Wednesday, July 11, 2012

SO SUDDENLY THE RIGHT THINKS WHATEVER'S LEGAL IS MORAL?

Lindsey Graham defends Mitt Romney's tax avoidance:
Mitt Romney shouldn't be criticized for using off-shore tax havens because "it's really American to avoid paying taxes, legally," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday....

"As long as it was legal, I'm OK with it," Graham said. "I don't blame anybody for using the tax code to their advantage. I blame us for having it so complicated and confused. Pick a rate and make people pay it." ...

"...I've got no problem with people playing the game, as long as they don't cheat."
Really? Now it's OK to right-wingers if you do whatever the law allows you to do with regard to money?

Last time I looked, that wasn't true if, for instance, you needed food stamps and collected them. When I checked that out recently, the right-wing response was something like this:
Asked what labor wanted, the great 20th-century union leader Samuel Gompers answered, "More." The modern welfare state lives by the same credo.
And it doesn't seem to be true if you're one of those horrible Americans who collect Medicare, Social Security, or other government benefits -- groups such as the Heritage Foundation depict you as freeloaders cadging handouts:





And it isn't true, specifically, if you become disabled and apply for Social Security disability benefits (something that, understandably, is happening to a lot of Baby Boomers as they age) -- in that case, Congressman Allen West describes you as a slave.

But I understand the difference: If you're in need, you're a moocher. If you just want whatever you can legally grab, you're a patriot.

8 comments:

BillyWitchDoctor said...

"If you just want whatever you can legally grab"

Like they ever stop there.

Victor said...

GOP = Greedy Old Parasites.

I'm hoping to have a hearing for SSDI later this year.

And I'll do ANYTHING to become a slave to government - since my time as a "free man" lately has meant I'm already a slave to what Conservatism has done to this country, and my mother and I live like a life that's getting worse and worse each month.

Oh, and by ANYTHING, I'm not like YOU Conservatives and rich people - I mean anything WITHIN the law, AND my conscience!

PARASITES!!!

Ten Bears said...

Pretty much throws that whole not lie, cheat, steal, talk shit or covet your neighbor's cow thing out with the toilet water, aeh?

Peter Janovsky said...

Steve,

I haven't really heard what should be the most relevant question:

Assuming Mitt's offshore, IRA and other tactics are legal, should they be legal? If elected, would Romney work to eliminate the kinds of legal tax advantages that he uses now? (For that matter, would Obama work to eliminate them.)

I think even the moral/legal distinction misses the point. Maybe using billionaire Superpacs is legal but immoral, and yet Obama is (at least trying) to do that. But unlike Romney, Obama opposes that and other campaign finance excesses.

So to me, it's not whether its legal or even moral. It's whether the candidate thinks it should be legal.

Ten Bears said...

My half-breed grandmother raised this bastard boy as Born Just Fine The First Time, Thank You Very Much. Never quite understood the canard about needing dog to instill moral and ethical standards, as the moral and ethical standards I subscribe to are far more stringent and indeed my fifty-seven years far less "sinful" than those of the Jew/"Christian"/Muslim/Mormon Cult of Male Domination.

Years ago an Old Boy up on The Rez was teaching me some of the old ways, said "Tommy, I got no problem with the white dog religion, just think of how many drunks and dope addicts there'd be without it."

Seriously, you're going to vote for a guy who believes his god lives on the planet Kolob?

Raenelle said...

IMO, Romney is a great American--the epitome of everything that America stands for. An "America is the greatest country ever" wetdream of a man. Of course, my opinion of America (and capitalism, which the American experience fetishizes) is that the longer it survives, the less chance the human race has of seeing the 22nd century.

BH said...

I've got a particular beef with West's comment about SS/SSI disability. I've represented disability claimants for 30 years, and if West thinks it's easy to just sign up & start getting a check (as a lot of idiots seem to think), I could easily disabuse him of that notion. For one thing, there is an entire corps of Administrative Law Judges ("ALJ's"), about whom no one knows or hears unless & until s/he applies for benefits, waits about 4-6 months through the 1st 2 denials, & has to reach the administrative hearing stage; and I can assure you that many ALJ's are in full sympathy with - and about as knowledgeable as - Field Marshal West. Many of them are military retirees, i.e., 20 years in the JAG, i.e., in most cases couldn't find their way into or out of a real courtroom. Not only no judicial experience, but precious little legal experience or experience of the real world outside the military bubble, period. Worse, it's almost impossible to get rid of one of them. I literally believe it's a simpler matter to impeach a U.S. District Judge than to remove an ALJ, no matter how lazy and/or crazy s/he may be.

JUDI M. said...

I just found this blog. How did I miss this?? Your thoughts and the expression of them...without tearing your hair out, I might add...are Exactly what's floating around in MY brain!!!