Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The 47%

The Republican presidential nominee has stated the 47% of Americans who do not pay income taxes are moochers and who feel that they are entitled to food, shelter, and medical care.
Who are these "moochers"? Well, according to the The Tax Policy Center , nearly half are senior citizens. These seniors, according to Romney feel entitled to the social security they paid into all those years they were working. One third of those "moochers" are the working poor who make less than $20,000 a year.
Mitt Romney has stated that his job as president is not to worry about those people.
I can only marvel at the crassness and obliviousness of Romney. I think the image below says it all:
Romney, by his own words, considers the elderly, disabled veterans, the working poor, and children living in poverty to be "moochers".
Like many other Americans in this economy, I teeter on the edges of being part of that 47%. Many years ago, I was part of that 47%. It was the safety net of a Pell grant, subsidized housing, the earned income credit, and the child care credit that enabled me to become a income tax paying citizen.
Past presidents like FDR, JFK, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and yes, even George W. Bush did care about the 47%. President Obama likes the moniker of Obamacare, because as he said, he does care.
A nation's greatness is reflected in how its most vulnerable citizens are treated. A nation cannot progress if people are starving. A nation cannot progress if laws are unjust and onerous. A nation cannot progress if people lack shelter. A nation cannot progress if people lack education. A nation cannot progress if disabled veterans do not receive the care they need.
Romney is not a leader. He knows how to game the system and has made millions upon millions on the backs of American taxpayers while all the while outsourcing American jobs overseas. Romney and his company, Bain, are directly responsible for many of those who find themselves as part of the 47%:
Romney is—you know, the old-school industrialists, like Mitt Romney’s father, they were men and women who built communities. They had factory towns. They were very anxious to leave, you know, hard legacies that people could see: hospitals, churches, schools—you know, the Hersheys of the world, the Kelloggs. But these new owners have absolutely no allegiance to American workers, American places, American communities. Their only allegiance is to the investors and to themselves. And so, it’s not at all uncharacteristic to have these situations where people are pleading for their jobs or they’re saying, you know, "We’ll tighten our belts, if you just make this concession and keep us." That’s irrelevant to the Mitt Romney-slash-Bain Capital-slash-Carlyle Groups of the world. They’re entirely about making profits. And if that means shipping jobs to China or eliminating jobs, that’s what they’re going to do. And that’s the new generation of corporate owners in this country.
Romney has no real investment in America. His true vision is profits. He's an opportunist who doesn't create any tangible wealth. What will he do with the United States if he is elected president?