Robert Reich Quotes
One tax dodge often used by multi-national companies is to squirrel their earnings abroad in foreign subsidiaries located in countries where taxes are lower.
Reich, Robert. "The True Patriot's Tax." HuffPost, 12 Apr. 2011.
The President was asked his opinion of his opponents proposal to roll back the large tax cuts that he had passed for wealthy people. Instead of commenting on the societal aspect of the question, he took it from the point of view of the rich.
Romney, a very wealthy businessman running for President as a Republican, had owned and controlled companies that had outsourced jobs abroad. In addition, he personally maintained large bank accounts in Switzerland and Caribbean tax havens and kept his tax returns secret to minimize his exposure. Ironically, there was nothing illegal in his maintaining such accounts, and most very wealthy people did. However, Romney, never secure in his own skin, didn’t want his opponents to focus on the fact that he did what rich people did and what most middle class and poor people rarely did and considered somewhat unpatriotic. So this insult was very effective as most people thought that when the American banks were in danger of collapsing in the Meltdown of 2008, and had to be bailed out by the taxpayers, he would not keep much of his money in the American banking system—easy to understand for a wealthy investor, but not so good for a politician claiming to have the nation’s interest as a first priority. Many conservatives argued that it was patriotic for a citizen to maximize his personal wealth and economic security and Romney should have defended his actions so Romney was caught in the middle, hence a good target for his opponents.
Robert Bernard Reich is an American economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, as well as serving as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 under Bill Clinton. He was a member of President Barack Obama's economic transition advisory board.
