It's often hard to predict how political revelations will affect the public discourse, or in many cases, won't. Sure, I'm inclined to think it's a big deal that Mitt Romney sees nearly half the country as lazy parasites, but will others perceive it the same way?
It's why David Brooks' latest New York Times column is especially interesting.
[Romney's perspective at that recorded fundraiser] suggests that he really doesn't know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?
It suggests that Romney doesn't know much about the culture of America. Yes, the entitlement state has expanded, but America remains one of the hardest-working nations on earth. Americans work longer hours than just about anyone else. Americans believe in work more than almost any other people. Ninety-two percent say that hard work is the key to success, according to a 2009 Pew Research Survey.
Brooks goes further, contrasting Romney's vision with the political culture, the social compact, and Americans' "ambition and motivation." Romney's remarks, the column concludes "is a country-club fantasy. It's what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. It reinforces every negative view people have about Romney."
I'm not suggesting voters everywhere will recoil because of David Brooks' column, but Brooks will help shape the media's understanding of the controversy, and to put it mildly, he paints an unflattering portrait of the Republican candidate.
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I guess the best quote of the day would go to Michelle Obama.
"Politics don't make you who you are, they reveal who you are."
Indeed, and politics reveals that the entitlement society has arrived. As some wag put it... Give a liberal a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a liberal to fish and you’ll get called an a-hole for not giving him another fish, every single day for the rest of his life.
Now, you all can certainly keep the view central authority and dependency are a good thing. But at some point, the people who actually produce the economic wealth you're used to, will go elsewhere.
Oh, right, they have. Oh well.
PS. Why haven't you people contributed to the bleg today? You're doing Romney a great thing and proving him right... 'Obama voters are freeloaders.'
Sorry, wrong blog.
"Teach a man to fish and he will eat for life. Society is built on an individual responsibility and access to opportunity.
A Republican will then slash fishing education, vilify teachers, reward corporate fisheries, gut regulations on protecting the fishing industry, all the while whining that teaching a man how to fish is socialism."
Hey Blanks before you crow too loudly, consider that unless you are independently wealthy (think: Oprah, Buffet, Bill Gates) you too are part of that 47%! If you are on SS, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, VA, have a child eligible for S-Chip program - you too are a leech! And what's worse you're so blinded by your hatred that you don't even recognize that you too are part of his problem!
Sucker!
Zero, do you really think all taxpayers are independently wealthy? What is the matter with you? And no, I'm not getting any Federal dollars. I'm actually paying for yours. Say "thank you".
Give a Republican a fish and he'll think he learned how to fish. Teach him to fish and he'll call you socialist.
JD, you should have put a "Free" in front of that sentence. Sadly this isn't the liberal/progressive belief. Central authority and dependency is the zeitgiest of the day.
"For what it’s worth, this division of “makers” and “takers” isn’t true. Among the Americans who paid no federal income taxes in 2011, 61 percent paid payroll taxes — which means they have jobs and, when you account for both sides of the payroll tax, they paid 15.3 percent of their income in taxes, which is higher than the 13.9 percent that Romney paid. Another 22 percent were elderly.
So 83 percent of those not paying federal income taxes are either working and paying payroll taxes or they’re elderly and Romney is promising to protect their benefits because they’ve earned them."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/17/romneys-theory-of-the-taker-class-and-why-it-matters/
Learn a little something before correcting someone else's posts and/or spewing right wing idiocies.
Shooter is that all you have to do,sit around all day and think of some snide remark's to print here?Romney has proven time and time again he is not ready to run this nation.He has surrounded himself with left over Bush advisor's that spent money like there was no tommorow.Yes the Pres has spent money but he has to, he's still paying off Bush's debt.The great tax giveaway,the two war's the prescription drug bill,to name a few, all unpaid for.And yes shooter I still blame Bush for the country's woes,myself and 56%of the people.You consertive's have the same old talking point's that all liberal's are on the dole.You ca'nt see the forest because the tree's get in the way.
Your man Romney think's that people who make 250k are the middle class,that's how far out of touch he is with the real middle America.It took me almost 10 yrs.to make that much money when I worked in manufacturing.All of us could'nt attend college because we could'nt afford it or are not quite as smart as you think you are.We did'nt have wealthy parent's that could pay our way through college or help us start a business.But Romney seem's to think everyone is well off, enough to send their kid's to college or give them money to start a business,because he can and did.He say's that he will create good paying job's?How much does a retail clerk at Staple's or Sport's Authority make?So I am going to continue being a dreg of society as you think all us liberal's are and cast my vote for Obama.
