Paul Ryan’s Visit To Soup Kitchen Staged And Unwelcomed According To Charity President

If anyone has seen that beautiful and cinematic clip of Paul Ryan working in a soup kitchen, cleaning an awkwardly already clean dish, and talking about how he had to clean dishes as a kid…well here it is.

Well according to the President of the charity, Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society (Ohio), this was 100% staged, the dishes were in fact already cleaned, he was only there for 15 min, he didn’t have permission to be there and possibly put the charity in risk of not receiving private donations due to showing support for a presidential candidate.  This is via, CBS News,

Brian J. Antag, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society in Youngstown, told the Washington Post that the Romney campaign had not asked to make the Saturday visit to the soup kitchen. He said that he runs an apolitical faith-based organization which has bylaws barring it from hosting political candidates, and that the visit jeopardized donations from private individuals.

“They showed up there and they did not have permission,” he said. “They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors.” Antag added that Ryan and his family “did nothing” while on the premises.

“He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall,” he said.

Ryan was photographed cleaning “large metal pans that did not appear to be dirty” during a 15-minute visit, the Post previously reported. While television cameras rolled and photographers snapped pictures, the Wisconsin congressman discussed washing dishes while he was younger. He said he would get calluses on his fingers due to the heat from the industrial machine. You can see the video at left.

When Ryan arrived on the site in the early afternoon, the kitchen was clean and the dining area was empty, according to a pool report. After his time in the kitchen Ryan spoke to homeless people outside the soup kitchen, but reporters were kept monitoring the conversation.

The Romney campaign said the visit was designed to highlight the work of soup kitchen volunteers. As the video above shows, Ryan greeted five or six adults volunteers and two children before going back to the kitchen.

Risk a charity’s tax exemption and donations just for a 15min photo op?  Yup, typical of the Romney campaign…do anything and crush anyone to get to the top.

Mitt Romney Blew Off Answering Kid’s Questions For Nickelodeon Show?

I usually don’t write about these types of stories, but dissing kids (who all happen to be apart of the 47%) seems to be a meme with Romney.  First, he claimed to cut funding for PBS and its educational kids show programming…now he can’t answer questions for the “Kids Pick the President” show on Nickelodeon???  And his reason is that he didn’t have time??  Pres. Obama is not only being a president, running a re-election campaign, but also raising two daughters, and he found the time to answer questions for kids.  This is from TMZ,

President Obama‘s peeps say Mitt Romney is gonna be sorry for blowing off a bunch of kids who participated in the Nickelodeon show, “Kids Pick the President.”

The premise of the show — kids submit questions to each candidate and based on the answers they make their pick for leader of the free world.

Obama answered the kids’ questions, but Romney said he didn’t have the time.

Deputy National Press Secretary Adam Fetcher tells TMZ, “It’s no surprise Romney decided to play hookey. Kids demand details, and I’m sure they want some answers on why Romney could increase their class sizes, eliminate their teacher’s jobs, raise taxes on their families and slash funding for Big Bird.”

Fetcher ends with this zinger: “‘The dog ate my homework’ just doesn’t cut it when you’re running for President.”

This may be a apart of Romney’s plan.  Take away quality educational programming and lower the self esteem of kids by acting like you could give a sh*t about their questions and opinions.  This way, they won’t engage in the political process enough to tell their parents to vote for Pres. Obama.  I guess since kids are apart of the 47% that it’s not Romney’s job to care about them.

Romney Admits That Pres. Obama Didn’t Raise Taxes On The Middle Class

Another day, another Romney gaffe.  At first when I heard about the gaffe, I didn’t pay much mind, I just thought he meant to say, ‘has’ instead of ‘hasn’t’ but indeed he clearly meant it.  When watching the video, Romney made it specifically clear that Pres. Obama did not raise taxes on the middle class.  But claims Pres. Obama will if he gets re-elected.

To be clear, the only reason this is a gaffe is because Mitt Romney has been saying for months that Pres. Obama already raised taxes on the middle class.  Here’s the video in case you missed it,

I don’t know what Romney was thinking here.  Maybe after the 47% comments, he wanted to re-direct his campaign.  May be a long shot but Romney could say that the middle class has gotten too much of a tax break that they’re now dependent on government and if he becomes president, the 47% will be really, really, reaaaally helpless once Obama raises taxes.  I really hope that’s the next argument.  Romney is all over the place with his views, he flip flops too much, I wouldn’t be surprised by any off the wall statement he makes.

