Bankruptcy for Bain means let's get rich by not paying our bills (or employees)

Mitt Romney's entitlement: Winning for losing

By Robyn E. Blumner, Tamp Bay Times Columnist

In Print: Sunday, June 3, 2012

Mitt Romney, who secured the number of delegates needed for the Republican nomination last week, said early on that this election is a choice between President Barack Obama's "entitlement society" in which people are dependent on government benefits, and his "opportunity society" where business is free to flourish.

But if you take Romney's own life as representing a governing philosophy, he has the dichotomy backward. Romney is the one who has taken advantage of government entitlements — the ones that flow to the wealthy. And his interest in opportunity lies with rich investors who exploit government rules, often to the detriment of Main Street. Romney's use of the federal bankruptcy courts to extinguish debts owed to suppliers, shops and service providers is a perfect example — more on that later.

For starters, let's tick off some of Romney's favorite government entitlements:

• Special tax rules allow him to pay federal income taxes of just 15 percent on his millions in "carried interest" profits, capital gains and dividends. The rest of us pay a rate of up to 35 percent on income from work.

(More here.)