We're all taxpayers: Mitt Romney and the myth of the 47 percent (Susan J. Demas) - mlive.com
We're all taxpayers: Mitt Romney and the myth of the 47 percent (Susan J. Demas)
Mitt Romney on the 47 percent
he says don't pay taxes.
Mitt Romney really is the haughty hot girl in high school who would sneer, "Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful."
AP File PhotoMitt Romney
He knows we're all looking at him. (How can we not? He does have really great hair).
As he keeps reminding us, the economy is still shaky after the Great Recession, with unemployment on the rise. And here he is with a massive estimated fortune of $250 million.
But, hey, he can't help the fact that he's just so darn rich. Actually, he can. It's because Mitt Romney is a brilliant, hardworking, God-fearing soul, who deserves every dime in his (Swiss) bank account.
I know this, because like Mitt Romney's even dreamier running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), I, too, have read Ayn Rand.
One day you can achieve that, too, champ, if you're as awesome as Mitt Romney.
Hey, it helps if you can
live off of your family stock options
during your college salad days. But we don't talk about natural advantages folks have, like Donald Trump getting startup millions from his daddy. That's socialist talk.
We all know that Mitt would have founded Bain Capital even if he grew up living in a Volkswagen just because of his sheer drive, determination and intelligence.
Anyway, Mitt Romney knows you look up to him. Guys want to be him. Girls want to be with him. But the one thing he doesn't want you to do is resent him and his millions.
That would be class warfare.
But resentment is natural. Mitt Romney knows this. So he kindly suggests that you resent the 47 percent of freeloaders who don't pay federal income taxes.
Now, Mitt isn't naming names, but come on. That lazy Detroit welfare queen has been mooching off the system for years, and obviously destroyed your shot at amassing your own quarter-billion fortune.
As Paul Ryan helpfully points out, there are
makers and there are takers
In Mitt Romney's world, that's not class warfare.
But it is the politics of resentment, trying to play on the fears of middle-class Americans,
who don't make $200,000 to $250,000, as Romney believes
. (That would actually put them in his tax bracket).
Now it's time for a quick reality check on the freeloading 47 percent. Conservative guru
-- who pushed for Sarah Palin to be on the '08 ticket -- points out that we're talking about your grandparents or soldiers serving overseas.
"It's worth recalling that a good chunk of the 47 percent who don't pay income taxes are Romney supporters—especially of course seniors (who might well "believe they are entitled to heath care," a position Romney agrees with), as well as many lower-income Americans (including men and women serving in the military) who think conservative policies are better for the country even if they're not getting a tax cut under the Romney plan," he writes in The Weekly Standard.
More than half of the 47 percent are elderly, as the
As for the non-elderly portion, most are poor -- but that doesn't mean they're unemployed. Thanks to income tax credits for children or the Earned Income Tax Credit, that can
wipe out their tax liability.
Most people still pay federal payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security. As the
Tax Policy Center reports,
only 18.1 percent of American households paid zero or negative federal income tax and zero or negative federal payroll tax in 2011.
But there's a bigger issue. As Republicans know, these taxes are just one piece of our oppressive tax system. So it's disingenuous to count federal income taxes and ignore all the rest.
There are state, property, city, county, township, business, utility, sin and sales taxes that we all have to contend with.
What does that mean? Simply put, if you buy stuff, you pay taxes.
Given the fact that there are very few of us who are hermits living alone in the woods with no electricity, gathering water from a nearby creek and growing our own food, we're pretty much all taxpayers.
for some reason, so we can get an up-close look at what it's like to be part of the upright 53 percent.
Then again, it's not like the Prom queen would ever reveal her beauty secrets. You've got to keep some of the mystery alive.
We're all taxpayers: Mitt Romney and the myth of the 47 percent (Susan J. Demas) - mlive.com
We're all taxpayers: Mitt Romney and the myth of the 47 percent (Susan J. Demas)
Mitt Romney on the 47 percent
he says don't pay taxes.
Mitt Romney really is the haughty hot girl in high school who would sneer, "Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful."
AP File PhotoMitt Romney
He knows we're all looking at him. (How can we not? He does have really great hair).
As he keeps reminding us, the economy is still shaky after the Great Recession, with unemployment on the rise. And here he is with a massive estimated fortune of $250 million.
But, hey, he can't help the fact that he's just so darn rich. Actually, he can. It's because Mitt Romney is a brilliant, hardworking, God-fearing soul, who deserves every dime in his (Swiss) bank account.
I know this, because like Mitt Romney's even dreamier running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), I, too, have read Ayn Rand.
One day you can achieve that, too, champ, if you're as awesome as Mitt Romney.
Hey, it helps if you can
live off of your family stock options
during your college salad days. But we don't talk about natural advantages folks have, like Donald Trump getting startup millions from his daddy. That's socialist talk.
We all know that Mitt would have founded Bain Capital even if he grew up living in a Volkswagen just because of his sheer drive, determination and intelligence.
Anyway, Mitt Romney knows you look up to him. Guys want to be him. Girls want to be with him. But the one thing he doesn't want you to do is resent him and his millions.
That would be class warfare.
But resentment is natural. Mitt Romney knows this. So he kindly suggests that you resent the 47 percent of freeloaders who don't pay federal income taxes.
Now, Mitt isn't naming names, but come on. That lazy Detroit welfare queen has been mooching off the system for years, and obviously destroyed your shot at amassing your own quarter-billion fortune.
As Paul Ryan helpfully points out, there are
makers and there are takers
In Mitt Romney's world, that's not class warfare.
But it is the politics of resentment, trying to play
 on the fears of middle-class Americans,
who don't make $200,000 to $250,000, as Romney believes
. (That would actually put them in his tax bracket).
Now it's time for a quick reality check on the freeloading 47 percent. Conservative guru
-- who pushed for Sarah Palin to be on the '08 ticket -- points out that we're talking about your grandparents or soldiers serving overseas.
"It's worth recalling that a good chunk of the 47 percent who don't pay income taxes are Romney supporters—especially of course seniors (who might well "believe they are entitled to heath care," a position Romney agrees with), as well as many lower-income Americans (including men and women serving in the military) who think conservative policies are better for the country even if they're not getting a tax cut under the Romney plan," he writes in The Weekly Standard.
More than half of the 47 percent are elderly, as the
As for the non-elderly portion, most are poor -- but that doesn't mean they're unemployed. Thanks to income tax credits for children or the Earned Income Tax Credit, that can
wipe out their tax liability.
Most people still pay federal payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security. As the
Tax Policy Center reports,
only 18.1 percent of American households paid zero or negative federal income tax and zero or negative federal payroll tax in 2011.
But there's a bigger issue. As Republicans know, these taxes are just one piece of our oppressive tax system. So it's disingenuous to count federal income taxes and ignore all the rest.
There are state, property, city, county, township, business, utility, sin and sales taxes that we all have to contend with.
What does that mean? Simply put, if you buy stuff, you pay taxes.
Given the fact that there are very few of us who are hermits living alone in the woods with no electricity, gathering water from a nearby creek and growing our own food, we're pretty much all taxpayers.
for some reason, so we can get an up-close look at what it's like to be part of the upright 53 percent.
Then again, it's not like the Prom queen would ever reveal her beauty secrets. You've got to keep some of the mystery alive.