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Americans United for Change 'Romney-Gekko 2012' Campaign Launches New Ad

Americans United for Change's Romney-Gekko 2012 campaign, seeking to expose the full truth about Mitt Romney's excessive greed and agenda supporting the one percent, launched a new parody ad highlighting the Republican presidential candidate's use of offshore tax havens in the Cayman Islands. The ad is a take-off of a series of recent ads for Corona Beer that show a couple lounging on a Caribbean beach. In this instance, the viewer sees two men on the beach in suits, clearly meant to be Mitt Romney and Gordon "Greed Is Good" Gekko. In the background two airplanes fly by with banners reading "Welcome to the Caymans -- Home of Mitt's Millions" and "'Cuz Paying Taxes Is 4 Poor People... Romney-Gekko 2012."

The Romney-Gekko 2012 campaign (a satirical project of Americans United for Change) unveiled the third in its series of mock campaign ads (web video) today called “Find Your Tax Haven. “ The ad, inspired by Corona’s “Find Your Beach” campaign, follows ABC News’ report last week that Mitt Romney is ‘Parking Millions in the Cayman Islands’ . The Wall Street Journal’s follow-up reporting found that the Romney campaign’s claims that this has no effect on the amount he pays in U.S. taxes “may be wrong or misleading” according tax experts who “said some of the offshore holdings are likely intended to help Mr. Romney avoid paying an obscure but hefty tax of as much as 35% on some of those investments, held in a tax-deferred retirement account.”

Corporate raider Gordon “Greed is good” Gekko rushed to the defense of his embattled running mate. “Paying your fair share in taxes is for wimps, not guys like Mitt and me” cackled Gekko via a Motorolo DynaTAC, coincidentally phoning in from an undisclosed Caribbean location. “So what if the malfunctioning corporation called the USA loses $100 billion in revenue each year with corporations and 1 percenters taking advantage of these offshore tax havens? Sure that leaves the average American stiff paying over $400 more, but it’s a zero sum game, sport. Somebody wins and somebody loses.”

The Romney-Gekko 2012 campaign website has a lot more, including a quiz, which is quite difficult, on whether a particular quote was uttered by Romney or Gekko. It also has a map of Romney's money chase, more information about the real candidate's job elimination record and a blog with the latest news on related stories.



Prescribed Pain By The Prescription Racket

During the ultimate scene of betrayal in the movie Wall Street, a young stockbroker named Bud Fox learns that his idol, the golden-calf worshipping Gordon Gekko, has not only lied to him but left his father’s company exposed to the whims and hunger of the wolves of Wall Street. In a climactic moment, Fox asks Gekko: “How much is enough? How many yachts can you water ski behind?”

Even though this film was mid-1980s fare, well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps not for the actor who played Bud Fox, Charlie Sheen, who should share Natalie Portman’s Oscar for real-time transformation into the Black Swan. But for the rest of us, who have watched as greed has become the foundational structure upon which much of our modern economy is built, it is often difficult to see how we might close the Pandora’s Box and return to saner times. You know, back when being Donald Trump wasn’t considered an asset in a hair-club-for-men commercial, much less a race to be President of the United States.

There is nowhere this greed is more pervasive than among those companies responsible for the health of roughly 300 million of Americans - Big Pharma. You know, the guys who got a better sweetheart deal from George Bush’s Medicare prescription drug benefit than Ana Nicole Smith did from that old rich guy.

Later, re-importation from Canada and bulk negotiation for Medicare prescription drugs were written out of any Obama health-care plan, even though each was at the heart of Democratic Party campaign promises in 2006 and 2008.

Maybe money can not buy you love - but the halls of Congress have a more Heidi-Fleiss-kind-of ethic to them.

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