Monday, July 30, 2007

Rewarding Work or Rewarding Wealth?

After John Edwards released his tax plan last week that called for an increase in the capital gains tax for those making over $250,000 a year, Mitt Romney immediately countered by attacking the plan. John Edwards came right back, releasing this press release...

Every time another radical Republican running for president speaks, the American people are reminded of how out of touch with economic reality they are. Example A: Mitt Romney.

Romney, who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, should be ashamed for attacking my economic plan, but it's not surprising he is. I want to rewrite our tax code to make it fair and help hard-working Americans save some money to give them a better shot at the American Dream. Mitt wants to make sure that the wealthiest Americans just keep getting wealthier and let everyone else pick up the scraps. Mitt's all about more, more, more for the people who already have the most - and that's just wrong.

The truth is Mitt Romney shouldn't pay lower taxes on the money he makes from his money than middle-class families pay on the money they make from hard work. Neither should I. We're both incredibly fortunate and we should pay our fair share.

That’s the big difference between people like Mitt Romney and me. Mitt Romney thinks he and his insider friends helped make America great, I think it’s the hundreds of millions of Americans in the working class and middle class who make America great. It’s these hard-working families who deserve a break and a chance to live the same American Dream as I have. That’s what I’m fighting for, and that’s what people like Mitt Romney have spent a lifetime fighting against.
Edwards has received a lot of negative press for being wealthy, but he is far less wealthy than Romney. According to FEC reports, Edwards is worth $29.5 million, while Romney is worth $250 million. Edwards' plan would create a tax system that rewards work, while Romney believes people that sit by the pool all day and invest money and people who inherit money from rich parents deserve to pay lower taxes.

Ezra Klein sums it up best...
But so far as we know, Mitt Romney doesn't get his hair cut, and so the media isn't much concerned with the spectacle of someone with hundreds of millions advocating for his class interests on the presidential level.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As someone who has been critical of Edwards' credibility on the "poverty issue", I must say I was impressed by his retort to Romney. Acknowledging his own wealth and calling on the wealthy to pay more is refreshing.