Article 15
Dr. House slayer
- Jul 4, 2008
- 24,673
- 4,916
- 183
I'm just going to focus on that last line. Lining his own pockets in a way a public servant would not you are kidding right? I don't think there is anyone out there who lines their pockets more than the so called public servants.Short version: Romney's wealth is more of an issue because Romney's policies favor the wealthy and Romney has defined himself by how he got his wealth.
I agree that Romney's wealth has proven and will prove more of an issue than Kerry's did. I think there are two main reasons:
1) Romney's policies directly benefit the wealthy, whereas Kerry's did not. Romney broadly endorses cutting taxes on the wealthy and reducing spending on programs that directly benefit the non-wealthy. Kerry seemed to favor letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire and expanding programs that directly benefit the non-wealthy. Of course, we can argue about what the actual effects of their programs would have been or will be, but there is a widespread (and to my mind, accurate) perception that Romney's plan will directly benefit people like him. Such a perception did not exist for Kerry.
Still, Bush was a wealthy guy who favored cutting the taxes of wealthy people (and did). Why wasn't his wealth as much an issue as Romney's is?
2) Romney has defined himself by his time at Bain, which is of course directly tied to his personal wealth. More than any other major-party candidate in recent memory, Romney has de-emphasized his government service and focused on his private sector experience. While people argue about whether Bain actually served its clients well, everyone agrees on how his time at Bain affected Romney-- it made him very, very rich. When Romney talks about his time as a job creator (and, more circumspectly, as a job destroyer) it is inevitable that he reminds the listener that while he was creating jobs he was also lining his own pockets in a way that a public servant would not.
Because you are unable to refute the rest of it.
Exactly.
LL summed it up.