Don't worry Blankman is probably a leech, and if he does "work" it's surely only part time to supplement his SS. No Blankman, I don't owe you anything, I do work....It really is too bad that you've swallowed the kool-aid that let's you believe Robme/Ryan won't be screwing you over also!
Sorry JD, however you characterize the 47% they still aren't contributing even a penny to the Federal system. Not one lousy penny. Even if we're talking about elderly SS recipients, the people of today are paying for them. Today, payroll taxes don't cover the bills and income tax payers make up the difference. How many of those contributing to payroll taxes get that back via free cash? The IRS can't tell you.
Klein brings up a salient point however. The Bush/Obama tax cuts. It's true they exempt quite a few people. If taxes get hiked I prefer to see all the Clinton rates, how about you?
Wrong, wrong wrong. 6 out of 10 of those people pay witholding taxes.
The division between payroll tax and income tax is artificial. Essentially the employee portion of the payroll tax is simply the baseline tax they are paying. It all spends the same.
In the real world, those who pay payroll tax and don't pay income tax DO contribute lots of pennies to the federal coffers. Yes, a few do get income tax credits. But not the majority of this 47%.
Who doesn't pay payroll tax? People who don't cash a paycheck. Like seniors. And Mitt Romney.
Throwing seniors in with others who recieve "entitlements" is a stupid move for Romney, regardless. Fewer of those seniors will vote for him now than before this video surfaced.
Shooter, you are wasting your time here, you have so much more potential, I don't think you should make being a troll your purpose in life, your purpose should be to find out all there is to know about everything, and then report back to us.
Shooter . . . The "47%" are often paying plenty of taxes. State income taxes (in our state, lots of people who have zero federal tax liability still end up with a tax liability to the state), local property taxes if they're homeowners, sales taxes in most states, and gas taxes. Not to mention the payroll taxes (including the unemployment taxes and workman's compensation assessments that are part of their real compensation).
Those add up to plenty, especially for people not making much money.
I pay a boat load of taxes, including federal income taxes that are comfortably into five figures. I'm thankful that I have the income to do so. You should be, too.
You know, if people just added Shooter to their ignore lists, the comments would be a lot easier to read through without all the replies to that one little useless pimple of a person. He's an emotional parasite. He exists because people react to him. Just cut off his food supply, guys/gals/others.
If the Republican candidate has lost David Brooks, he has simply lost.
I watch Brooks (and Shields) every Friday on PBS, and saw David squirming during the convention coverage, trying to salvage some silver lining for conservatives.
And I say "conservatives" because although I'm sure David is a Republican, most of the current GOP/Tea Party denounce him as a traitor to their cause. And that was well before this current kerkuffle.
I don't agree with most of what David Brooks says. But I believe he is a principled man and a fiscal conservative. There is a limit to what he will say or write in defense of this candidate. I believe what I heard during the convention was his last attempt to cover for this guy. And that's a good thing.
Brooks is a conservative, the "movment" is not conservatives, they have stolen the name because "far right fascist revolutionary" doesn't sell many tickets in
America, not even to the Teaturds.
It's like a German friend of mine who lived through the "bad times" said: "The Nazis didn't elect Hitler, the conservatives did, because they thought he was one of them when he told them he was; too late they discovered he lied."
Oh ...
One of those principled folks that create , like those thrilling Stephen R Glass novelizations about news as the news .
Okay , got it .
Mike and TCinLA- You are right. My dad says much the same thing all the time: that the Tea Party is not a Conservative movement, and nor is "movement conservatism."
I am so happy today, did I mention that?
David Brooks on PBS during the conventions... didn't anybody notice how much he was struggling?
It's difficult to be part of today's conservative movement while still having a conscience.
Yikes! After posting, I see MikeinMicheigan was thinking the exact same thing. LOL
I am waiting for Friday when he and E.J. Dionne discuss the week political events on All Things Considered on NPR.
Unlike David Brooks, I do not think Mitt Romney is basically a nice man! What was it Rick Santorum said about Barack Obama? Something about being snooty? Well he certainly had the wrong candidate!
