How many of you all have a Swiss bank account?
— Vice President Joe Biden countering Mitt Romney’s claim that President Barack Obama is “out of touch.”
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Don’t have a swiss bank account, but did choose to be an at-home mom for years. And proud of it!
@1
Nice for you.
Did your husband come from a family of a CEO/governor? Was he on his way to making $250 million?
Because that’s the point. Mittens is putting his (far more likeable and telegenic) wife out there to counter very valid charges that he is out of touch and very very comfortable with Republican policies that are corrosive for most working people, many of whom are either women in two earner families or are single mothers.
The vast majority of women don’t have the same options that Ann Rmoney, or, seemingly, you, have had. That’s the point.
Two earner families became the norm because wages stopped increasing, in real terms, and in relation to productivity gains, back in the 70s and 80s, and the problem has accelerated. It has accelerated in parallel with more and more wealth concentrating in fewer and fewer hands – necessitating the wealthy stashing those buckets of money in Swiss bank accounts, because the US banks grew too full to hold it all, and only rich people were allowed in Switzerland. ;)
Ms Rosen’s comments, I think, were not cause for apology. This stands to be turned into a cynical ‘defense’ of Ann Rmoney, when it needs to be a discussion of, a defense of, working people who don’t have the choices you and Ann Rmoney have had. It needs to be a discussion of how economic demands erode the family – not having a parent at home, parents working multiple jobs, food and shelter insecurity, job insecurity, erosion/elimination of workers’ rights and the rights to unionize.
It needs to be a discussion of how Republican policies have caused and worsened these very real problems, and how Democratic policies (when not being ‘centrist’ or mimicking Republican-lite) are supportive of working people.
So, welcome, Mickey.
There is only one reason why a Politician would keep bank accounts in foreign countries and go to incredible lengths to hide their existence. Only one.
The GOP’s favorite Medicare fraudster Governor in Florida also kept foreign bank accounts, for obvious reasons. What was the source of that money Mr. Rmoney??
Hmmmmm??
Whose your sugar daddy?
Institutionalized corruption, Thy name is Grande Olde Party.
According to our right wing trolls, all this outrage over foreign bank accounts is just being “envious”..
All “hard-working”, patriotic and successful Murkans have such bank accounts.
@4
Or aspire to such accounts.
Republicans have long exploited the interesting fact that people view themselves as richer than they are, and favor policies that actually benefit others, the groups that people imagine themselves to be, or to be able to reach ‘someday’.
Couple that fantasy, that avoidance of clear-eyed realism, with an actual freeze of upward mobility, or even real wage growth, and you have a very effective support for a stable oligarchy. Which is the whole point, after all.
Good for Anne Romney that’s she’s been able to stay at home and raise her kids. Hasn’t been true for the typical mom for 30+ years.
Good for Anne Romney that’s she’s able to get the best health insurance money can buy to treat the maladies she’s suffered. Why bother with insurance? Her family can easily afford paying out of pocket. Not so for the typical American family.
Good for Anne Romney that a residency in the White House will mean a modest step down from mansions with car elevators that you need to hire a lobbyist to get built. The typical right wing troll who comes here – they’re all convinced that’s their reward for their “hard work” if “gubmint” taxes don’t get in the way.
America is a fine country for the Anne Romney’s of the world. Every woman can be Anne Romney if only we cut Social Security and Medicare (to “save” it for “future generations”), keep increasing defense spending (more and bigger bases to go with the 900 in 130 countries we already have) and lower taxes on the “job creators”.
Wow, with promoting policies like that, the Romneys will be a shoo-in in November.
Yup, you said it.
The meme needs to be, “Yes, it’s good to be Ann Romney. Everyone should have those choices.”
I once had a Swiss bank account. It’s really no big deal. Just a way to invest in a currency more stable than the US dollar. I think the discussion should really focus on policy, but I understand that it’s the GOP that diverts the discusison and that they need to be countered.
Almost finished with my taxes last night (doing it myself with software). I just need to investigate a bit more data to input.
I’m not sure if all the questions about foreign bank accounts were new, or if I just noticed them. They don’t apply to me, anyway.
I don’t care whether or not Romney has a foreign bank account, as long as he (a) pays taxes on the income, wether required to or not; (b) is up-front about the source of the money; (c) releases his tax returns for the past ten years, as others have done; and (d) doesn’t try to pretend to be “one of the guys” who understands what the concerns of the middle-class.
