Defending Romney's offshore tax shelters: The Republican Party's anti-tax anti-Amerianism

By Michael J.W. Stickings

So what's the Republican Party all about these days? Well, the imposition of theocracy, sure, but really it's about plutocracy -- the rule of the rich, the rich being entitled to rule by virtue of their wealth, with policies that allow the rich to get richer. Romney may talk about helping average Americans even as he embodies plutocracy to the core, but for the most part Republicans aren't even denying it anymore:

Republicans aren't just in favor of lowering taxes; now they're applauding wildly complex efforts by the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying billions in taxes by shipping capital to other countries.

"It's really American to avoid paying taxes, legally," said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on Tuesday. He was defending Mitt Romney, who, as [yesterday] morning's editorial in The Times notes, appears to have the most elaborate history of tax avoidance – offshore tax havens, disputed sheltering mechanisms, complex trusts – of any major presidential candidate in history.

Invest in the Cayman Islands, Mr. Graham seems to be saying. It's the patriotic thing to do.

That peculiar vision of the American way doesn't go back very far. Mr. Romney's financial practices aren't unusual just because he is one of the wealthiest candidates ever to run; it's because previous well-to-do candidates would have been embarrassed to admit they had gone so far to enrich themselves at the public treasury's expense.

For Republicans, it's perfectly okay, it seems, to avoid paying taxes -- and for the rich to take advantage of whatever is at their privileged disposal. This is beyond merely advocated for a flat tax. This is defending a system, and those who take advantage of it, that allows the rich above all to get away with putting their vast wealth in offshore tax shelters, that allows them to avoid paying taxes altogether, that allows them to avoid contributing not just their fair share but anything at all, or not very much at all, to a revenue system (developed through democratic self-governance, effectively the people willingly taxing themselves) that supports and sustains the public good -- that funds things like Social Security, national parks, and the military.

We can argue about whether or not it's "really American" to prefer generally low tax rates and generally limited government, but it's certainly not "really American," except in the wild fantasies of Ron Paul-loving libertarians and increasingly most Republicans, to want to get out of paying taxes altogether. That may be how Mitt Romney and his privileged rich ilk handle their finances, but the American people, Republican extremists excepted, would rather not have the American way of life undone so that the rich can hide their money from the taxman.