When Mitt Romney dismissed 47 percent of the population as shiftless riff-raff who pay no income taxes and live off government largess, the Republican presidential nominee “spit in the face of everyday people who know what it means to work incredibly hard and still sometimes fail to get by,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Damon Silvers is the policy director and special counsel of the AFL-CIO. 

The psychology of Mitt Romney's apparent attack on 47 percent of Americans is fascinating. It’s all about the excuses the very rich make up to cover for their refusal to bear their fair share of the costs of maintaining civilization. Because, of course, the poor actually pay a higher share of their income in taxes than people like Romney do, it's just they don’t pay it in federal income tax. The poorest 20 percent of America pays 23 percent of their income in state and federal taxes—in payroll taxes, sales taxes and other excise taxes and state income taxes. As we know, in the one year Romney has disclosed, he paid just under 14 percent in federal taxes, almost all of his income was not subject to payroll tax, and his state income tax bill was likely far less than 8 percent of his income.  By the way, in 2011, 13,000 families in the top 1 percent of income paid no federal income tax.

Just who was Mitt Romney referring to in his secretly recorded comments at a Boca Raton, Fla., fundraiser as people who don’t “take personal responsibility and care for themselves”?

• 61 percent of them work but don’t earn enough to owe income tax.
• 17 percent are students (who will pay plenty of taxes once they’re out of school), military families, people with disabilities and people who have lost their jobs—including victims of outsourcers like, well, Mitt Romney.
• 22 percent are elderly. 

(Data source: www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3505#_ftn9.)

When you are at the very top, the middle must look higher than it really is, at least according to Mitt Romney’s latest financial optical illusion. In an interview today on ABC’s "Good Morning America," host George Stephanopoulos asked Romney how he would define middle-class income. “Is $100,000 middle income?’’ Stephanopoulos asked. Romney replied:

No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less.

Today, the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed thousands and destroyed the World Trade Center, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney issued a statement that forgot to mention the heroic first responders, including 343 Fire Fighters (IAFF) members who lost their lives trying to save others. In 2010, Paul Ryan voted three times against providing health care for surviving first responders and other survivors of the World Trade Center attack.

William Spriggs is the chief economist at the AFL-CIO. 

Here is an uncomfortable truth. Republicans' obstruction of President Obama’s policies means they have gotten the policies they wanted. But, these policies have been least effective in growing jobs.

The Romney campaign argues that the path to American prosperity starts with lowering the taxes on American business and unleashing American entrepreneurial zeal. Republicans complain that President Obama has not cooperated with them to implement this vision. Of course, the truth is more nuanced.

America needs good jobs and shared prosperity, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told delegates at the Democratic National Convention tonight. It’s abundantly clear the Romney-Ryan ticket is only offering prosperity for the rich and an economic nightmare for everyone else, whether it's cutting Medicare and Social Security, giving the rich more tax breaks or outsourcing America's jobs. “Prosperity requires democracy—starting with the essential right of everyone in this great country to a voice, both in the ballot box and in the workplace.” 

Prosperity requires economic security. Working Americans will stand with leaders who protect and strengthen Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—not those who plan cuts to benefits working people have paid for, earned and are counting on. 

Joshua Anijar, Florida AFL-CIO communications director, sends us this report on the recent Republican National Convention where working families greeted Mitt Romney and friends.  

When the Republican National Convention headed to Tampa, Fla., to nominate its candidate for president, the West Central Florida Federation of Labor (WCFFL) was ready. The 12-county organization staged “Welcome to Romney’s America,” a combination protest and satirical street theater to illustrate what America would be like under a Romney-Ryan administration.

Looking for little reading over the long Labor Day weekend? Then check out online or pick up the latest copy of Rolling Stone with Matt Taibbi’s cover story on Mitt Romney’s days at Bain Capital. Taibbi writes:

Mitt Romney, it turns out, is the perfect frontman for Wall Street's greed revolution….He's Gordon Gekko, but a new and improved version, with better PR—and a bigger goal. A takeover artist all his life, Romney is now trying to take over America itself. And if his own history is any guide, we'll all end up paying for the acquisition.

Now that the Republican National Convention—with its divisive policies, masked by a cynical call for unity—has wrapped up, let’s take a look at the deeply embedded anti-union and anti-worker philosophy in the Republican platform of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Daily Kos’ Laura Clawson says:

The basic message of the Republican platform on labor issues is this: Rights are there to be taken from workers and given to the 1 percent.