Monday, August 15, 2011 12:38:36 AM
Rand Paul Rushes To Romney’s Defense: ‘All Of Us Are Corporations’
Mitt Romney & Rand Paul Think These Are People
By Scott Keyes and Travis Waldron on Aug 12, 2011 at 9:50 am
ThinkProgress filed this report from the Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa.
During a campaign stop at the Iowa State Fair yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) vociferously defended tax breaks for corporations by declaring that “corporations are people [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/11/293843/romney-defends-raising-retirement-age-to-protect-corporate-tax-breaks-corporations-are-people/ ].” Though Romney’s assertion was widely mocked [ http://www.detnews.com/article/20110811/POLITICS03/108110450/Dems-quickly-pounce-on-Romney%E2%80%99s--Corporations-are-people--comment- ] – corporations cannot vote, cannot be sent to prison, and clearly lack all human anatomy – the former Massachusetts governor has not backed down in the face of withering criticism.
Now, another GOPer says Romney was actually spot on: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
ThinkProgress asked Paul about Romney’s comments prior to the Republican presidential debate in Ames. Paul rushed to the former governor’s defense, arguing that Romney was correct in his equivalency between man and mega-company. “I think we’re all corporations,” Paul said. “All of us are corporations.” The Tea Party senator later went on to blur the lines further between corporations and people by declaring, “They’re us. They’re the middle class”:
KEYES: What did you make of Mitt Romney’s statement today that “corporations are people”?
PAUL: Corporations are collections of people. I think we’re all corporations. To say we’re going to punish corporations like they’re someone else. All of us are corporations.
KEYES: Do you think that was basically in line with what he was saying?
PAUL: You think about, if you own a retirement fund, you have a 401k, everybody who has a 401k has parts of corporations, so in a sense we are.
KEYES: I think people might argue that corporations can’t be sent to jail.
PAUL: I think those arguments can be made, but I think the fact that a lot of times people want to vilify corporations, saying they’re someone else, that they’re these other rich people. They’re us. They’re the middle class. We all own parts of corporations.
Watch it [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2FFHVUn8Q (embedded)]:
A quick glance at Paul’s campaign fundraising finds major contributions [ http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00030836&cycle=2012&type=I&newMem=Y&recs=100 ] from corporations like Koch Industries, AT&T, and Exxon Mobil. Still, as one of the original Tea Party senators, Paul’s defense of corporations flies in the face of the populist movement he purports to represent.
Corporate lobbyists have also played a major role in Romney’s presidential campaign. Indeed, a Huffington Post investigation [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/11/293397/romney-takes-more-lobbyist-campaign-cash-than-the-rest-of-gop-field-combined/ ] found that thus far in 2011, Romney has received more campaign cash from lobbyists than the rest of the Republican field combined. As Romney barnstorms the country with his message that “corporations are people,” Paul’s busy watching out for Romney’s flank and making sure people understand that people “are corporations” as well.
© 2011 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/12/294472/rand-paul-rushes-to-romneys-defense-all-of-us-are-corporations/ [with comments]
===
VIDEO: Sarah Palin Tells ThinkProgress ‘Mitt Romney Was Right’ That Corporations Are People
By Scott Keyes and Travis Waldron on Aug 12, 2011 at 1:11 pm
ThinkProgress filed this report from the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa.
Yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) made a major gaffe [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/11/293843/romney-defends-raising-retirement-age-to-protect-corporate-tax-breaks-corporations-are-people/ ] on the campaign trail when he told a crowd of Iowans that “corporations are people.” Romney’s statement was particularly tone deaf because average citizens’ incomes have stagnated [ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/a-decade-with-no-income-gain/ ] for more than a decade while corporations are currently enjoying record profits [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/corporate-profits-2011-all-time-high_n_840538.html ].
Today, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) kicked off a bus tour [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20090915-503544.html ] of Iowa at the state fairgrounds where Romney had stumped the day before. ThinkProgress asked Palin if she agreed with Romney’s belief that corporations are people. Tossing aside previous efforts to position herself as a populist leader, Palin sided with corporations, declaring, “Mitt Romney was right.”
KEYES: Governor, are corporations people?
PALIN: The people pay the taxes. It’s not an entity — the corporation itself — that pays the taxes. It’s the people who pay the taxes. So Mitt Romney was right.