Romney Manipulated His Taxes To Look Like He Paid More, Mistakenly Disqualifies Himself From Being President

I figured already that his campaign is pretty dead at this point.  But not yet! Romney is still trying to change the story after his 47% comments came out.  He decided to release a little bit more information about his tax returns on a Friday…a news dump day where most of the country could care less about what’s going on in the news.  The tax issue is pretty big for Romney, it shows a lack of transparency when he fails to release his 2011 full form tax returns like most recent presidential candidates.  When he released a bit of his 2011 tax returns we find out that he paid more than the tax rate he previously suggested.  Why? Because he made a political decision not to deduct $2 million worth of charitable donations which would most likely be made out to the Mormon church.  This was confirmed because the ‘Romney family trustee’ and lawyer Brad Malt, told the Associated Press this.  At least I can respect his lawyer’s honesty.  This is from the AP, more after the quote.

The Republican presidential nominee, whose wealth is estimated as high as $250 million, seems hemmed in by a comment to reporters in August that he had never paid less than 13 percent in taxes in any single year over the past 10. Had he taken the full charitable deduction last year, it would have pushed his tax liability below 13 percent.

The former Massachusetts governor and his wife, Ann, could have claimed more in deductions, the trustee of Romney’s blind trust said when the candidate’s 2011 tax returns were released.

But, Brad Malt acknowledged, the couple “limited their deductions of charitable contributions to conform to the governor’s statement in August, based on the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 percent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.”

……..

Romney probably also will be reminded by the Democrats by something else he said in August. Defending his right to pay no more taxes than he owed, he said, “I don’t pay more than are legally due, and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president.”

The decision of Romney’s trustee to limit the use of charitable deductions in 2011 in order to adhere to the candidate’s claim raised the eyebrows of several tax law experts. They noted that the trustee’s use of numerous tax strategies gives Romney the rare ability to loosen or limit his tax payments at will.

The Romneys donated roughly $4 million to charities last year, but only claimed a deduction of $2.25 million on their tax return, filed with the Internal Revenue Service on Friday.

That information, Reid said, “reveals that Mitt Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he’s seen fit to show the American people – and then only to `conform’ with his public statements. That raises the question: What else in those returns has Romney manipulated?“

Romney made $13.7 million last year and paid $1.94 million in federal income taxes, giving him an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent. That was a bit above the 13.9 percent rate paid on 2010 income.

More precisely, the returns showed that the couple paid $1,935,708 in taxes on income of $13,696,951.

Romney, one of the wealthiest candidates ever to seek the presidency, paid taxes at a rate lower than taxpayers whose income was mostly from wages, which can be taxed at higher rates.

He released his 2010 returns in January, but he continues to decline to disclose returns from previous years – including those while he worked at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he co-founded.

The Obama campaign and other Democrats have pushed for fuller disclosures, reminding the Republican candidate that his father, George Romney, released a dozen years of returns when he ran for president.

Overall, the Romneys’ main tax return and separate forms for blind trusts totaled more than 800 pages. The blind-trust income came from hedge funds and other complex investment vehicles. The couple also reported $3.5 million in income “from sources outside the United States,” citing “various countries.” Their forms included filings on holdings in Switzerland, Ireland, Germany and the Cayman Islands.

The Obama campaign accused Romney anew of profiting from millions invested overseas and “loopholes and tax shelters only available to those at the top.”

Apparently hoping to resolve basic questions voters might have, the Romney campaign released a letter from his accountants saying that in the 20 years prior to 2010 the Romneys paid an average annual effective rate of 20.2 percent, never lower than 13.66 percent.

On average, middle-income families – those making from $50,000 to $75,000 a year – pay 12.8 percent of their income in federal taxes, according to Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation. But many pay a higher rate.

Romney is aggressively competing with Obama for the support of middle-class voters.

First, Romney made a comment about not paying lower than 13% before he knew the facts about his own tax returns.  That speaks volume to his leadership as he’s willing to say bullsh*t to reporters just to get them to shut up and move on to the next question. Second, to have your own trustee telling the press this speaks volume to the amount of discipline lacking in the Romney camp or even among his friends during an election where anything can hurt him.  I for one am happy to see some honesty from a lawyer though.  That was a blunt statement and direct answer as to what the heck and why he’s paying more than he should.

