Super-Rich Hiding $21+ Trillion In Tax Havens; GOP Says Obama Focus Too Much on Middle Class

To listen to Mitt Romney and his GOP brethren one would think that things are really rough for the 1% and the super wealthy.  Hence why  the GOP wants to give these folks each over $250,000 in tax cuts.  Meanwhile, most of us are struggling to hold on to what we have - much of which has been seriously devalued given the collapse of the real estate market and the performance of the stock market.  A new study shows that many of these hard put super wealthy have followed Romney's example and stashed assets in tax havens and overseas accounts.  How much have they stashed?  At least $21 trillion.  Think Progress looks at the massive tax avoidance scheme used by the ultra-rich while the GOP seeks to throw grandma off of Medicare and reduce many of the lower and middle class to poverty.  Oh, and did I forget to mention that the GOP claims to be the party of Biblical values - even thought the Gospel message of helping the poor, the sick, the homeless and the hungry has apparently been ripped from their Christianists issued Bibles.  Adding to the hypocrisy is Mitt Romney's new line that Barack Obama is too focused on the middle class - a section of society Romney seems to want to wipe out.  First, here are some story highlights from Think Progress:

According to a new study, the world’s super-rich are shielding at least $21 trillion in secret offshore tax havens. Using data from the Bank of International Settlements, IMF, World Bank, and national governments, the Tax Justice Network found that an astonishing 100,000 people worldwide hold nearly $10 trillion of offshore wealth, equivalent to the size of the Chinese economy. According to the study:

1. Big banks manage the wealth. The three private banks handling the most assets offshore are UBS, Credit Suisse, and Goldman Sachs.
2. Offshore wealth is creating a global economic “black hole.” If the $21 trillion in offshore earned a conservatively-estimated 3 percent rate of return, and that income was taxed at just 30 percent, this would generate tax revenues of nearly $200 billion — roughly twice the amount OECD countries spend on international development assistance.
3. High impact on developing countries. In the 139 developing countries highlighted in the report, the richest citizens had amassed $7.3 to $9.3 trillion of unrecorded offshore wealth that is beyond the reach of local tax authorities. The report reveals that many developing “debtor” countries are actually quite wealthy, but the money is held by a few individuals.
4. Huge tax haven growth in the last few years. In 2005, the world’s top 50 banks managed $5.4 trillion in offshore money. By the end of 2010, the figure is over $12 trillion, representing an average annual growth rate of more than 16 percent.

Obviously, the USA's portion of these lost revenues could go a long way to shore up budget gaps and rebuild the nation's crumbling infrastructure.   Meanwhile, the GOP is complaining that Obama is too focused on the middle class.  Here are highlights from another Think Progress article:

President Obama’s plan to allow the Bush tax cuts for incomes above $250,000 to expire at the end of the year has revived the Republican talking point that he is waging “class warfare” against the wealthy, a point Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl (R) drove home in an entirely new fashion today.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Kyl claimed that the president’s usage of the phrase “middle class” is “misguided and wrong and even dangerous.” Calling for an end to rhetoric about classes, Kyl blasted Obama for “incessantly” talking about class, “particularly the middle class”:

KYL: Most prominently, we have a president who talks incessantly about class, particularly the middle class. Maybe you’ve noticed that. He defines class strictly by your income. In the president’s narrative, someone who makes $199,000 a year is a member of one class and someone who makes $200,000 belongs to another class. Does that make sense? Indeed, each day the president’s out on the campaign trail championing himself as the great protector of what he calls the middle class and pitting these Americans against their fellow citizens by arguing that the wealthiest class is victimizing them through the tax code.

Excuse me, but the wealthy with the help of the Republicans ARE victimizing  the rest of us.