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More than 75 workers and retirees -- with police in tow -- descended on Bank of America's headquarters in Boston to call out their "Fix the Debt" friends for what they really are: Gold Diggers. Check out the great flashmob video above.

You may have seen their ads on TV or been accosted by a Fix the Debt canvasser on the street, they claim to be a grassroots effort promoting steps to reduce the national debt. But the truth is, Fix the Debt is just another corporate-financed DC lobbying group looking for taxpayer handouts.

That revelation prompted a MassUniting.org flashmob-style demonstration Wednesday outside the New England headquarters of a major Fix the Debt funder and beneficiary, Bank of America:

The action comes on the heels of a report from the non-partisan Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), which reveals that Fix the Debt’s legislative agenda has little to do with the national debt at all. In fact, the bulk of the group’s lobbying activities have focused on securing billions in new corporate tax breaks at the expense of American workers and seniors.

Make no mistake, Fix the Debt does support cuts to Social Security and other vital programs – as well as raising the retirement age – as a way to reduce federal spending, But according to the IPS report, Fix the Debt plans to use those savings to fund more than $134 billion in tax giveaways for its 63 publicly-held member corporations -- including Bank of America, Verizon and General Electric. Keep in mind, 24 of these Fix the Debt companies already pay their CEOs more than they paid in federal corporate income taxes. Twenty-two spent more on lobbying than they did on their tax bill.

So much for “fixing the debt.” As it turns out, the corporate-financed Fix the Debt campaign amounts to old school gold digging at its worst. Might want to mind your pocketbook.

For more information about MassUniting, or to sign up to help, visit their website here.



underwater

Just in case any of the 11.5 million struggling homeowners out there are waiting to hear what Mitt Romney's plans are to turn around the housing market, and help those with underwater mortgages, his policy director Lanhee Chen wants you to know up front that there will be no targeted relief for you people.

Via:

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, doesn’t intend to offer targeted relief for the 11.5 million American homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, Chen said, suggesting that such actions are temporary fixes insufficient to stabilize the housing market.

“Governor Romney has indicated that there are some steps we ought to take to ensure that we’re growing our economy,” Chen said. “But on the housing market specifically, I do think we have to resist the temptation for short-term approaches.”

So as much as Governor One Percent would like to help 11.5 million Americans, he just can't allow himself to be tempted, because what's really important? The banks!

Romney, a former private-equity executive who founded the Boston-based firm Bain Capital LLC, wants to replace the Dodd- Frank financial regulation law enacted in 2010 with more limited and “reasonable” rules, including governing derivatives and “some kind of consumer protections,” Chen said.

“The mistake here is to say that somehow because we repealed Dodd-Frank and we get rid of the really burdensome set of regulations that Dodd-Frank put in place, that somehow we’re going back to a dog-eat-dog kind of situation where there’s absolutely no regulation,” Chen said.

Still, he said the so-called Volcker rule to ban proprietary trading by banks “has a lot of problems,” and would be “one of the problematic elements that, quite frankly, Governor Romney would seek to replace.”

Emphasis mine.

Oh, and don't even bother to ask about what Romney has in store for taxes, because he's not going to tell you anything more than he intends to lower taxes by an average of $231,971 for the top 1 percent of taxpayers. Are you going to lose any of your current deductions, or face an increase in your taxes? He's just too busy and important to be troubled with filling you in on the trivial little details.

If you're considering voting for Mitt Romney for POTUS, you'll just have to trust that he will always look out for what's best for the top one percent of the population.

Too bad about your homes.

[Tip o' the hat to Nicole.]