Wow!. Tough to know where to start. I actually had a new job yesterday-which is good. However, it's amazing how quickly all Hell breaks loose when I take a few hours off.
Turns out we learn a lot more about what Romney really thinks when he's talking to his rich friends than when he's addressing the country.
What we learned is that yes, this is an election in his mind between the "takers" and the "makers." That we didn't build that, but he and his rich friends did.
"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney says in one clip. "All right -- there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing."
"[M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives," Romney also said in the video, according to Mother Jones.
As for the other 53 percent? Romney may have been referencing a meme started by conservative blogger Erick Erickson, who has noted that only 53 percent of Americans pay federal income taxes. Erickson argued that the rest of the country, and in particular the Occupy Wall Street movement, should "suck it up you whiners."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/17/mitt-romney-video_n_1829455.html
What I don't get though is this. What's he have against people who don't pay taxes? After all we know he himself paid very little in the one year he has given us-2010, though even this was incomplete.
Though he insists that he has never had a year in which he paid no taxes, we have nothing but his word. For all we know he's part of the 47%.
Again, there's so much in this video. This talk of 47% of Americans not paying income taxes ignores that they pay lots of payroll,, state, and consumption taxes. So while he claims low taxes don't matter to them, he's wrong: let's talk about cutting the payroll tax and you might see some takers.
Then there's this whole pejorative slur about "47% are dependent on government." How exactly does he define this? Not bring up the whole "you didn't build that" line again-though he did manage to build an entire convention on something that was never said-"we didn't build that" from "he never said that."
In truth all of us are dependent on government. That's just reality. How much this is so shows in s short strike like they're having in Chicago right now. If everything that is part of government was simply suspended tomorrow this would be clear.
The really frustrating part of all this talk about government dependency and welfare is that it's all an urban legend. Who is actually dependent on government? True many are now on food stamps. Yet, the $160 recipients get from it in a month hardly can be said to keep them alive by itself. Unemployment and Medicare are really not "welfare" though folks like Romney usually obscure the difference.
In places like Germany and France there really are those who are dependent on government. However, in our country, what little welfare state we ever had has long since been gutted.
In the video itself Romney actually had to stop himself after saying '47% are, 48, 49..." he was still going and had to stop himself as he couldn't say 50 or then he'd be saying that there's no way he can win the election.
It's interesting to get confirmation of what always clearly was his attitude. Yet, I don't know what he has against those who pay no income taxes as he himself pays next to nothing-and for all we know may have payed nothing a few of those years.
GE made news when it paid no income tax. So is GE part of the 47%?
What we have learned is that he's not bad at experssing empathy, he just doens't have any.
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