Captain Capitalist and Lord of the Free-Market, Mitt Romney, spent most of last week single-handedly derailing his presidential campaign by pretending to know stuff about foreign policy and diplomacy. Now it seems the multi-millionaire Macy’s mannequin is back to one of his all-time favorite pretend areas of expertise: arithmetic.
Romney, whose net worth is said to be $200-250 million and who could probably just a buy a country and invade it, took his brazenly blithe and categorically out-of-touch mentality to a whole new level of SNL parody when he recently weighed in on the incomes of normal people:
“No one can say my plan is going to raise taxes on middle-income people, because principle number one is (to) keep the burden down on middle-income taxpayers,” Romney told host George Stephanopoulos.
“Is $100,000 middle income?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less,” Romney responded. (Huffington Post)
Pardon me, do you have any Bush tax cuts?
So all of you teachers, firemen and nurses may just want to stop all your greedy whining since you’re middle-class and thus making at least $200,000 a year. So maybe $200,000 a year isn’t exactly dancing Olympic horse and car elevator money, but for those of us who don’t fly the Cayman Islands flag aboard our 150-foot yachts, 200 large isn’t exactly bourgeois. And guess what, it’s not considered “bourgeois” by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, either.
According to the Tax Policy Center, you’re in the top 20 percent of earners if your household income is above $100,000, and you’re in the top 5 percent if your household brings in more than $180,000. With the maldistribution of income and economic inequity at an all time high in this country, the middle-class is shrinking faster than a winkie in a cold pool. So it’s such a relief to know that Mitt Romney truly understands all the hardships of those driving mere Lexuses to crummy four-star restaurants every night.
Michael is a comedian/VO artist/Columnist extraordinaire, who co-wrote an award-nominated comedy, produces a chapter of Laughing Liberally, wrote for NY Times Laugh Lines, guest-blogged for Joe Biden, and writes a column for MSNBC.com affiliated Cagle Media. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook, and like NJ Laughing Liberally Lab if you love political humor from a progressive point-of-view. Seriously, follow him or he’ll send you a photo of Rush Limbaugh bending over in a thong.
