Romney Hour

The one thing I keep finding myself saying when reading my Facebook feed vis-a-vis Mitt Romney is "Did he really say that?"  There is a reason that video links are routinely posted.  It all seems too incredible to be true.   The man could be President.  Start acting like you could do the job.  Seriously, it is embarrassing.  The only thing that saves us this that Europe isn't paying that much attention, and China laughs when he roars.

The release of a video filmed at a $50,000/plate fundraiser epitomizes the Romney story.  He starts off by dismissing almost half of Americans as not even worthy of his consideration because they do not pay Federal income tax.  First this is a problem because we do not have confirmation that he himself pays Federal income tax.  He probably does, but probably not very much.  Secondly, his father's parents were on public assistance at one point--are they also not worthy?  Then, as Jon Stewart quickly pointed out, a family of five who made  $50,000/year wouldn't pay income tax because their income was too low--which is what it cost to get into this fund raiser.  Stewart also noted that the tax reduction that Romney gets, which saves him several millions each year, would pay for food stamps for the next several hundred years for the aforementioned family of five.  Not to mention that he needs those people on the dole--the ten states with the most people on public assistance are Romney states.  

The other gaff that startled me is that he doesn't have any idea what people make.  He thought 'middle class' meant you made $200-250,000/year.  That would put you squarely at or above the 97th%.  There has to be an upper class in his mind--that much is very clear and consistent.  So he thinks that there are now about 2% of Americans who are middle class.  That should be alarming news to him.  Sadly, I suspect what it really means is that he has no idea what it costs to live in America.  He doesn't know anything about living from check to check

So I find myself agreeing with Paul Krugman's recent op-ed piece in the NY Times.  Romney doesn't value workers.  He values money and the people who control it at the top.  He is by no means the only Presidential candidate to feel this way.  The weird thing is that everybody knows it.