Why America?s producers feel like suckers
By Seth Grossman, Political Columnist
?There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what? who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That it?s an entitlement? These are people who pay no income tax? My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives??
? Republican Candidate for President Mitt Romney
Those remarks by Romney and the public reaction to them explain why I and two dozen others formed LibertyAndProsperity.org ?nine years ago.
Most Democrats and Republican establishment ?experts? like Bill Kristol and Peggy Noonan said Romney?s remarks were clueless, out of touch and proof that he cannot win the election. But what Romney said is true. And if those political experts of both parties are right, no candidate for any office can be elected if he or she dares to tell the truth about the most important issues facing us today.
This explains why in almost every political campaign, Republicans and Democrats either avoid the most important issues or lie about them.
LibertyAndProsperity.org?was created to change that political culture, and to again make it possible for candidates to tell the truth ? and win elections.
First, it?s true that at least 47 percent of Americans don?t pay any federal income tax. Many of them, including tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, get thousands of dollars of ?tax refunds? each year even though they don?t work enough on the books to owe a nickel in income tax. They qualify for so many ?credits,? like the Earned Income Credit (EIC), that they rush to H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt right after New Years to file for refunds. Only suckers like me wait until April 15 to actually pay taxes these days.
But there?s also cases like General Electric. Run by CEO Jeff Immelt and a favorite of Obama, the mega corporation paid no federal taxes in 2010 and got a $3.2 billion refund thanks to ?green energy? tax credits it lobbied for and got from a Democrat controlled Congress.
It?s true that at least 47 percent of Americans now depend on government. Besides getting monthly checks, many also get free or reduced priced housing, medical care, groceries, breakfast, lunch, home-delivered meals, gas, electricity, cell phones, transportation, cable TV, and recreation programs. What is the point of working?
But there?s also wealthy folks like Jon Corzine (former Goldman-Sachs CEO and former Democrat New Jersey governor), Henry Paulson (former Goldman Sachs CEO and former Treasury secretary under President George W. Bush), and Robert Rubin (for Citigroup chairman and former Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton). They would now be broke and possibly in jail if a Democrat controlled Congress didn?t bail out their reckless investments in 2008.
Don?t forget the wealthy owners and executives of the Revel Casino, Margaritaville, the Walk, and Bass Pro Shops who got millions from New Jersey taxpayers thanks to Democrat state Sens. Sweeney, Whelan, and Lesniak.
Many seniors who think they really paid for their Social Security and Medicare benefits should dig out their old Lifetime Social Security Earnings statements and see how they paid peanuts into the system during most of their working lives, and used up whatever they contributed plus interest just a few years after they started to collect.
We have to eliminate or drastically cut back these programs. The federal government cannot borrow 42 cents for every dollar it spends much longer. We can?t afford to make Americans who work, sacrifice, produce and pay feel like suckers. It is too easy for them to ?give up looking for work,? and instead work the system as takers.
The irony is that most of the people who get these benefits would be better off if we again had liberty. Folks with solar panels wouldn?t get subsidies, but everybody?s electric bills would be cut in half ? like in Florida. Some students would lose college aid, but everyone could get the same education in half the time, and a third of the tuition. Health insurance would again be affordable if everyone could again buy ?major medical? policies for just catastrophic illnesses ? not for every sore throat.
But no candidate can talk about this. These are complicated issues that require hours of reading and discussion. They can?t be explained in 60-second campaign ads or two-minute responses to a TV debate or interview questions.
And besides, every American should already know about liberty, the Constitution and what it takes to be a free citizen.
(Reprinted from September 26, 2012 Current-Gazette Newspapers of Atlantic and Cape May Counties, http://www.shorenewstoday.com/snt/news/index.php/politics/29964-why-americas-producers-feel-like-suckers.html)
Somers Point attorney Seth Grossman appears on 92.1FM 8-9 a.m. Saturday. For information see www.libertyandprosperity.org, ?email sethgrossman49@gmail.com or call (609) 927-7333. Breakfast discussions are held 9:30-10:30 a.m. every Saturday at the Shore Diner on Fire and Tilton roads in Egg Harbor Township.
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