Watch it [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoVhylNsvC8 (embedded)]:
Unfortunately, Palin is not the first GOP bigwig to defend Romney’s assertion that corporations are people. Yesterday, ThinkProgress spoke with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) who vociferously backed up [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/12/294472/rand-paul-rushes-to-romneys-defense-all-of-us-are-corporations/ (above)] Romney, saying, “all of us are corporations.”
© 2011 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/12/295002/sarah-palin-mitt-romney-was-right-corporations-people/ [with comments]
===
The real problem with Romney's 'people' comment
By Dan Primack
August 12, 2011: 3:20 PM ET
"Corporations are people, my friend."
That's what presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday told an attendee at the Iowa State Fair, in response to a question about why Romney's deficit reduction focus seems to be more on federal entitlement reform than corporate tax reform. Not surprisingly, the onetime private equity executive is getting hammered for it.
For example, John Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller tweeted [ http://twitter.com/#!/danprimack/status/101738883515031552 ]: "Was American Pad & Paper Company a person/friend?" Venture capitalist Chris Dixon was even harsher [ http://twitter.com/#!/cdixon/status/102011720251355136 ]: "If corporations are people, then Mitt Romney made his fortune buying and selling people."
What's too bad about all this piling on is that it misses the economic policy point Romney was trying to make. Here is the rest of his comment, which hasn't gotten much attention:
"Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? Whose pockets? People's pockets. Human beings my friend."
Romney doesn't think corporations are actual people, even though some supporters of the Citizens United decision might disagree. He thinks that corporations help actual people, by creating wealth. Companies make money, which they then distribute to employees, shareholders, etc. You know, capitalism.
The problem with Romney's claim, however, is that far too many American corporations are not redistributing their wealth. Instead, they're hoarding it.
Non-financial companies were sitting on more than $1.9 trillion in cash and other liquid assets as of March 31, 2011, according to the Federal Reserve's most recent "Flow of Funds" report. That's an all-time high, and means that unemployment is being driven by Corporate America's unwillingness to hire -- not because it doesn't have the money to do so. Were it to be a person, the best embodiment might be Uncle Scrooge.
And please spare me the "uncertainty" argument. So long as we elect new federal representatives every two years, there will never be any certainty over future tax policy, regulatory policy, healthcare policy, etc. Let alone macro-economic conditions that always are on the move. Any company waiting for "certainty" before hiring might as well shut down its recruitment department.
Romney's mistake isn't in thinking that companies are humans. It's in overestimating their humanity.
© 2011 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/12/the-real-problem-with-romneys-people-comment/ [with comments] [and of course, this Fortune-identified piece doesn't even mention the actual concentration of wealth in the form of ownership of corporations, or the actual political and social impacts of concentrated wealth in the form of corporations, environmental, labor, etc. etc., or any of the rest of all that -- just an inside slap at the "uncertainty" thing; of interest primarily as a compare and contrast versus e.g. the items above]
===
Colbert Defends Mitt Romney's 'Corporations Are People' Statement (VIDEO)
First Posted: 8/12/11 10:04 AM ET Updated: 8/12/11 10:04 AM ET
Mitt Romney made headlines Thursday for saying that "Corporations are people [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/mitt-romney-heckled-iowa_n_924426.html ]" in response to a question about taxes at the Iowa state fair. While many people had a laugh at the gaffe [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/corporate-missed-connections_n_924880.html#s327581 ], it was Stephen Colbert who came to Romney's defense on last night's "Report."
See, Colbert gets it. He's been saying for years that corporations are people, going so far as to suggest they remake "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" with an oil rig. Who wouldn't see that?
Watch the segment below to hear Colbert explain the gravity of Romney's comment and how history will paint him as a new age civil rights activist.
WATCH [ http://www.hulu.com/watch/267786/the-colbert-report-romney-2012-corporations-are-people ; original at http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/394519/august-11-2011/romney-2012----corporations-are-people- ]:
[embedded]
Copyright © 2011 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/12/colbert-defends-mitt-romney-corporations-are-people_n_925277.html [with comments]
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Mitt Romney & Rand Paul Think These Are People
By Scott Keyes and Travis Waldron on Aug 12, 2011 at 9:50 am
ThinkProgress filed this report from the Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa.
