(if this isn't the full video of his remarks please do let me know. This is what I could find.)
As a lower middle-class citizen I have only had to pay federal income taxes at tax time once during my lifetime. If you take a look at the main idea that Romney conveyed I totally agree with it. If a person is government dependent and you have a politician who is going to enable that mode of thinking and even encourage it then the person is most likely going to support that politician. But there are people in an in-between status who aren't on government assistance but are struggling to makes ends meet or to meet their bills month-to-month and that's the category that I'm in. This can be due to lack of skills, lack of education, lack of opportunity, lack of education, lack of employment available, credit issues which sometimes jobs base their hiring, high rate of college tuition payment, or even because of health problems. All I am saying is that there is a good number of citizens out there who don't receive government assistance and who are struggling to meet their bills each month. We need to make the case to these people that high taxes is in fact going to hurt them, not help them. We need to explain to them sound fiscal economics and that the financial pie is not limited to a certain amount of growth but can grow by leaps and bounds. If the correct economic policies - the policies which were instituted during Reagan - are put into place each person can help to make their own destiny.
Every person has a chance to change their situation for the better. Citizens do not have to be stuck in a rut. Citizens do not have to be dependent on the government. We just need to show them a way out. My husband is in the midst of trying something new which I hope benefits us financially. I have dealt with so many health problems over the years that I've either had to work retail, fast food, or my low paying landscaping job. And when I was given the chance to work in a doctor's office by my ophthalmologist back in Maryland office politics or jealousy by the office ladies got involved. I knew computers, copiers, fax machines but didn't know the insurance programs or some other medical office procedures but was willing to learn. The owner (the doctor) of the practice gave me a chance or tried to but others weren't so willing. He gave me a chance but the office ladies weren't happy that he went over their head and actually made a staff decision. He was willing to train me, even to send me away to take a class but the office ladies weren't willing to go along with his plan. They lied and said that I wasn't learning the office procedures. I know that I was. A couple of the medical staff couldn't understand what the office staff's problem was, they said that I was doing just fine for only being there a month. So, after a month I was let go. Believe me I let my doctor know how I felt that I was wronged. I just had a hysterectomy because of having severe endometriosis and issues surrounding that disease. I have dealing with issues related to endo for over 16 years. But now I can begin anew and am planning on taking courses starting in the spring of 2013 to become a medical assistant. I love working with people and have been interested in the medical field for quite awhile. This will also help to better my finances. I also have other ideas for hobbies or side jobs which will hopefully better my income as well.
I heard the percentage of people who are on food stamps, Medicaid or some type of government program is 33% (not sure where I heard this or whether the number is accurate). So IMO that number would have been more appropriate for Mitt to refer to.
Is it true that citizens on government programs don't pay income taxes? While looking through information on Medicaid I didn't see any mention of them paying taxes on this so I'm guessing that those on Welfare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Disability don't pay federal income taxes. Those on Social Security may or may not pay federal income taxes on their income. It depends on the person's or couple's income. But for purposes of simplicity I'll just use the 33% number for those people on government assistance who don't pay federal income taxes.
This chart is from 2010:
Government Assistance Expands:
More than one in three Americans lived in households that received Medicaid, food stamps or other means-based government assistance in mid-2010, according to a new report.
And when Social Security, Medicare and unemployment benefits are included, nearly half of the nation lived in a household that received a government check, according to the analysis of third-quarter 2010 Census data done by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a libertarian-leaning think tank. That's more than 148 million Americans.
Those numbers are on their way up thanks to the Great Recession and its aftermath, which have pushed record numbers of people onto public assistance programs. In particular, the stubbornly high unemployment rate has left millions of Americans in dire straits.
In 2008, one-quarter of people lived in households receiving a government lifeline and about 45 percent a government check, according to the Census Bureau.
The nation's safety net has become fodder for the 2012 election. Republican presidential candidates have accused President Obama and his party of turning America into an entitlement nation.
The federal government sent a record $2 trillion to individuals in fiscal 2010, up nearly 75% from 10 years earlier.
The first sentence would indicate that my 33% number is right on the money.
Should Romney write off the 47%? No. I am not saying that these people should be his primary focus for getting votes but many of these people are really struggling and see Obama as not doing enough for them or having abandoned them. This is a time when we need to reach out to these people, those people who are willing to listen, and explain to them conservative principles and give them some of the historical background of the United States. It is a high probability that these people haven't been taught the Constitution or the Founding of our country nor about the idea(s) that the United States of America was founded on.
10 comments:
I realize that some people actually need federal assistance through no fault of their own. For example, often elderly folks enter a nursing home as paying customers, but if they live long enough (about 2 years), all their assets are exhausted. What are we to do with people like that? My mother-in-law, in the last stage of Alzheimer's, is one such individual; unfortunately, her condition is so dire that none of us can take care of her now.
The above said, the fraud involved in Social Security Disability and Medicaid is surreal. Drug dealers on taxpayer-paid-for scooters run all over the place in D.C. and sell drugs! WTH!
