Is Mitt Romney a Financial Parasite?

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”. -- Abraham Lincoln

How does the good of a few greedy parasites, beholden to nothing, outweigh the good of the nation? How does anyone justify legislation and policy that further lines the pockets of these parasites? Even if parasitic wealth was taxed at the same rate as the rest of us, they would still be filthy rich! And, they don't create jobs. Hell, most of them never worked a day in their life. But apparently, enough of us believe in their speculative finance economy that has made them obscenely wealthy, and the propaganda that they spew that we are willing to risk an economic catastrophe to protect that obscene wealth.

Which brings me to presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, whose fiscal plan delivers huge tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans while simultaneously forcing massive cuts to public services and social security on which the middle class rely. Then, there is the matter of his personal finances...

Not only, according to his released tax returns, did Romney make $42.7 million over the past two years, paying only $6.2 million in taxes - that’s an effective tax rate of less than 13.9% for doing nothing - he took advantage of a giant tax loophole that's available to only a very select few. It's called the carried interest loophole, or as it's often called the hedge fund manager tax loophole (in 2009 Top 10 Hedge Fund Honchos Averaged $900,000/Hr). Why hedge-fund tax loophole? Because hedge fund managers, partners in real estate ventures, and private equity kingpins are the select few who can use this legal provision to escape paying what the 99.9999 of the population are forced to pay.

What exactly is carried interest? 

Well, aside from the fact that closing this loophole could save taxpayers and the deficit $15 billion by 2015, it is the percentage - usually 20% - that  hedge fund managers and private equity kingpins can claim as investment,  taxed at the long-term capital gain of 15% rate,  instead of claiming what it actually is, fees or income,  which would be taxed at what the rest of us pay, 35%.

Wait, it gets better.  The maximum amount a married couple can pass to their children without paying gift taxes is $10 million, but Romney paid zero gift tax on the $100 million trust funds he set up for his sons. That's right, they avoided $31 million in gift tax that 99.9999% of the population would've had to pay if they did the same thing! According to David Cay Johnston, they "gave their sons some of their carried interest. And because the carried interest is not an ownership, it is a right to receive profits, Congress lets you value that gift at zero". 

In a nutshell, top hedge fund managers, gifted with a much lower tax rate, who do not produce anything tangible, or, some might argue, anything of any value whatsoever, make  more hourly, than most Americans will earn in a lifetime,  and financial parasites presidential candidates, who left their company 13 years ago,  still receives a share of the firm’s “carried interest” profits – taxed at the same low rate. It's the gift that keeps on giving to those with ghastly gobs of power and privilege.