It definitely didn't sound like he was pretending in that video. It finally sounded real.
Brooks will come back and vote R in the end. It is spasms like this that keep liberals liking him, allowing Brooks to do far more damage in the end.
It's too bad somebody didn't beat the crap out of the entitled little dickwad the day he decided to become a "bully barber."
Speaking as a close observer of said violence from the start , no it never helps .
It feels good to say crazy things if it helps get the point across though .
Brooks will change his mind as soon as he thinks of a clever way to word it. And people will once again commend him for being the last remaining moderate. Baloney! He bends over backward to defend conservative ideology, and occasionally feels the need to seem "even-handed". This is not a case of a broken clock being right twice a day. It is a case of sophisticated concern trolling.
It is a case of sophisticated concern trolling
FTW! You can't mend a broken record, a scratched CD or in this day and age, a corrupted AAC/MP3. Brooks is certainly a corrupted file.
Let's all gather together - join hands and sing that once popular song - "I Want To Be An Americano!" You got our backs there, Uncle Sam/Mitt?
Rove:
Karl Rove in 2008 about Obama. Hilarious.
And they say that Rove's expensive wing of the right wing is all about projection , well that'll show 'em !
Brooks: "Personally, I think he’s a kind, decent man who says stupid things because he is pretending to be something he is not — some sort of cartoonish government-hater. But it scarcely matters. He’s running a depressingly inept presidential campaign. Mr. Romney, your entitlement reform ideas are essential, but when will the incompetence stop?"
Dave still really wishes FUBARRomney could just get his act together and pull this off. The more FUBARRomney displays of his true character, the less kind and decent he shows himself to be. What aspects of his entitlement reforms are essential? Brooks is far more concerned about the incompetence than the hollow darkness that is FUBARRomney's character.
FUBARRomney's regret is delivery, not the substance of what he said.
Can there be any doubt at all that if the polling reversed right now with no other changes in behaviour or comment by FUBARRomney, that Brooks would be smuggly smirking and pontificating about the fundamental correctness of the r worldview, even if the messenger was a bit of a klutz?
Screw David Brooks and screw FUBARRomney. They're two peas in a pod.
Brooks:
Isn't that essentially the same criticism that the GOP constantly levels at Obama?
David Brooks is a rarity a conservative who is able to admit shortcomings in the right wing message. He is one of the clearest minded articulate political pundits even if I do not agree with him on many things. It must be hard to be intelligent and have to try to explain the agenda of the current right wing.
Is this class warfare or clasessless warfare?
Obama 2012
Romney 1040
Ouch
Couple points to drive this home to Brooks.
First, 6 heirs to the Wal-Mart empire have wealth that equals the bottom 30% of the *entire country*.
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/08/the_insane_wealth_of_walmarts_founding_family/
Second, Wal-Mart pays at or just above the minimum wage for its line workers (of course the CEO gets $9,000 per hour).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcus-edgerson/walmart-worker-speaks-out_b_1734556.html
Third, at that wage rate and with earned income tax credits plus standard deductions, these line workers are part of the 47%.
Fourth, the federal income taxable status of these low wage workers is, in large part, a product of Republican policies under Reagan and the Bushes that were proposed, in part, to strike a deal with Democrats for upper income tax cuts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/17/romneys-theory-of-the-taker-class-and-why-it-matters/
Fifth, the payroll tax is 15.3% when you count both the employer and employee pieces (which you should if you believe in efficient markets as the employer part is paid for in large part by lowering employee wages to compensate) for workers earning under the $110,000 cap.
Sixth, these low wage employees are paying more, on a percentage basis, to the U.S. treasury than Romney did in 2010 (13.9%) and more than the Wal-Mart heirs pay on their dividends and capital gains (15%).
Seventh, the Wal-Mart heirs are major donors to Republican Super PACs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/us/politics/super-pac-role-grows-for-republican-campaigns.html?pagewanted=all
So, I wonder, who are the real makers vs. takers? Which are really taking personal responsibility for their lives?
Those working hard at minimum wage level jobs with few benefits and little chance for full-time benefits or wage increases that pay no income tax but do pay 15.3% in payroll taxes
or
those who live off the dividends and/or capital gains, on which they may pay 15% in taxes, which are harvested from the labor of those they consider not their job to worry about?
WOW, As a 26 year vet (disabled) and still working I took personal offense. The them and us is clear and apparent. I would have been less offended if he referred to us as minions.
