Health & Fitness
Romney writes off Republican Voters Who Live in the South
Obama's lead over Romney in the swing states is widening. Obama is up 10% over Romney in a poll of Ohio's likely voters. The reason? Don't blame the campaign, Romney says. Blame him.
On CNN David Gergen commented regarding Mitt Romney's biggest gaffe of late ("the 47% of Americans who don't take personal responsibility for themselves"):
"It's bad enough when you realize you don't like a candidate. It's even worse when you realize the candidate doesn't like you."
My husband Jim and I burst out laughing.
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So if you're one of the 47% who pay no federal income tax, you don't take responsibility and care for yourself. Mitt Romney looks down on you. You're not only too poor to pay federal income tax, but it's your own fault because you're irresponsible and see yourself as a "victim"!
Of course, 61% of the 47% who pay no federal income taxes do pay payroll taxes. That means that they're the working poor. The working poor don't make a living wage. So after Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush gave them a tax break to make tax cuts for the rich more palatable, the working poor don't pay federal taxes on their meager income.
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The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Beginning in the early 1970s until present day, the minimum wage worker's purchasing power declined by 25%. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) says that real income has declined since 1968 to the point where workers making minimum wage now have 30% less purchasing power than they had then. So the minimum wage should be $10 an hour now to keep pace with inflation.
Years ago a Press-Citizen article said you have to make at least $12 an hour to live in Iowa City and make ends meet. Some say the minimum wage nationwide should be $12 an hour. A minimum wage of $7.25 is a long way from $10 or $12 an hour.
Twenty-two percent of the 47% who pay no federal income taxes are elderly. Are you irresponsible if you live on Social Security and pay no federal income taxes? Not if you paid into Social Security and Medicare for decades of your working life, and none of us have a choice on whether to pay or not.
Why do people call Social Security and Medicare an "entitlement" when most of us pay an extremely regressive tax for old-age benefits when we can least afford it? Income earned in 2012 will be taxed for Social Security up to $110,100 a year. Mitt Romney, who paid 13.9% of his $13.7 million in income, all of it from investments, in federal taxes, pays no more Social Security taxes on $14 million a year than someone earning $110,100 a year.
So what about the other 17% who pay no federal income taxes? Some are unemployed Iraq War and Afghanistan War veterans who can't find work and whose veterans' benefits haven't kicked in yet. Some are handicapped and can't work. Some are still fighting overseas. About 8 percent are either unemployed or full-time students or disabled, including military veterans.
"Corporations are people, my friend."
Do you know where most of the 47% who don't pay federal taxes reside? They live in red states in the South with the sole exception of Idaho. Many blue Democratic states like Connecticut pay far more money in federal taxes than the state receives back in benefits from the feds.
Mississippi takes in more federal money than it gives back in taxes. Mississippi always votes Republican and has since Texan Lyndon Johnson signed civil rights legislation in 1964 and said to an aide, "There goes the South."
So Romney was insulting his own electorate.
The most palatable characteristic of Romney so far is his recent refusal to blame his campaign for his sagging poll numbers.
When a reporter asked him if he blamed his campaign, he shook his head.
"It's not my campaign that's at fault," he said, smiling ruefully. "It's me."