Romney Redistribution and the 1% NOT PAYING INCOME TAX - those MOOCHERS!!!!!

Romneyhood

Sep 20, 2012 | By ThinkProgress War Room

Real Talk on Redistribution

While Mitt Romney was busy complaining that nearly half of all Americans are lazy moochers with a victim mentality, something else happened: the richest people in America got richer. A lot richer.

Forbes reports that the wealth of 400 wealthiest people in America jumped by 13 percent over the past year to an astounding $1.7 TRILLION. And we know that six of those of people — six of the very, very wealthiest people in America — paid absolutely no federal income taxes. We certainly haven’t heard Mitt Romney complaining about those people. As Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said on the Senate floor yesterday, those six ultra-wealthy individuals aren’t the only wealthy Americans who aren’t paying federal income taxes:

“For all we know, Mitt Romney could be one of those who have paid no federal income tax. Thousands of families making more than $1 million pay nothing in federal income taxes each year… Is Mitt Romney among those? We’ll never know, since he refuses to release tax returns from the years before he was running for president.”

All of this stands in marked contrast to the average American, including many that Romney attacked, whose household income actually fell over the past year.

Why are the wealthy getting so much wealthier so quickly? A lot of reasons, but one reason is that it’s really the wealthy who get the vast majority of tax breaks in this country. As an independent study by the Tax Policy Center found, the other 53 percent receive their own form government assistance: they disproportionately benefit from the federal government’s $1.08 trillion annual allocation for tax breaks:

When Romney accused half of Americans of being dependent on government assistance, he conveniently forgot to mention the time that the U.S. taxpayers were forced to bail out Bain & Company to the tune of $10 MILLION. Check out this infographic for some perspective on who’s really guilty of mooching:

Finally, we know that instead of creating an economy that works for everyone, Romney would double down on an economy rigged for the rich. His economic plan is like Robin Hood in reverse. He would take money from everyone else to redistribute it to the wealthiest Americans. ThinkProgress’ Pat Garofalo explains:

According to a Tax Policy Center analysis, Romney’s plan would increase after-tax income for those making more than $200,000 annually, while lowering it for everyone else:

BOTTOM LINE: The 47% and the rest of the middle class simply can’t afford Romney’s Robin Hood-in-reverse economic plan.