On the last issue, it’s perfectly reasonable for Romney to admit that he’s wealthy, and that he did nothing to earn it. Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and J.F. Kennedy, did so, with little detriment to their political careers George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush attempted to argue that they had earned their wealth, which only invited attacks (which were ultimately unsuccessful in keeping them from winning). Kerry admited married into the Hines fortune and did nothing to earn his wealth, but still lost – primarily for other reasons.
Interesting piece by Horsey, now working at the L.A. Times:
Romney’s Girl Trouble
an interesting set of facts: women voters in critical poll states favor Obama over Romney by pretty much the same percentages as Romney’s advantage over Obama among male voters over age 50 in all states. But Obama’s lead is among ALL women voters, wheras Romney’s led is among only men 50 and above. If Obama can take a disproportionate share of the women and men under 50%, then things don’t look very good for Mitt.
Of course, the Swiss Bank Account is just a minor example. What’s hillarious is Romney trying to appear to be middle class, and to label Obama as “elitist”
I think Romney’s getting some bad advice from someone. This just isn’t going to fly, and it only draws attention to the differences between Romney’s comparitive wealth and upbringing and that of Obama. Romney tyring to classify Obama as a Harvard Elitist is just to easy to shoot down, coming from Romney who had his own joint J.D./M.B.A. from Harvard.
Mittens…..Jets or Giants? Hawks or Broncos [I know, that dates me}?, Yankees or Mets? Yankees or Red Sox? Cubs? PBR?
@1, @2 You know, if Mitt was “on his way to making $250 million” while their kids were growing up, that probably means he was pretty tied up in his career and not as engaged as a parent as he’d have otherwise been. In fact, I’ll betcha he did a fair amount of business travel–albeit flying first class (or in the company jet), staying in some posh hotels and eating some expensive grub–but still not there when their boys went through all the various big and little bumps in the road from diapers to adulthood. I took a travelling job in the 1990’s–worked hard, had fun and made more money than I ever had before, and we took some nice family vacations on the frequent flyer miles. It was only later that Alice confessed to me how damn tough it was to deal with all the kid’s issues without me there, and we only have two offspring. She’s about as much of an ardent feminist as anybody I know, but she really bristles when someone opines that stay-at-home Moms “don’t work”.
Furthermore, I’d just like to say that I had a pretty low opinion of Hilary Rosen long before this (particularly from her tenure with the RIAA) and I’m disappointed that she’s intimately involved in Obama’s campaign. If she’s still around for the duration, this probably won’t be the last time she’s a source of embarrassment.
@13
The point is not Hilary Rosen, despite what the Rmoney campaign would like.
The point she was making, if inartfully, was that Ann Romney has never had to worry about where the rent check was coming from, where the food was coming from, whether her husband’s job was stable, how she would pay for her or her childrens’ healthcare, or any of many many worries that millions in this country suffer over daily and without end.
Ann Romney is not the point, merely the face the Mitt put on his campaign because he is so unlikeable. No one denies that being married to Mitt and raising his sons was probably a very hard job, perhpas even hellish. But cynically putting her out there was Mitt’s doing, and pulling back on the curtain and pointing out that her experience was not representative of the experiences of all the people that Mitt’s policies stand to deeply, deeply harm is responsible commentary.
Mitt and Ann have led gilded lives together, and that disconnect from the vast majority of Americans, particularly those falling further behind – many of whom are workign women and/or single mothers – is precisely germane to the present campaign. And it undermines her credibility as a surrogate for Mitt, without marginalizing either working women or stay at home moms – and that is a good thing.
I’ve never had a foreign bank account and never known snyone personally who has or had one. Personally, I could give a shit if somebody has a foreign bank account.
Duh, it’s not the Swiss account, per se, it’s the tax dodging that it implies, amplified by Rmoney’s refusal to reveal his tax records in any detail.
All this focus on the incidentals – Ann Romney, Hilary Rosen, Swiss accounts – keep your eyes on the ball – Mitt Romney is an oligarch, to borrow the Russian – a 1%-er dedicated to undermining working people and concentrating wealth in as few hands as possible – and he’s perfectly willing to give the knuckledraggers anything they want in terms of medieval social policies to get it.