ROMNEY SAYS SCREW YOU TO HALF THE COUNTRY

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Pay attention to man behind curtain

By Kelvin Wade
From page A11 | September 20, 2012 |

By now, most have seen the video of Mitt Romney speaking at a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser in which he writes off 47 percent of Americans as thoughtless victims who pay no income taxes and are dependent on government.

It was a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the real Romney. He has since stood by his remarks.

The idea that “47 percent of Americans pay no taxes” is a staple on right-wing radio and blogs. It fits the belief that half of Americans are working to support the other half. That other half is derided as a bunch of freeloaders, welfare and food-stamp recipients. This is vintage conservative class warfare and now its been confirmed that Mitt Romney accepts it as his worldview.

But I like to deal in facts, not ideology. According to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, it’s true that 53 percent pay federal income tax.

Of the rest who don’t pay federal income tax, 28.3 percent pay payroll taxes. They’re paying into Social Security and Medicare. They get tax credits for their children. These are people like your next-door neighbors, if not you.

Another 10.3 percent are elderly on a fixed income. If you’re elderly or disabled living on a fixed income, Mitt Romney was talking about you as one of those who won’t take personal responsibility for your life. My mother, in the last years of her life, received part of my dad’s Navy retirement and she received government health care that allowed her to live at La Mariposa convalescent home. But she wasn’t a thoughtless freeloader like Romney describes on the tape. She’d worked raising five boys and worked outside the home at NorthBay Medical Center.

She was no victim.

Still another 6.9 percent are so poor they don’t pay federal income tax. They are working, but at such low-paying jobs that they don’t meet the threshold to pay federal income tax.

Students who receive aid to attend college fit into the group that Mitt Romney derided.

According to Forbes.com, “Considering all American households, including those that owed income tax, 62 percent paid more in payroll taxes than in federal income taxes.”

So the truth is that 47 percent do pay taxes. Some pay state income tax. They pay state and local sales tax, property taxes, utility taxes and taxes on gas, alcohol or tobacco.

Just because someone is on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, goes to a VA hospital or uses government money to go to school doesn’t mean they’re victims or don’t take responsibility for their lives.

How out of touch can he be? Even Mitt Romney’s own father, before he became a millionaire, was on welfare.

We shouldn’t begrudge Mitt Romney his fortuitous upbringing or discount his hard work with Bain Capital. But for all of his charges of class warfare, the tape makes it clear that he’s the one trafficking in it.

If one word could be used to describe President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush, it would have to be ”polarizing.” Both of them spoke about changing the tone in Washington. What happens if we get a president who upfront has written off half the American people as dependent freeloaders who won’t take responsibility for their lives? How will we ever come together to solve the big problems facing us?

Maya Angelou famously said, “The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Mitt Romney has told you exactly who he is. Do you believe him? Peace.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: I know when I've struck a nerve with a column. I can tell by the mail I receive.  That's how you can tell when something has drawn blood. Rush Limbaugh is saying the tape is a great opportunity for Romney. Well, it's obvious most of his supporters don't believe that. And what's funny to me is listening to people trying to clarify and explain Mitt Romney's remarks. I DON'T NEED YOU TO DO THAT. Mitt speaks English surprisingly well. I don't need your interpretation. I can listen to the words the man said.

I don't know who is going to be elected President in November. But I do know that President will face the most divided country since the Civil War. If the President wins, his haters are going to be incensed. Congress will be as intransigent as ever. If Mitt Romney wins, the left will be angry. And half of the country will face a President who openly disdains them. You'll find Mitt Romney receiving the kind of disrespectful welcome Barack Obama received as the country circles the drain.

We suspected Mitt Romney believed these things. We suspected he was arrogant like William Kristol said. We suspected he was like Thurston Howell like conservative commentator David Brooks referred to him as. What he said during that fundraiser is pretty much what he said after going to the NAACP. The next night he spoke of people wanting "free stuff" from the government. We also heard Mitt Romney joke that it would be easier for him if hew were Latino. Romney confirms what most people probably believed about him anyway. He's revealed himself.

You can pretend you don't see him. You can still support him because your beliefs are more in line with his than with the President's. But you can't say you don't know who you're getting.