27 thoughts on “Mitt Romney’s Energy And Economic Ignorance”

  2. mormon politicians seem pretty liberal: reid, romney, huntsman. are there any conservative mormons?

  3. I am waiting to see if Pawlenty is going to change his position on Ethanol and overturn the 2012 20% requirement for MN he pushed through a couple of years ago.

  4. Romney is DOA as a candidate because he supported Massholecare, which formed the basis of Obamacare.

  5. Some quotes from Barbara Bachmann. The tone style and content is pretty impressive. Serious, smart; actual stakes in the ground. None of the usual pol shimmy shimmy or “commonsense Constitutional Solutions!”

    I now hope she runs because I want to see what she can do. I like the way she talks:

    She voted against TARP and was asked if that meant she’d let the banks fail:

    “I would have. People think when you have a, quote, ‘bank failure,’ that that is the end of the bank. And it isn’t necessarily. A normal way that the American free market system has worked is that we have a process of unwinding. It’s called bankruptcy. It doesn’t mean, necessarily, that the industry is eclipsed or that it’s gone. Often times, the phoenix rises out of the ashes.”

    Yes!

    On auto bailouts:

    “We’ll probably be out $15 billion. What was galling to so many investors was that Chrysler’s secured creditors were supposed to receive 100% payout of the first money. We essentially watched over 100 years of bankruptcy law thrown out the window and President Obama eviscerated the private property interests of the secured creditors. He called them ‘greedy’ for enforcing their own legal rights.”

    On her first political race:

    “I thought, ‘I’m nobody from nowhere but maybe if I challenge the guy, he’ll shape up a little bit.’ So I gave a five-minute speech on freedom, economic liberty and all the rest. And no one could believe it, but I won a supermajority on the first ballot and he was out on his keister.”

    Taxes:

    “In my perfect world,” she explains, “we’d take the 35% corporate tax rate down to nine so that we’re the most competitive in the industrialized world. Zero out capital gains. Zero out the alternative minimum tax. Zero out the death tax.”

    ” A system in which 47% of Americans don’t pay any tax is ruinous for a democracy, she says, “because there is no tie to the government benefits that people demand. I think everyone should have to pay something.”

    If she’s got more like that I’m willing to overlook the Concord NH faux pas.

  8. I’m for keeping Capital Gains Taxes, at some level. But I agree with everything else Gregg quoted.

  9. “In my perfect world,” she explains, “we’d take the 35% corporate tax rate down to nine so that we’re the most competitive in the industrialized world.

    In this world every taxpayer with access to a lawyer would incorporate and drop their personal tax rate to 9%.

    A system in which 47% of Americans don’t pay any tax

    Does Bachmann think that 47% of Americans don’t pay any tax?

  10. There are plenty of conservative Mormons. They mostly occupy state office. the Romneys/huntsman/Marriott big names are kinda like Mormon royalty. They are the successful and educated Mormons who need the acceptance of the world, they are mostly ivy league educated and liberal

  11. Does Bachmann think that 47% of Americans don’t pay any tax?

    The context of that remark was the federal income tax, about which the 47% number is true.

  12. And even if you include payroll taxes, it’s still true, since everyone with median or lower lifetime earnings will get back more from Medicare and SS than he ever put in — that’s why these systems are in trouble, duh.

    The only sense in which it isn’t true is that they still pay sales tax and user fees, althought not of course to the Feds, and not even in every state.

  13. Those are good quotes, Gregg. Great stuff. I’d vote for her, if she were the nominee. But it’s rather a big step from Representative to President. Shouldn’t she run for governor first? Good rhetoric is nice, of course, but there’s something to be said for practical executive experience at the 100,000+ employee level, too, as we’re finding out just now.

  14. Dick Eagleson Says:

    “I’m assuming you mean Michele Bachmann, there, Gregg.”

    hahah yes well Barbara BACH must have been on my mind but yes thanks 😉

  15. Carl Pham Says:

    “Those are good quotes, Gregg. Great stuff. I’d vote for her, if she were the nominee. But it’s rather a big step from Representative to President. Shouldn’t she run for governor first? Good rhetoric is nice, of course, but there’s something to be said for practical executive experience at the 100,000+ employee level, too, as we’re finding out just now.”