During a campaign stop at the Iowa State Fair yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) vociferously defended tax breaks for corporations by declaring that “corporations are people [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/11/293843/romney-defends-raising-retirement-age-to-protect-corporate-tax-breaks-corporations-are-people/ ].” Though Romney’s assertion was widely mocked [ http://www.detnews.com/article/20110811/POLITICS03/108110450/Dems-quickly-pounce-on-Romney%E2%80%99s--Corporations-are-people--comment- ] – corporations cannot vote, cannot be sent to prison, and clearly lack all human anatomy – the former Massachusetts governor has not backed down in the face of withering criticism.
Now, another GOPer says Romney was actually spot on: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
ThinkProgress asked Paul about Romney’s comments prior to the Republican presidential debate in Ames. Paul rushed to the former governor’s defense, arguing that Romney was correct in his equivalency between man and mega-company. “I think we’re all corporations,” Paul said. “All of us are corporations.” The Tea Party senator later went on to blur the lines further between corporations and people by declaring, “They’re us. They’re the middle class”:
KEYES: What did you make of Mitt Romney’s statement today that “corporations are people”?
PAUL: Corporations are collections of people. I think we’re all corporations. To say we’re going to punish corporations like they’re someone else. All of us are corporations.
KEYES: Do you think that was basically in line with what he was saying?
PAUL: You think about, if you own a retirement fund, you have a 401k, everybody who has a 401k has parts of corporations, so in a sense we are.
KEYES: I think people might argue that corporations can’t be sent to jail.
PAUL: I think those arguments can be made, but I think the fact that a lot of times people want to vilify corporations, saying they’re someone else, that they’re these other rich people. They’re us. They’re the middle class. We all own parts of corporations.
Watch it [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2FFHVUn8Q (embedded)]:
It’s unsurprising that Paul would side with corporations. In the past, Paul has expressed his affection [ http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2010/10/15/124472/rand-paul-hearts-chamber/ ] for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was quick to defend BP [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/11/15/130180/paul-bp-signal/ ] during its high-profile act of corporate irresponsibility, and during the 2010 campaign, complained that disabilities laws are unfair to the business owner [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/05/17/97499/rand-paul-ada/ ].
A quick glance at Paul’s campaign fundraising finds major contributions [ http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00030836&cycle=2012&type=I&newMem=Y&recs=100 ] from corporations like Koch Industries, AT&T, and Exxon Mobil. Still, as one of the original Tea Party senators, Paul’s defense of corporations flies in the face of the populist movement he purports to represent.
Corporate lobbyists have also played a major role in Romney’s presidential campaign. Indeed, a Huffington Post investigation [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/11/293397/romney-takes-more-lobbyist-campaign-cash-than-the-rest-of-gop-field-combined/ ] found that thus far in 2011, Romney has received more campaign cash from lobbyists than the rest of the Republican field combined. As Romney barnstorms the country with his message that “corporations are people,” Paul’s busy watching out for Romney’s flank and making sure people understand that people “are corporations” as well.
© 2011 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/12/294472/rand-paul-rushes-to-romneys-defense-all-of-us-are-corporations/ [with comments]
===
VIDEO: Sarah Palin Tells ThinkProgress ‘Mitt Romney Was Right’ That Corporations Are People
By Scott Keyes and Travis Waldron on Aug 12, 2011 at 1:11 pm
ThinkProgress filed this report from the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa.
Yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) made a major gaffe [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/11/293843/romney-defends-raising-retirement-age-to-protect-corporate-tax-breaks-corporations-are-people/ ] on the campaign trail when he told a crowd of Iowans that “corporations are people.” Romney’s statement was particularly tone deaf because average citizens’ incomes have stagnated [ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/a-decade-with-no-income-gain/ ] for more than a decade while corporations are currently enjoying record profits [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/corporate-profits-2011-all-time-high_n_840538.html ].
Today, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) kicked off a bus tour [ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20090915-503544.html ] of Iowa at the state fairgrounds where Romney had stumped the day before. ThinkProgress asked Palin if she agreed with Romney’s belief that corporations are people. Tossing aside previous efforts to position herself as a populist leader, Palin sided with corporations, declaring, “Mitt Romney was right.”
KEYES: Governor, are corporations people?
PALIN: The people pay the taxes. It’s not an entity — the corporation itself — that pays the taxes. It’s the people who pay the taxes. So Mitt Romney was right.
