Author Says We’re All Moochers

What seems to be missing or perhaps I am not listening well from this debate which is linked to Mitt Romney’s 47% speech to his wealthy friends is this: I am retired, I have been working since I was 15 1/2 years old without a break except for four years in the military. I retired in 2008. During all these years I have been paying into a retirement program called Social Security and for Medicare. What is really interesting concerning this debate, is that I still pay federal and state taxes in the State of Oregon contrary to what Mitt would lead one to believe. Furthermore, if I withdraw money from my retirement account, the federal government automatically deducts 20% percent. At the end of the year the net of my withdrawal is added to my retirement and taxed on this new total. This new total is the basis used  by the state of Oregon to determine my quarterly tax payments. Here is the clincher, my state and Federal tax percentages I pay is more than the tax rate of Mitt Romeny and his friends pay. Yet according to Mitt Romney and his wealthy friends I am a burden to society…..some sort of free loader, yet, if one works on Wall Street as a day trader, mortgage banker, or are some sort of hedge fund, one believes he or she should pay little or no taxes…… that they should be guarantee a full retirement with golden parachutes, even when they screw up, that they need more deregulation and more tax breaks so that they can somehow (a myth) create jobs in America (another Romney right wing myth). I also have experience with the welfare system. There are times when one needs a little social help from their government, especially when ones job has been eliminated by such schemes at Bain Capital whom have ruined your income and retirement in order to pay themselves millions. It is a Romney myth (one of hundreds) that welfare is some sort of job for the jobless whom refuse to work. The real truth of this debate is the wealthy do not want to pay a fair tax that reflects their wealth by promoting phony propaganda that the poor, they manipulate, are the cause of Americas financial problems. The real facts to the baseless Romney fiction is this, it was not some poor American Mexican, Polish, Black, Norwegian, Finish, Swede, Frenchmen, or poor Texan who created the  financial messes on Wall Street that caused the so called financial mess for America and the rest of the planet. Yet Mitt Romeny never addresses the problem that Harvard, Yale, Princton, Wharton just to mention a few of the elite of higher education are graduating some of the most skilled thieves on the planet whom have no social alliance to anything except money. Really, we are graduating sociopaths from American universities. I suppose by the Romeny definition, he Mr. Romney is part of the alleged 47% problem. The last myth is the divide, not created by President Obama but created by Mitt Romney and his right wing bunch. Almost daily we are hear how the devision between the wealthy and the poor keeps expanding. I wonder how this anomaly happened Mitt?

 What the report and author failed to recognize is that all those freebies from the government are paid for by federal tax payers. So, to say we are all moochers is disingenuous. If I pay federal taxes, I AM PAYING for the roads, farm subsidies, etc. Just where do the author and reporter think this money comes from?
These attacks on Romney’s comments are very one-sided, and as a result are very disappointing to me.
I’d appreciate a discussion that covers both sides of what is an important issue for our country’s future.

If the government takes $100 of my money in taxes, and I “benefit” from a 2-cent subsidy on my t-shirt, it does not mean that I am a moocher.  What it means is that the government effectively took $99.98 of my money in taxes to spend/waste/redistribute as it sees fit.

Until my *net* tax burden is negative, I am not a moocher — I am paying for everything I get.  I guarantee all of the subsidies passed through cotton, grains, water, etc … do not add up to how much I pay in taxes.

I am happy to pool some of my money with other citizens and pay for things that benefit us as a whole and that are more efficiently and effectively administered by a government — things such as roads, fire departments, police departments, and national defense.  However, my retirement and medical care is not one of them.

I have worked a long time and paid a lot in social security and medicare taxes, but contrary to how the social security system was sold at the time it was instituted, my money is in no way any kind of investment — it is simply a redistributive tax, pure and simple.  Money flushed down the toilet.  I would never advocate taking social security or medicare benefits away from those who have paid into the system, but the time has come to put an end to the pyramid scheme.  Stop payroll taxes, make the system part of the general budget, continue benefits for everyone currently receiving them, and pro-rate benefits for all future beneficiaries based on number of years paid in.  Then it will fade away into the dustbin of history where it belongs without penalizing those forced to pay into it for so long.

Then there is welfare income redistribution.  I agree that it is in the public interest to have some safety net to help people when they face extenuating circumstances; however, we have developed an entitlement culture that is disgusting.  There are multiple generations of families that believe they are entitled to subsidized housing, food, etc., just because the government is there to give it to them.  Short term assistance is one thing — long term assistance belongs in the realm of private charities, where there will be an incentive to work with these people and get them working as soon as possible rather than just saying “here’s your check”.  Private charities would have an incentive to help people off their roles to preserve their budget, government welfare agencies have an incentive to get people *on* their roles in order to preserve and increase their budget.

a dollar bill doesn’t discriminate, welfare is welfare regardless of the recipient, bank bail out or food stamps.

Can we all agree that basic public infrastructure-roads, streets, bridges, the electrical grid, sewer systems, etc.-is best managed by our governments that we all support through tax revenue? An interstate can’t be privatized.  It just isn’t practical or efficient.  Private enterprise is best suited to oversee the exchange of goods and services, but when it fails to serve the population in a critical way, such as retirement insurance (Social Security) or  health care, our government is obligated to step in and fix the problem. I don’t want our government running my life, at all.  But I do want it to do what it can and SHOULD to best serve the entire country.  There is nothing shameful or un-American about it.  We have the richest and most powerful entity on the face of the earth, in the history of the world, at our disposal.  Let it do what it needs to do.