In a widely quoted passage from The Real Romney, Kranish and Helman explain that when Romney was asked to take over Bain Capital, he first demurred. It was only when he received guarantees that if the Bain Capital venture went bad he would not lose any money and that his reputation would be protected.
Ezra Klein today, uses this story to discuss Romney’s economic policies. He goes on to discuss the careful “no way I can lose” manner that Romney left Bain Capital. And this, to Klein, shows the lie of Romney’s entire argument for cutting the taxes of rich people:
There is a sense in the United States that the rich play by different rules than the poor or the middle class — rules that make it easier for them to get even richer. Romney history show he has been aggressive in taking advantage of those rules, which is fine. But his proposed policies would make it even easier for the rich to stay rich and even more difficult for the poor to scrape by, which is not fine. As Romney likes to say, the American people don’t resent success. But they do resent tax cuts for the rich at the cost of health care for the poor.
Let me put this more directly than Klein does: Romney’s wealth does not come from risk taking; it comes from risk avoidance. His argument that the rich need to be rewarded for taking risks is belied by his own story. People need a certain amount of security if they are going to take risks. Romney’s economic ideas will only make the wealthy more so and provide fewer options for everyone else.
