Privileged life yields lack of comprehension
Mitt Romney’s “secret” comments caught on tape at a private event for VIP donors illustrate his blatant lack of presidential fortitude, as if this wasn’t already apparent. In the tape, Romney claims, “There are 47 percent who are with him (Obama), who are dependent upon government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them.” He goes on to say “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
For Mr. Romney, who was fed from a silver spoon from the day he was born, and now resides in an Ivory Tower built on a foundation of hundreds of millions of dollars of personal wealth, poverty is an alien concept. How can it be, Romney must wonder, that some people weren’t born into rich families that groomed them to be millionaires? Why does anyone live in poverty at all? Why aren’t they just rich like me? These are questions that will keep our future president up at night if the Romney-Ryan tandem lies, twists and deceives its way into the White House.
I feel it unnecessary to even rebut the facticity of Mr. Romney’s comments, being that they are shamelessly false and doing so would indicate that they are even worthy of a response, which they are not. I do, however, realize that a significant portion of the population, and certainly young Republicans right here on campus, feel galvanized by this call to arms against the poor. For this portion of the electorate, who identify with Romney not because of his conservative credentials, (which he suspiciously obtained after exiting the Massachusetts political arena) but because he represents the alternative to our “food stamp president,” as Newt Gingrich so eloquently put it, I will explain why these comments are false in hopes that they will reject divisive political tactics in the future, no matter who employs them.
The 47 percent figure Romney refers to is simply the number of Americans who are not financially capable of paying federal income taxes (though that number is actually 46 percent, no matter, anything under 50 suits Romney’s needs). When payroll taxes are factored into the equation, that number drops sharply to about 18 percent. For Romney though, the 47 percent who can’t pay federal income taxes are essentially worthless. He forgets that, included in that 47 percent, are veterans and elderly citizens, many of whom are conservative, and fellow fat-cat investors like himself who are masters at avoiding taxes.
These comments paint the poor with a very thick brush, wielded by a very hypocritical man, who stores much of his vast wealth overseas to avoid taxation himself. If Romney’s conclusion, that nearly half of Americans are worthless, sounds immoral, let your voice be heard at the polls on Nov. 6. A decisive defeat will ensure Mr. Romney more time to count his money over the next four years.
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