to the original thread....

Jim:
So, you have NO problem with Romney not releasing his taxes at all? You don't care in the least bit?

It hadn't occured to me till I was told by Obama's team that I should care. Since there has been no claim by IRS that he owes money that hasn't been paid, there was no reason for me to be curious. I, generally, don't find tax returns to be entertaining or even interesting, unless they reveal skullduggery. That's between Romney and the IRS. If the IRS has no problem with his returns, I have no interest in them. I understand that Romney is rich. I don't need to pore through boring tax returns to find that out. I don't mind that he is rich. He has returned and given more to our society in so many ways including taxes and charities than I, or the vast majority of Americans. He has earned his wealth, he didn't inherit it, not that inheriting it would be a bad thing. For whatever reason, I don't get worked up over what rich people pay in taxes. I realize, as Fitzgerald said, the rich are different than you or I. Just doesn't bother me. I get pissed at what the government takes from me, and even more pissed at how it spends, or redistributes it.

If nothing else, I'm curious what it costs to maintain and train a Dressage horse....

Probably less than the cost to treat Anne Romney's MS for which the horse is used to help with the disease. The Romney's donated about $20,000 to the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation.

Do you need to see Romney's tax return to find out how much it costs to maintain and train a dressage horse?

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by detbuch

Probably less than the cost to treat Anne Romney's MS for which the horse is used to help with the disease.

I am very familiar with MS in my family... no one was prescribed 'Dressage' as a treatment.....

Originally Posted by detbuch

He has earned his wealth, he didn't inherit it, not that inheriting it would be a bad thing. For whatever reason, I don't get worked up over what rich people pay in taxes. I realize, as Fitzgerald said, the rich are different than you or I. Just doesn't bother me. I get pissed at what the government takes from me, and even more pissed at how it spends, or redistributes it.

So you get pissed at what the gov't take from you, but not if the top 1% get to skirt the same taxes by moving money offshore, or taking 'losses'?

Are you sure he didn't inherit his wealth? He certainly made a lot more for himself, no denying that.... but he didn't start out dirt poor, or even middle class.....
To paraphrase that awful Trump Roast on Comedy central... "after college he put his nose to the grindstone, worked hard, and borrowed (inherited) X Millions from his father...."

[detbuch]

Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND

I am very familiar with MS in my family... no one was prescribed 'Dressage' as a treatment.....


Are you saying that it doesn't help Mrs. Romney with her MS? Rich folks can afford more costly treatments for their ailments than the rest of us. Isn't that one of the reasons to be rich? Is your solution to this supposed "problem" that we should by government fiat remove the advantages of being rich? What overall effect do you think that would have on our society? Rather than being jealous of and punitive against the rich, I prefer to focus on my own well being and what I can do to improve it, if necessary.

So you get pissed at what the gov't take from you, but not if the top 1% get to skirt the same taxes by moving money offshore, or taking 'losses'?

That's correct. I like the idea of loopholes to evade taxes. I wish I had more myself. Kudos to those who take advantage of them. I admire what Romney has done with his life. There are those who come from better circumstances that waste what was given to them, and those who come from lesser circumstances that have climbed to better. I admire the character not the wealth or poverty. It is that character, in my opinion, not taxes, that make a nation, or society, "great." I understand that government needs money to operate. But it should operate with the consent of the governed, not in opposition to it. It should govern within the pasrameters prescribed, in our case, of the Constitution, not in any which way it chooses. And it should function with the minimum amount of taxation required to do so, not by taking the lion's share of the nation's wealth.

Are you sure he didn't inherit his wealth? He certainly made a lot more for himself, no denying that.... but he didn't start out dirt poor, or even middle class.....

I didn't say that he didn't inherit something. I said he didn't inherit his wealth. He was already wealthy before his father died. And what he was given as an advantage of birth was not the great wealth that he earned, but what was given he took advantage of, as do all of us who start with whatever our family gives us, to become who he is and acquire what wealth he has. He didn't waste whatever advantages he had from birth, he used them to productive ends that have been a plus to our economy, and his character are a plus to the moral fiber, as it is, of our society.

To paraphrase that awful Trump Roast on Comedy central... "after college he put his nose to the grindstone, worked hard, and borrowed (inherited) X Millions from his father...."

Of what money he actually borrowed, which was not millions, did he pay it back? What he actually inherited from his father's will he donated to Brigham Young U. He was already rich by then, and didn't need the money. But he did put that inheritance to a good use to help others. His father helped with college expenses and buying his first house. I have helped my son with a great deal of his college expenses as well as catholic school expenses including a select high school, which were not cheap. So do most middle class, and even some poorer, families.

I notice you like to take some of your political opinions from comedy shows. I guess that's OK, for entertainment. Just sayin.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by detbuch

Of what money he actually borrowed, which was not millions, did he pay it back? What he actually inherited from his father's will he donated to Brigham Young U. He was already rich by then, and didn't need the money. But he did put that inheritance to a good use to help others. His father helped with college expenses and buying his first house. I have helped my son with a great deal of his college expenses as well as catholic school expenses including a select high school, which were not cheap. So do most middle class, and even some poorer, families.

I notice you like to take you political opinions from comedy shows. I guess that's OK, for entertainment. Just sayin.

Spence isn't saying that horseback riding doesn't help her MS...what Spence is saying, because Obama has told him to say it, is that the horseback riding makes Romney one of "them".

The rich.

The enemy.

The one that has caused all of our problems.

The one who isn't paying his fair share (as if the millions he pays in taxes, and the millions he gives to charity, and the jobs he creates, are not enough!)

This, from the Obama who said he, and only he, could descend from the heavens and unite us all. Now it's "us" versus "them".

The irony is that the folks that Obama is attacking (rich businessmen, for the most part), are the ones who do so much for the rest of us. They lower the tax burden for the rest of us, they pay taxes for things like public schools that they will never use, they give big $$ to charity, and they create jobs. Those bastards!

To believe Obama, one must be willing to believe that if we could just tweak! tax rates, just a bit, on the billionaires, that all of our problems would be solved. That's ridiculous, just like just about everything else on the liberal ideological platform.

I saw Obama last night talking about CEO pay compared to the middle class. Waah, waah, waah. Does Obama think that Steven Spielberg's butler makes as much money as Spielberg does? How about Barbara Streisand's gardener, how much does he make?

So if the CEO of Goldman Sachs pays entry-level bankers less than he makes, that's exploitative. When Will Smith pays his nanny less than he makes, that's something else I guess, maybe Spence can explain the difference...