Randi Rhodes: Mommygate

It's Friday, ya bastids!

Republicans are still trying to score points off of commentator Hilary Rosen’s badly-phrased statement that Ann Romney “has never worked a day in her life.” Rosen’s gaffe was like a gift to Mitt Romney. And it’s not necessary to give gifts to people who have hundreds of millions of dollars. In the wake of the comments, the Romney campaign had Ann Romney issue her first tweet ever—she is, after all, working for the Mitt Romney campaign. I don’t think she’s drawing a salary—she just gets Mitt’s gratitude. And that’s the model for women’s employment that the Republican Party prefers.

Ann has spent a lifetime not only raising children, but being Mitt Romney’s wife. That can’t be easy. How many times a day does she have to pretend to be amused by some comment that just doesn’t make sense? “Ann, look! The trees here are the right height!” “Hey, who let the dogs out? Get it?”

I wish every woman had the options that Ann Romney has. Not necessarily the quarter billion dollars, though that would be nice—just the option to raise children if that’s their preference. In terms of their economic policies, the Republicans don’t want to give working women the option of just being able to raise their children. And under the Republicans’ social policies, women don’t even have the option of choosing if and when to have kids.

Today President Obama and Michele released their tax returns for this year. The total income for the Obamas last year was $789,674 or, as Mitt Romney calls it “a good week.” The Obama’s paid a tax rate of 20.5 percent. I wonder if there is any way in the world that a superrich person like Mitt Romney could manage to pay a rate that high, even if they wanted to for the sake of appearances. Over half of the Obamas income comes from sales of the books President Obama has written. Most of Mitt Romney’s income is investment income. So Obama makes money from what he has done, while Romney makes money from what he has. President Obama’s tax proposals would make him pay more taxes. Mitt Romney’s tax proposals would save Mitt Romney a fortune. You can tell who is looking out for you by noting who is actually just looking out for himself.

Today’s Homework | Discuss

At last week's White House Forum on Women and the Economy, President Obama talked about the four generations of women who shaped his life (jump to 5:45)...

Read more: http://www.randirhodes.com/main.html#ixzz1s1oD2LPt