STORY #1: XOXO, Gossip Reid
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) won’t face a re-election battle until 2016. You’d think this meant he had plenty of time to focus on the work of, you know, leading the Senate majority. I don’t think that job description involves spreading rumors about the opposing party’s presidential nominee. Alas, he did that anyway; he heard that former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) didn’t pay taxes for ten years – this according to an unnamed Bain Capital investor.
It’s entirely likely that Reid is bluffing in the hopes that Romney will release another 10 years’ worth of tax returns. Romney pointed out, quite reasonably, that his critics would continue to demand to see more after that. I wouldn’t mind if he released them just so they’d all shut up. In the meantime, Reid does himself and his party no political favors by acting like the Perez Hilton of the Beltway. Don’t rule out a congressional censure. Validation for the Romney campaign and the GOP? Embarrassment for the Dems? Inevitable.
STORY #2: Death by three cuts
A quick summary of Romney’s tax agenda: income tax cuts for everyone; rolling back deductions that tend to benefit the middle class; no evident plan for reducing the deficit. If any of that surprises you, I’m sure ninth-grade civics will be fun for you. A cursory look at his website reveals that his economic agenda does amount to a little more than cutting this and cutting that. Too bad he can’t turn that into a big announcement for once; then he’d miss his opportunity to complain about the media.
STORY #3: The most oppressed class
You know who really suffers from America’s existing tax code? Olympic winners. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is taking up their cause by calling for a repeal of taxes applied to the medals themselves and their accompanying prize money. Is he trying to avert VP speculation by coming up with one of the least economically beneficial, most cynically political tax cuts ever? Because the only circumstances under which anyone feels sorry for Olympians are a) medal loss, b) injury or c) the death of their loved ones. What a waste of time this is.
One more entry for United Republic’s citizen reporter contest (vote for Sol!):
Claire Kim, Cambridge, MA: Good personality. Has a problem filtering out unnecessary details about her rhetorical illustrations. Also has a hyperbole problem and a “So . . . why should I send you again?” problem. Out of 12: 6
