Yesterday, liberal magazine Mother Jones
released a video of Mitt Romney talking about the nearly 50
percent of Americans who are dependent on the federal government
for at least some of their income. Romney also talked about the 47
percent of Americans who pay no individual income taxes. His
conclusion in the video — which was secretly taken at a fundraiser
several months ago — was that he was never going to win the votes
of those people, since his message is about low taxes and
decreasing government dependence.
As is typical when a non-liberal talks about the truth of
dependency on government, the
media has become
apoplectic. Never mind that Romney was largely speaking the
truth.
Romney’s statement has drawn many negative reactions, and while
some of them have substance (such as Quin Hillyer’s
excellent points), others do not. Here are a few that have made
news:
First, Romney’s statement includes senior citizens, who are on
Medicare and Social Security. These programs, while transfer
payments, are the result of an implicit government promise to
citizens who are forced to invest in these programs throughout
their working lives. It is doubtful Romney meant to say seniors are
mooching off of the system.
Second, The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart claims
Romney said he doesn’t care about those on the lower
income scale. This is either dishonest or a simple mishearing. In
fact, Romney said he doesn’t worry about the people in this 47
percent because he knows he won’t win their votes. It was a
statement about electoral strategy, plain and simple.
Ironically, speaking of electoral strategy, the same political
pundit class now bashing Romney used to agree with him — this
election will be won by gaining support from the relatively small
percentage of independent voters who are undecided. Which is what
Romney said.
Third, Romney is mostly correct that people on government
programs don’t want to get off of them. While it is unfair and
inaccurate to say all people on those programs want to
stay dependent, the fact is that debates over Medicaid, food
stamps, and other dependency programs usually focus on slowing the
growth of those programs, not cutting them — and it is often the
people on those programs who are most vocally for them. As a farmer
explained to me once, his family could make more money by farming
the land they own. However, since the government money is free,
they simply take it and move on.
Fourth, the most legitimate criticism of Romney is the fact that
the economy stinks and people are struggling. While government
dependence is not the answer to a weak economy, blame for the
current economic malaise should almost entirely be laid on the
backs of the last several Congresses, Presidents Clinton, Bush, and
Obama, the Board of the Federal Reserve, and the large banks — all
of whom conspired to bail out banks, auto companies, and other
select, connected industries… all while leaving the average
American in serious financial straits.
Regardless of the political class’ response, this morning Tea
Party Patriots co-founder and national coordinator Jenny Beth
Martin spelled out exactly why grassroots activists should care
about what Romney said: “Since 2009, Tea Party Patriots across the
nation have said: Enough! Enough of big government supporting
failed companies. Enough of big government health care schemes that
rob American families of the freedom to choose the best care for
them. Enough of big government that divides this great nation
into factions that fight for their own government handouts.”
And that’s what it all comes down to. Government handouts were
supposed to prevent the collapse of the economy. That failed. Then
they were supposed to help us out of economic recession. That
failed. Yet social programs continue to grow in cost and size; data
calculated
by Just Facts President Jim Agresti show that 61 percent of federal
spending was for social programs in 2010. This has grown from
approximately 22 percent of federal spending in 1959. As the cost
of government health care continues to rise, especially as the
President’s health care act begins to take full effect, this
dependence on social programs will only grow.
Sooner or later, barring a massive tax increase on all
Americans, social dependence on the federal government will shrink
dramatically. Unfortunately, to paraphrase Senator Tom Coburn
(R-OK), this can either happen in a controlled way — through
deliberate spending cuts — or through a collapse of the American
economy as investors choose to stop buying our debt. No American
wants to see the latter, and so it is long past time for Americans
to start decreasing their dependence on the federal government
while significantly reforming the tax code. Nothing else will
prevent the fiscal collapse of our nation.