It's clear that the GOP has a grand plan and we are not a part of it. He will never be the leader POTUS is and he makes his flaws look good.
We must recognize that the entitlement programs are growing. Why? And how can we stop it. The sad thing is that the government has set up a system where it is easier to stay home and do nothing than go to work for minimum wage. There is too much money given. If you can get enough to live on by not working and receiving benefits, or get enough to live on by working, which would you do? That is where we are today. Many people prefer to stay home. The government needs to make it more painful to choose to stay home. Naturally there are those who are disabled, are on SS etc, that things should not change. We are so close to 1/2 of the people living off of the government, that when that balance tips, who will pay the bills. I am for huge changes in the entitlement programs so that it will be there for those who truly need it. And people are bilking the system. On a regular basis, we hear and see reports on people cheating the system, and the government doesn't seem too concerned. When you hear them say, "Well, that amounts to only $126,000,0000" or whatever. Every time you hear that, when you add up hundreds of that amount over the broad spectrum of government, it adds up to a lot. That is why we need a business CEO in the White House for awhile to clean up the fraud and waste. Not a community organizer whose sole purpose before he entered the White House was to see what government monies he could get to spread out over the community. I don't understand the mentality of the people who think that growing entitlements is a good idea. The money has to come from somewhere! Who will be left to work and pay the taxes? There are jobs everywhere that people are not willing to take. It should be required that an able bodied person should have to go fill one of those jobs and then the government would also supply food stamps or something as an additional supplement if needed, but they should work. Every dollar that the government spends should be justified and accounted for. The accountability in government is non existent. Perhaps a business person could get things straightened out! It isn't happening with the person in charge now. He spends like there is no tomorrow.
Here's link to help you with all that:
http://tinyurl.com/9prrl6z
A study released by the University of Arkansas found that lazy thinking (i.e. failure to question what you're reading/viewing) leads to conservative ideology. Perhaps this explains why the Romney/Ryan campaign feels it can tell the most obvious lies and totally avoid the consequences? ("We're not going to have our campaign dictated by the fact checkers!")
http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2012/04/think-less-and-become-more-conservative.html
Um, I don't know but the millionaires, billionaires and corporations haven't really been paying their share as far as I am concerned. And your particular "business person" is a hot mess. I wouldn't let him manage my lunch money.
(sarcasm alert!)
But he is an Ideologically Sound hot mess and that's all that matters!
I am so confused as to who to vote for !! all the negativity in the campaign.. It takes all the fun out ! Should i vote for obama ? or romney ? or ron paul ? or opra ,or Donald Trump ??? Why can't we all just get along republicans and democrats to solve the nation's problems ? Congress went home for two months paid vacation to run the negative campaigns..... How much longer do the american people have to listen to the rhetoric ? It's all over Fox,MSNBC,CNN and many others, hell the news papers are also polluted with this stuff. Help the poor feed the hungry just don't hurt my ears with negativity. Peace to everyone !! I promise to pay more taxes to who ever is elected just so long as it isn't wasted !! Help your neighbor but watch thy neighborhood !!
It sure looks like Obama is gaining distance from romney and it appears the republicans are worried .just look how Romney in a panic got on T.V. at 10pm to give his pretentious presidential speach ?? He doesn't appear ready to lead... I guess we should stick with what works huh? Obama seems to be more presidential....
Really, If Romney was to treat the 47% equally the same as the wealthy elites he addressed in the presentation caught on tape i suppose it would be acceptable , However he threw Hard Working Americans under the bus as a promise to his election if elected which I certainly doubt he will make it. I was going to vote for mitt a couple weeks ago,but after last night i have considered changing my mind , in fear he will raise taxes on the hard working americans and lower taxes on people who make allot of money as a favor..... Karl Rove and other contributors have been exposed for the ties to Romney on MSNBC last night, WOW how crooked fox is , that isn't "Fair & Balanced" that's one sided. Tell OReilly he is a hippocrit reporter and to stop acclaiming balance reporting, he's just plain wrong !! What the heck happened to fox??? Bought by wealthy ???
Romney may be clever but, you actually need some intellegience to lead a Nation, not to mention integrity. Clever may help you to rig voting and bamboozle people, or buy Fox news. But, getting out of this race would be the smartest thing he could ever do.