Watch it [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoVhylNsvC8 (embedded)]:
Note to Palin: corporations as legal entities do in fact pay taxes [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/is-mitt-romney-right-about-corporations/2011/08/11/gIQAUTK78I_blog.html ]. While the entity has a tax bill, there is someone somewhere that ultimately has less money [ http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/08/12/294273/the-mysterious-incidence-of-the-corporate-income-tax/ ] as a result.
Unfortunately, Palin is not the first GOP bigwig to defend Romney’s assertion that corporations are people. Yesterday, ThinkProgress spoke with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) who vociferously backed up [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/12/294472/rand-paul-rushes-to-romneys-defense-all-of-us-are-corporations/ (above)] Romney, saying, “all of us are corporations.”
© 2011 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/12/295002/sarah-palin-mitt-romney-was-right-corporations-people/ [with comments]
===
The real problem with Romney's 'people' comment
By Dan Primack
August 12, 2011: 3:20 PM ET
"Corporations are people, my friend."
That's what presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday told an attendee at the Iowa State Fair, in response to a question about why Romney's deficit reduction focus seems to be more on federal entitlement reform than corporate tax reform. Not surprisingly, the onetime private equity executive is getting hammered for it.
For example, John Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller tweeted [ http://twitter.com/#!/danprimack/status/101738883515031552 ]: "Was American Pad & Paper Company a person/friend?" Venture capitalist Chris Dixon was even harsher [ http://twitter.com/#!/cdixon/status/102011720251355136 ]: "If corporations are people, then Mitt Romney made his fortune buying and selling people."
What's too bad about all this piling on is that it misses the economic policy point Romney was trying to make. Here is the rest of his comment, which hasn't gotten much attention:
"Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? Whose pockets? People's pockets. Human beings my friend."
Romney doesn't think corporations are actual people, even though some supporters of the Citizens United decision might disagree. He thinks that corporations help actual people, by creating wealth. Companies make money, which they then distribute to employees, shareholders, etc. You know, capitalism.
The problem with Romney's claim, however, is that far too many American corporations are not redistributing their wealth. Instead, they're hoarding it.
Non-financial companies were sitting on more than $1.9 trillion in cash and other liquid assets as of March 31, 2011, according to the Federal Reserve's most recent "Flow of Funds" report. That's an all-time high, and means that unemployment is being driven by Corporate America's unwillingness to hire -- not because it doesn't have the money to do so. Were it to be a person, the best embodiment might be Uncle Scrooge.
And please spare me the "uncertainty" argument. So long as we elect new federal representatives every two years, there will never be any certainty over future tax policy, regulatory policy, healthcare policy, etc. Let alone macro-economic conditions that always are on the move. Any company waiting for "certainty" before hiring might as well shut down its recruitment department.
Romney's mistake isn't in thinking that companies are humans. It's in overestimating their humanity.
© 2011 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/12/the-real-problem-with-romneys-people-comment/ [with comments] [and of course, this Fortune-identified piece doesn't even mention the actual concentration of wealth in the form of ownership of corporations, or the actual political and social impacts of concentrated wealth in the form of corporations, environmental, labor, etc. etc., or any of the rest of all that -- just an inside slap at the "uncertainty" thing; of interest primarily as a compare and contrast versus e.g. the items above]
===
Colbert Defends Mitt Romney's 'Corporations Are People' Statement (VIDEO)
First Posted: 8/12/11 10:04 AM ET Updated: 8/12/11 10:04 AM ET
Mitt Romney made headlines Thursday for saying that "Corporations are people [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/mitt-romney-heckled-iowa_n_924426.html ]" in response to a question about taxes at the Iowa state fair. While many people had a laugh at the gaffe [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/corporate-missed-connections_n_924880.html#s327581 ], it was Stephen Colbert who came to Romney's defense on last night's "Report."
See, Colbert gets it. He's been saying for years that corporations are people, going so far as to suggest they remake "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" with an oil rig. Who wouldn't see that?
Watch the segment below to hear Colbert explain the gravity of Romney's comment and how history will paint him as a new age civil rights activist.
WATCH [ http://www.hulu.com/watch/267786/the-colbert-report-romney-2012-corporations-are-people ; original at http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/394519/august-11-2011/romney-2012----corporations-are-people- ]:
[embedded]
Copyright © 2011 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/12/colbert-defends-mitt-romney-corporations-are-people_n_925277.html [with comments]
===
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"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
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