Mitt Romney defends 'corporations are people' comment in new web video

Mitt Romney's campaign is out with a new web video aimed at explaining his "corporations are people, my friend" comment:

Businesses are comprised of people.

I'm talking about repair shops, and gas stations, and beauty salons, and restaurants. I'm talking about Apple computer, Facebook and Microsoft. I'm talking about businesses that employ people.

It's really astonishing to me that the Obama folks would try and argue that businesses aren't people. What do they think they are? Little men from Mars?

I'll give Romney's team some credit for trying to make lemonade out of lemons, but redefining what their boss said isn't going to make it go away. As a reminder, here's what Romney actually said:

 

ROMNEY: To balance our budget and not spend more than we take in, we need to make sure that the promises we make in Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are promises we can keep, and there are various ways of doing that. One is we could raise taxes on people. That's not the way...

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Corporations!

ROMNEY: Corporations are people, my friend.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: No they're not!

ROMNEY: Of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people.

AUDIENCE (laughter)

ROMNEY: Where do you think it goes?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: In their pockets!

ROMNEY: Whose pockets? People's pockets. Okay, human beings, my friend.

Yes, Romney wasn't saying that corporations are actually people. What he was saying was that given the choice between increasing corporate taxes and cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits, he'd rather cut Social Security and Medicare benefits. And he completely avoided the fact that corporate taxes only fall on income that doesn't go to workers and suppliers. It's true that our corporate tax code is broken and needs reform, but that doesn't have anything to do with what Romney was saying. What he really needs is a reminder that Social Security recipients and Medicare beneficiaries are people too.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/6ug31448B4Q/-Mitt-Romney-defends-corporations-are-people-comment-in-new-web-video

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