Romney in Iowa: 'Corporations are people'

Discussion in 'Current Events' started by Think for myself, Aug 11, 2011.

  1. Think for myself

    Think for myself Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yeah, not a good gaffe.

    In a statement seemingly to be the antithesis of reality, GOP presidential contender has breathed life inot an entity and turned it inot a person.

    Kind of god like, and he did not eve require a dude's rib.

    I digress dear reader.

    In response to some heckling Romney has equated corporations with people. You know what is even scarier? People applauded him.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-state-fair-20110811,0,5654564.story

    Campaigning in Iowa Thursday, Mitt Romney told a heckler, “Corporations are people, my friend”—words immediately seized upon by Democrats in what they termed as a possible defining statement by the presidential candidate.

    Romney, speaking to a crowd of hundreds at the Iowa State Fair, was being pressed about raising taxes to help cover entitlement spending. When one mentioned raising corporate tax rates, Romney responded by saying corporations were no different than people. The line earned him a sustained round of applause from the crowd.

    But the Democratic National Committee fired off blast emails almost immediately after the remarks, as part of a continuing effort to frame the GOP frontrunner as an out-of-touch elitist.

    “This is what Mitt Romney is going to run on?” wrote DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse.

    Romney is in Iowa as part of a low key effort to garner support in advance of the Ames Straw Poll Saturday. The former Massachusetts governor is on the ballot, but won’t be participating in the event and isn’t expected to be among the top finishers. Still, his campaign is hoping that he’ll beat expectations.

    He was warmly, if not ardently, received by the state fair crowd, baking under the hot August cloudless sky. And he continued to hammer President Obama on the economy, never once mentioning his fellow rivals for the Republican nomination.

    “We’re being led by a fine fella, but he’s out of his depth,” Romney said. “He just doesn’t understand how the economy works.”

    He had nothing to say about the debt ceiling fight, the upcoming deficit negotiations on Capitol Hill, or the downgrade of the United States’ credit rating by Standard and Poor’s.

    And interestingly, while other GOP competitors such as Tim Pawlenty are here highlighting their executive experience, Romney played down his four years in office in Massachusetts, instead pointing to his work as venture capitalist in the private sector. “Let’s send some citizens to Washington,” he said.

    A small band of hecklers, positioned near the stage, continually pressed Romney on how he would protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—and quarreled with him about whether wealthy Americans should pay higher taxes.

    “There was a time in this country when we didn’t attack people based on their success,” Romney said.

    The exchange seemed to animate the candidate, pushing him to sharpen his rhetoric. “Barack Obama is killing this economy!” he growled.

    After his brief remarks, Romney toured the fairgrounds, where just about every form of foodstuffs can be found either fried, or on a stick, or both. He stopped at an old-time portrait studio and a Chinese noodle stand, telling people again and again, “I’m Mitt Romney, and I’m running for president.”

    He met up with Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and the two of them proceeded to the pork tent, where they grilled sausages together. Later Thursday, Romney will participate in a debate in Ames sponsored byFox News Channel.

    His campaign is bracing for entry of Rick Perry into the race. Polls suggest Perry has the potential to endanger Romney's front-runner status. Perry woin't be debating Thursday, but former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a consistent antagonist on the campaign trail, will be present and is expected to target Romney in his remarks.
     
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  2. Professor Peabody

    Professor Peabody Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  3. RichT2705

    RichT2705 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Romney's been flubbing it up left and right.

    Although I cannot stand the RomneyCare mess here in Mass, I was willing to look past it as I believe he is a smart man with Economics.

    Then he started talking about that global Warming Voodoo....and he lost me totally.

    This story is a good chuckle as well, although he lost me already so i can just sit back and facepalm.
     
  4. Landru Guide Us

    Landru Guide Us Banned

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    Another off topic comment. You actually agree with Romney on this, but want to obscure yours and Romeny's own weird crank political ideas by calling him too liberal.

    More hobbitry.
     
  5. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    And we continue our march down the road towards corporations being given all the Rights of citizens. Then they can just directly elect the President and Congress they want.

    Hey Romney, here's some good news: if corporations are people then they can be drafted into the military. Let's draft the entire Military Industrial Complex so we no longer have to pay them.
     
  6. RichT2705

    RichT2705 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I wasn't off topic at all, the subject dealt with Romney..so did I. Perhaps you should lay off the mind reading act as well Karnak. That's just one more thing, (like intelligent conversation), that you don't do well.
     
  7. Bain

    Bain New Member

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    One of the problems I see is small business have no lobbying power in Washington. Large corporations have been enjoying advantages and getting bailouts were the smaller businesses who pay a large % of taxes and employ a large % of private workforce can't get credit lines they require.

    That is the biggest problem I see is "small business cannot afford to purchase a politician, were as a large corporation can".
     
  8. Consmike

    Consmike New Member Past Donor

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    Corporations are people. They are owned, operated and started by people.
     
  9. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    If they are people, then they should have to be able to be affected by all of the negative things that can happen to people: in times of war we should be able to draft them, if they commit crimes we should be able to arrest them, etc.

    Just because something is made up of people, that doesn't make it a person in an of itself.

    I love how you Rightists are in effect supporting Collective Rights (which you all normally hate) by supporting this idea that corporations are people.
     