You make a fantastic point, Teresa. There are a LOT of people who are struggling (yes, in part because of the Obama economy, but even before that made it worse for everyone), and a lot of those people, we people--I'm one, too--are conservatives. We do need to reach out and help everyone understand that socialism/communism will not "solve" anyone's economic problems, that it will only make them worse until we are all living in abject poverty. Eventually--and not that far off off-- all of the people dragged into government dependence will find that gone . . . we WILL run out of other people's money, and then what becomes of everyone who is thoroughly dependent on government support of some kind?
Another thing that you touch on that is important is that conservatives DO, for the most part and excepting only really died-in-the-wool libertarians, support a safety net for people who need it. The trouble, as we all know, is that the safety net is becoming a lifestyle, a "career" choice that has become a generational trap. This is what leftist policies do, they keep the poor poor and make the formerly-middle class poor, too. People who are not making a lot of money are still paying for those who make none at all. That's where we find ourselves dragged down into the dependency trap.
Also, the system that we have is set up to encourage dependence, and yes, that means that for many many people, including conservatives, there is no other choice but to accept government assistance. What senior doesn't take social security? What person who gets laid off doesn't take unemployment? What person who has no other option because our culture and society have pretty much stripped other options away doesn't take welfare or food stamps if they need them to feed their family and pay their bills? We've become a society in which even our churches are strapped for cash and people who will help, through no fault of their own--it's the war on American culture that has been raging for decades. People are more and more thinking "I pay my taxes, the poor and needy are being taken care of by the government; I did my part." Heck, these days people turn their backs on family members who struggle! As our society disintegrates and government becomes the only option for people, people are bound to turn to it. We know this, that's how we got into this mess. But there is no shame in living in the culture and society that we have and still wanting to change it to make it less government-centered and more people-centered.
And there is certainly no hypocrisy in it. We do not have a limited government, we have a behemoth one that entraps and affects every American's life whether we like it or not. We can and will change that, but it will take time, patience, and dedication. It will also take a lot of hard work and some hard times, harder times, for many of us.
@Fuzzy - I consider myself a 'dyed in the wool Libertarian', though I am not against any assistance whatsoever, just most of it...and for precisely the reason you bring up. Entitlement programs always morph into a perceived right.
These programs are used by politicians to gain voting blocs and ultimately imprison the recipients into the paradigm of not only expecting assistance with nearly no reciprocity. And neither major party puts any tangible effort into restricting or stopping it, talking points aside.
Constitutional Insurgent,
Entitlement programs always morph into a perceived right.
No doubt. The exploitation by all sides is surreal.
Mitt should only write off the part of that 47% that likes it there.
Stats have shown that conservatives are far more generous to others than the left. Instead we are depicted as heartless and mean spirited. For our nation to survive, folks at least have to try and put an oar in the water.
I have absolutely no problem with those that truly need government assistance. I have two friends that are blind, but work, however, they are on medicare and they need it.
Or those that are totally and completely disabled.
But I hate seeing healthy people, that are just plain lazy, living off tax dollars. That's not acceptable. And it needs to stop.
It's been almost years since Obama became president and NO, I’m NOT better off than I was 4 years ago. I m makng less than I was then, My home value has fallen since then, and my wife is out of work. But I’d bet that Barrack and Michelle are a lot better now than they were then.
Look, here’s the story. I'm just sick and tired of our side taking the "High Road" and being Mr. Nice Guy. That path only takes us to defeat.
For example, Romney keeps talking about how Obama is really a “nice guy” who just doesn’t understand how the economy works because he has no private-sector experience.. NO Mr. Romney,
1) he is not a "Nice" guy.
2) if he keeps saying things like that then HE don't know how politics works!
Romney has to go on the attack and not play Mr. nice guy.he won’t win that way
He must speak about the Embassy attack, and in Biden’s “chains” comment , and on the failing economy, entitlement spending and on how Obama is dividing us.
Obama never been a "nice guy". He's been a liar, fraud, and a racist, a communist, conman, and tyrant, but never a nice. guy..
Politics can be an ugly game. Unfortunately, taking the high road doesn't win as many elections as getting down and getting on the attack.
Obama and his team of tyrants including Harry Reid has essentially called Romney a murderer, and a crook, and a felon,, Is taking the High Road going to negate that?
Reid, Pelosi, Axelrod and especially Obama are the most vicious, dirty, lying , stealing, thieving, thugs, and tin-horn Dictators that have ever existed in American Politics. You have to fight these people with everything you have,
with this Embassy cover-up and with Fast and Furious to start. That’s how you deal with thugs like them. If Romney makes this campaign purely about who's a better person....he loses. Period!
You're right, the message to them should be - if you want to remain on welfare and bequeath that to your children as well, then vote for obama. Otherwise if you want a chance, for government to get out of your way and leave you alone to work and keep what you worked for, then vote for Romney.
That should be it in a nutshell.
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