Third, Romney just completely disqualified himself as President.  He obviously paid more than what he should in taxes.  I honestly don’t see anything wrong with what he actually does which is take advantage of the tax code and loopholes.  If I were rich and wanted to keep my money, I’d do the same thing.  However, I also know I wouldn’t make the best President because I really don’t like to disclose things about me and I’d take advantage of any loophole related to taxes that I could get at this point.  But I don’t want a President like me, I want someone who is transparent and not take advantage of a system that they claim they want to fix.   In my book, Romney has no chance of winning, but this makes it even better, so the public can see how untrustworthy Romney is.

I usually don’t enjoy agree with Harry Reid but why only has Romney release 2 years of tax returns.  In the article it mentions that the campaign is stating that Romney paid over a 20%, averaged over the past 10 years.  But, who is going to believe that statement when he only paid below 15% for the last two years and refuses to let us see the tax returns from the other 8 years.  Romney camp seems to have a weird strategy of making assertions that they don’t want to back up with evidence.  I understand that Romney has a lot of money in a lot of countries, just sitting and not being taxed.  However, I feel like if he had nothing to hide and truly believed he would beat Pres. Obama, then he just would have released the whole tax return instead of bits and pieces, just to get it out of the way and focus on important issues.  However, Romney is just making the issue of transparency bigger than it really has to be.

Oh and lets not forget, he submitted his tax deductions on Friday, he still has til after the election to amend his taxes.  Ya know, in case he loses the election, he can still decide to go back and add the charitable donations and end up paying a tax rate lower than 13%.  I’d like to believe the American people won’t fall for Romney’s little switch-a-roo there….

Romney Tries to Impress Rich Campaign Donors by Belittling 47% of Americans as Lazy

I honestly believe most of the Americans do not like Romney and can see right through him, however the video of Mitt Romney talking to campaign donors behind closed doors not only validates what many Americans already think about Romney, but it points to a serious issue within the republican party.  Below is the video of Mitt Romney speaking eloquently about nearly half of America to wealthy donors in what he thought was a closed door, no camera or video meeting, more after the video,

This could be interpreted in two ways, and both interpretations could right.  My initial interpretation was that Mitt Romney was in a room full of wealthy donors trying to convince them why Pres. Obama has a steady lead in the polls.  He’s trying to convince them that it’s not because his campaign and ideas are bad, but it’s because 47% of Americans are lazy and need a government handout.  Another interpretation is that if you watch carefully, Romney makes these almost extreme statements with such eloquence and confidence that he must really believe what he saying.  He doesn’t pause or stutter while making the statements.  Doe he really understand who the 47% of Americans he’s talking about? Let’s actually read his statements,

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.

My job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

The ironic part is the majority of these 47 percenters are in red states, many are conservative and even if they felt compelled to vote, a majority of the 47 percenters would vote for Romney.  Who makes up the 47%?  Mostly senior citizens, mostly vets, mostly single moms and dads working 2 jobs that need tax breaks.  Here’s a map from the Tax Foundation of non-taxpayers,

To be honest, I agree that there needs to be less government handouts…of course there will always be less government handouts if the economy wasn’t on a downward spiral since the Bush administration.  However, I realize that people are not lazy, no one grows up saying they want to live off the government and rely on tax breaks, but life happens, medical bills happen, having children happen, losing a job happens.  Do we just leave people to starve on the streets and become a third world nation? That’s not what I want for America, but Mitt Romney is so cold-hearted that he could care less.  If he can’t even care about the poor republicans or senior citizens that would likely vote for him, what makes us think Mitt Romney is going to care about the rest of the country who aren’t in the 1%?

Mitt Romney just did an f-you to half of the country.  And worse, is that he stands by his statements but said they were not ‘elegantly stated‘.  Based on the video, his statement was clear, elegant in his deliver and very confident.  He can say one thing in public and another thing in private all he wants but now he was caught two-faced and gave even people in his own party validation for why they didn’t like him. In Mitt’s statement regarding this issue, he also stated that these ‘non-taxpayers’ don’t like his ideas of lower taxes.  Newsflash!  Pres. Obama’s plans feature cuts for the middle class, Romney’s plans equal cuts for the top percenters and that’s the issue.  There are more to taxes then whether someone pays or not, it’s whether they pay federal, income, sales, etc,…taxes.  Nearly everyone in the U.S. pays some form of taxes.  Only 18.1% of the 46% pay neither federal nor payroll taxes according to TCP which Romney references,

Romney just finished painting the picture of himself as someone with no empathy, no real solutions, and only wants to help his friends get richer and let the poor wither on streets.  We clearly have a true decision in this coming election.