Mitt Romney has too long a record of pandering to plutocrats to have a chance at successfully lying to deny it. A while back, his claim to be unemployed just like them to a group of Floridians drew chortles of disbelief. So he no longer tries. Now he lies trying to justify it. If his infamous claim that “corporations are people too” was not enough, he has added more. One is the implication that we aren’t rich, because we’re too stupid.

In a New York Times op-ed today, billionaire investor Warrenn Buffett renewed his oft-made call for tax increases on the ultra-wealthy. “While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks,” he wrote. “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.” Today, 2012 GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney — who has a personal net worth between $190 million and $250 million — rejected that argument. Reprising a version of his “corporations are people” argument from last week, Romney claims that Buffett’s taxes are higher than he says they are because he, as a business owner, bears the burden of the corporate income tax [Murdoch delinked]. (This argument comes from a piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore, who explicitly believes that the poor need to pay higher taxes to finance tax cuts for the rich.) Romney went on to claim that raising taxes on the wealthy would actually be a tax increase on small businesses…

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Raising taxes on the poor and middle classes to support welfare for millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals is becoming standard Republican fare. Look what Republicans are doing at the state level, wherever they have complete control.

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Dang! I wish I was smart enough to inherit millions and have all those loopholes that Republicans refuse to close!