Mitt Romney: We Shouldn’t Be Critical of Wall Street or Our Broken Economy in Public
As we reported earlier this week, Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is one of a rapacious corporate raider who amassed a quarter-billion dollar fortune by bankrupting companies and laying off thousands of hardworking Americans. What’s more, Romney takes advantage of unfair tax loopholes to pay a lower tax rate on his millions of dollars in ongoing annual profits from Bain than tens of millions of middle class Americans pay on the wages they earn.
Romney has come under withering criticism for his record at Bain in recent days, with much of it coming from fellow Republicans. This morning, Romney responded by calling such criticism un-American “class warfare” that is simply motivated by “envy.” Romney added that our broken economy — one that is only working for the wealthy few right now — should not even be discussed in public, saying discussions of income inequality were only fit for “quiet rooms.”
Don’t believe Romney actually said that? Here’s the video:
LAUER: When you said that we already have a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy, I’m curious about the word ‘envy.’ Did you suggest that anyone who questions the policies and practices of Wall Street and financial institutions, anyone who has questions about the distribution of wealth and power in this country, is envious? Is it about jealousy, or fairness?
ROMNEY: You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare. When you have a president encouraging the idea of dividing America based on the 99 percent versus one percent — and those people who have been most successful will be in the one percent — you have opened up a whole new wave of approach in this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God. The American people, I believe in the final analysis, will reject it.
LAUER: Yeah but envy? Are there no fair questions about the distribution of wealth without it being seen as ‘envy,’ though?
ROMNEY: I think it’s fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and discussions about tax policy and the like. But the president has made it part of his campaign rally. Everywhere he goes we hear him talking about millionaires and billionaires and executives and Wall Street. It’s a very envy-oriented, attack-oriented approach and I think it will fail.
IN ONE SENTENCE: Wanting an economy that works for everyone — not just the wealthy few — isn’t un-American “class warfare” driven by “envy,” it’s a core American value.
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