BartCop's most recent rants - 5-Questions-for-Mitt.htm

5 Questions for Mitt

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1) When you ran for the Senate in 1994 against Ted Kennedy, you stated that you had met
with the Mormon Council of Bishops to get their permission to take certain positions in your
campaign (specifically your Pro-Choice stance). As President of the United States, would you
still have to get permission from the Mormon Council of Bishops to make public policy?

This question is not to question Romney's Mormon faith. Any religion that you do not adhere to
has some controversial views, and there is no excuse for attacking anyone's personal religious beliefs.
However, for a Presidential candidate to make such a statement is unprecedented. The national
media has determined that these questions of Romney are off-limits. However, in 1960, John Kennedy
was forced politically to make a speech declaring his independence from the Pope and the Catholic
Church. In 2008, it was not only the conservative media that questioned Obama's religious faith
(Christian or Muslim?), but video loops of the Reverend Wright were played over and over again
by even the mainstream press, along with endless pundits musing about their meaning and impact
on the candidate's decision-making.   Was he a Black Nationalist? Did his father's Muslim faith
influence his thinking? Was he raised in a madrassas? This question is fair and deserves a response.


2) You responded to a question about the Personhood Amendment to the U. S. Constitution that
you would "absolutely" sign it into law. You have said that you would support a reversal of Roe v Wade.
How would you enforce these laws? What would the criminal penalties be and who would be charged?
Would the woman who terminated the pregnancy go to prison? Would the doctor performing the
abortion go to jail? How about attending nurses and hospital or clinic staff under RICO laws?
Would a woman wealthy enough to go overseas be exempt? Would local police be responsible
for monitoring pregnancies? Would doctors be required to report pregnancies to a governing agency?
Would a miscarriage trigger a criminal investigation?

Many Americans are opposed to abortion, and that is their personal right, but when the mechanics
of enforcement are questioned, Pro-life candidates are always at a loss. Do they really want less
government interference in our lifes, or do they support a massive intrusive government program
to enforce their Pro-life commitment.


3) As founder and CEO of Bain Capital, you closed several American businesses through bankruptcy
regulations. In some cases, the businesses were profitable, but you determined that you could return a
higher profit to your company and shareholders by terminating the business and firing the thousands of
wokers employed there. Bain Capital often made tens of millions of dollars in profit through these closures.
But even though Bain was making massive profits already, why did you feel it was essential to take the
money in the pension plans of the workers that were fired? Workers who had 10, 20, 30 or more years
of service were not only out of a job, but their pensions and in many cases their life savings were wiped out.
You and your company were already worth hundreds of millions of dollars, more than you could possibly
spend in your lifetime, but you still felt compelled to go the extra mile and take what those workers had
spent a lifetime saving. How much is enough, and couldn't you have managed to save the pensions of
those workers without any appreciable sacrifice to yourself or your shareholders?


4) In the single year of tax returns you have made public, you show an IRA account worth 100 million
(100,000,000) dollars. The annual amount a person can contribute to an IRA account is 5 thousand
(5,000) dollars. This is an extraordinary return on a very modest investment in an era when most
investments return a fraction of 1% a year in interest. How is such a return possible, and how can
regular investors match it?


Again, the mainstream media have been very reticent about questioning Romney's personal finances,
and seem to consider such questioning as "off-limits". Perhaps they are forgetting that we had to
appoint a Special Prosecuter to investigate the finances of former President Bill Clinton. Over 200
full-time FBI agents were dispatched to look into Clinton's Whitewater land deal (in which the President
actually lost money), Hillary Clinton's cattle futures deals, and even the billing records of Hillary's law firm.
No impropieties by the President or his wife were uncovered, but the press still printed years of front-page
stories and leading newscasts speculating about every new allegation thrown out by the Clinton's political
enemies, including many paid sources. This question is fair and deserves a response.


5) Your economic plan requires not only preserving the Bush tax cuts on the very wealthy, but an
additional 20% cut in income taxes on the very wealthy. In addition, you propose more tax cuts for
the investor class by eliminating the capital gains tax and the inheritance tax (the death tax) that only
affect the wealthy. It is your contention that these tax cuts will benefit every citizen, not just those
they apply to (trickle down), and will solve the unemployment problem by giving the wealthy investor
class more money and financial security to motivate them to hire more workers. However, the wealthy
in this country have never in its history been wealthier than they are now. Corporate profits are at an
all-time high, and businesses are currently sitting on trillions (that's trillions with a t) of dollars without
using it to hire. In addition, a recent study reveals that more than 21 trillion (21,000,000,000,000)
dollars and maybe as much as 31 trillion (31,000,000,000,000) dollars are now hidden in offshore
accounts (like the ones you hold) in places such as Switzerland and the Caymon Islands, presumably
for tax avoidance purposes. What makes you think that more massive tax cuts for the very wealthy
will stimulate hiring when it has not so far, and as President will you take steps to collect tax revenue
on the tens of trillions of dollars in offshore taxhaven accounts?

These are just my questions, and I am sure you can come up with many more, just as I have while
compiling these five. I am sure, however, that these questions will leave Governor Romney stuttering,
as I cannot imagine an answer that will be politically palatable. The assertion that the mainstream media
are in the pocket of Obama is quite obviously false, or else these questions would have already been posed
After all, I am just a retired mailman from a rural town. If I can think of these questions, surely professional
reporters can and have. Remember, there is nothing here that has not been asked of Democratic candidates
in the past, whether it be their personal finances, their social policies, their economic policies, or their
personal religious beliefs and how they would affect their Presidency.

Just offering this as food for thought.
Uncle Tim

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