Glad to see someone stating the obvious a day after Ayn Rand Paul Ryan has been tapped to be Romney's running mate.
Alec MacGillis over at The New Republic makes a cogent case that the Ryan pick worsens Romney's tax liabilities.
More over le croissant.
It seems hard to imagine a running mate who would jibe better with the Democrats' Bain Capital attacks than a well-born Ayn Rand acolyte. More crucially, it is hard to imagine a running mate who will draw more attention to the matter of Romney's taxes than Paul Ryan. Why? Because under the "Ryan plan" that made the congressman famous, Mitt Romney would pay zero taxes.
MacGillis notes that Romney himself acknowledged that he would have paid no income tax if the tax on capital gains is eliminated. And of course, the Ryan budget would do just that.
So, at the very moment when we're all tittering over Harry Reid's wild accusation that Romney paid no taxes for the past decade, Romney picks a running mate whose plan -- supported by virtually the entire GOP congressional caucus -- would have him paying, well, no taxes.
Not only does the Ryan pick make Romney the poster boy for
wealthcare, it also reeks of desperation. During the GOP debate in Tampa, when Romney acknowledged that he'd pay zero taxes without a tax on capital gains, he was actually
taking issue with Gingrich's plan to eliminate the tax. Fast forward a few months, and the man who refused to say whether or not he'd release his tax returns during the Republican primary debates has now chosen for his running mate the architect of a plan that would eliminate capital gains taxes.
Now let's think about this for a second: Mitt Romney is in such a weakened position that he has determined that it's less costly for him not to release his tax returns, AND that it is less costly for him to choose a running mate that completely destroys the credibility of his "reservation" with paying no taxes at all.
I'm amazed by Mitt Romney. I have never seen a weaker candidate for President during my lifetime. Let's recap, shall we?
1. He passes Romneycare, and then runs from it.
2. He argues that his experience at Bain capital is his principal qualification for the Presidency, and then runs from that argument.
3. He declares that corporations are people an then insists that he doesn't have to release his taxes because he's not a corporation.
4. He declares that he would sign Ayn Rand's Paul Ryan's budget into law if elected President, and then runs from that immediately after selecting Ryan as his running mate.
The list goes on.
Please pile on.
And watch the coward squirm.