    A very big step, I agree. I post this mainly as the sort of talk I like to hear from alleged Conservatives, as opposed to the usual codswallop we get.

    It seemed sincere, considered, non-manufactured.

    And yeah there’s a lot to be said for running a 100,000 employee company….but then she has/had 23 foster kids. That’s worth 1000 apiece no? 😉

  16. “Does Bachmann think that 47% of Americans don’t pay any tax?”

    A larger percentage than that are not employed, so, yes, the number is at least that large.

  17. 47%

    As much as The Community-Organizer-in-Chief is trying to become the Dem’s Herbert Hoover (and successfully, I might add), things still aren’t that bad, even if you are including dependent children and many retirees in that number.

  18. One thing to note about Romney is the deference with which the MSM treats him. They did the same with McCain during the 2000 primary season, where they virtually campaigned for him to be nominated as the Republican presidential candidate. They promoted him to such an extent that, even after he lost the nomination, they would question Bush’s policy proposals by asking if they would meet with McCain’s approval. It was brazen, even for the MSM. What it showed me was that they would have considered either McCain or Gore as equally acceptable to them.

    With him taking such idiotic positions on energy and “climate,” I now see why they like him. But the very last thing we need is another president who is satisfactory to the MSM.

  20. It IS the type of words I want to hear from a Rep – but you didn’t include anything about cutting spending or entitlements in the list. Saying you’re going to cut taxes is pretty easy, and it’s that kind of carrot-without-the-stick that got the Reps the bad deficit cards they have now.

  21. Roga Says:

    “It IS the type of words I want to hear from a Rep – but you didn’t include anything about cutting spending or entitlements in the list. Saying you’re going to cut taxes is pretty easy, and it’s that kind of carrot-without-the-stick that got the Reps the bad deficit cards they have now.”

    There’s a lot she said that I didn’t include. But my intention was not to give a thorough picture of Michele Bachmann’s entire political stance..just the flavor of her style and content.

  23. Great stuff. I’d vote for her, if she were the nominee. But it’s rather a big step from Representative to President. Shouldn’t she run for governor first?

    This times a hundred, maybe: the GOP has an interesting bench, but not much on the court.

  24. I don’t know if that’s entirely true, T. There’s Jeb and T-Paw and Daniels, all of whom have run big and complex states successfully. Plus Palin, who has done some complex executive type things, but has less quotidian experience and had a smaller and weirder state to run.

    Part of the problem may be that Republican governors who survived both the Bush years of “compassionate conservatism,” Democratic hopey-changey squish values in ascendance as well as the fiscal implosion of the welfare state of the past four years may be mostly colorless managers who flew under the radar. Competent, but not fire-breathers.

  25. The context of that remark was the federal income tax, about which the 47% number is true.

    Here’s the context:

    ” A system in which 47% of Americans don’t pay any tax is ruinous for a democracy, she says, “because there is no tie to the government benefits that people demand.”

    Payroll taxes are a “tie to government benefits.” Gas taxes are a “tie to government benefits” (i.e. highways). There is no sense in which 47% of Americans pay none of the taxes that fund the federal benefits they receive (or hope to one day receive); the actual figure is under 10% not counting gas taxes, and most of those are low-income retirees. Is the fact that low-income retirees and the disabled don’t pay federal taxes really a scandal?

  26. Is the fact that low-income retirees and the disabled don’t pay federal taxes really a scandal?

    Yes. Everyone should pay some tax. When I had my first job, at age 16, and I earned $1200 or so in the first year, Pennsylvania had a flat income tax of 2.2%, no deductions, no exceptions. I dutifully wrote out my check for $26 and Harrisburg solemnly cashed it. I knew I had done my share, however small, and it was part of being a responsible adult.

    There may be some reason that the burdens of government should fall unequally, heavier on some than on others. But the idea that any adult citizen who (among other things) claims the right to vote should be entirely exempt from those burdens — or, worse, should be supported by government through additional burdens put on others — is obscene.

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