  10. BringDownMugabe

    BringDownMugabe Well-Known Member

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    Comical. Using that logic you can say robots are people. :roll:
     
  11. Consmike

    Consmike New Member Past Donor

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    There is no way around it. Corporations are made up of people. Its fact. Workers, bosses, managers, janitors, sales crew, office workers, share holders, etc.
     
  12. The Mello Guy

    The Mello Guy Well-Known Member

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    Cars are people too. They are owned, operated and started by people.

    Bank accounts are people. They are owned, operated and started by people.
     
  13. Consmike

    Consmike New Member Past Donor

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    I can see libs don't do a good job of looking into what people say. I thought the left was supposed to be the smart, enlightened party?
     
  14. starbow

    starbow New Member Past Donor

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    its a notion taken from an interpretation of the 14th amendment

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood

    The notion of corporations as persons

    "As a matter of interpretation of the word "person" in the Fourteenth Amendment, U.S. courts have extended certain constitutional protections to corporations. Opponents of corporate personhood seek to amend the U.S. Constitution to limit these rights to those provided by state law and state constitutions.[3]

    Others argue that corporations should have the protection of the U.S. Constitution, pointing out that they are organizations of people, and that these people shouldn't be deprived of their human rights when they join with others to act collectively.[4] In this view, treating corporations as "persons" is a convenient legal fiction that allows corporations to sue and to be sued, that provides a single entity for easier taxation and regulation, that simplified complex transactions that would otherwise involve, in the case of large corporations, thousands of people, and that protects the rights of the shareholders, including the right of association.

    Some have argued in court that corporations should be allowed to refuse to hand over any incriminating documents due to the Fifth Amendment right given to people to not have to incriminate themselves; in one case "Appellants [suggested] that the use of the word "taxpayer" several times during the course of the regulations requires a construction that the fifth amendment self-incrimination warning be given to a corporation."[5] However the court did not agree in that 1975 case."
     
  15. jcarlilesiu

    jcarlilesiu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I have never once seen a company ran, operated, employing, or producing goods for anything other than for humans.

    Have you?

    Above that, and according to the USSC, corporations are protected as if they were individuals.
     
  16. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    So how does a corporation magically transform into a person? Does it grow arms and legs? Gain sentience? Who gives birth to it?

    Just because an organization is made up of people, that doesn't make it a person on it's own.

    If you Rightists want corporations to be people then they should actually be treated as people (IE no more paying MIC corporations. We're at war. Let's draft them).
     
  17. The Mello Guy

    The Mello Guy Well-Known Member

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    so does that mean my carpool is its own person?
     
  18. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously New Member Past Donor

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    Personally I don't see it as a gaffe at all. I think everyone could bear some reminding that it's easy to demonize a non-personal entity like a coporation. The dems and progressives have done their best to make "corporation" a dirty word that is permanently preceded (in their lexicon at least) by "evil".

    I think it's worth noting, as Perry did, that corporations are made up of people. People who work for them, people who invest in them, people who benefit from their goods and services, etc.

    Is there corporate greed? Sure, but I submit to you that the actual instances of it are far less than those of governmental greed. Why are we not talking about the evil, greedy government?

    I find it so interesting that if the libs truly had their way and all the corporations were dissolved tomorrow they would be surprised when they went to their favorite Starbucks to get their morning latte only to find out that it's not there. And... when the attemped to tweet their latest mindless chatter their phone company was no longer in existence. And... when they stopped by to have their tofu burger and soymilk shake at their favorite Wild Oats market it's now closed down. Or... when they checked their 401K account and found out that it lost about 99% of its value because all the corporations they were invested in have gone out of business.

    See.... it's easy to hate the "evil corporations" when they are only a talking point, but when you peel back the onion there's way more to them than that.

    I think it was brilliant of Romney to be able to say all that in the concise (and very correct) statement of: "Corporations are people."
     
  19. Consmike

    Consmike New Member Past Donor

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    You know how people say our government is of the people for the people by the people? same thing. the government is not actually an individual human being. Its people in the sense that its made up of people.

    corporations don't magically just appear and run themselves. just as our government doesn't
     
  20. BringDownMugabe

    BringDownMugabe Well-Known Member

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    Ah, so than corporations are dictatorships. After all, not everybody has a say, just a select few, right?
     
  21. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    Out government doesn't say that it has the Rights of a person. Just because something is made up of people, that doesn't magically transform it into a person.

    If Corporations are people then they should be treated like people in every respect. If they want freedom of speech, that has to be balanced by the fact that the entire corporation can be arrested and it's assets seized for wrong doing.

    You cannot have all the benefits of collective rights without the drawbacks of collective responsibility.
     
  22. Consmike

    Consmike New Member Past Donor

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    corporations can have their assets seized and shut down for wrong doing. duh.
     
  23. Anikdote

    Anikdote Well-Known Member

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    So... if one company owns another company, does that make it slavery?
     
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  24. Consmike

    Consmike New Member Past Donor

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    No, you do realize that shareholders vote right?
     
  25. Questerr

    Questerr Banned

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    Who said anything about "shut down"? If they are a person, we should be able to send them to prison.
     

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