Looking Ahead

The Romney tragedy One cannot help but feel a sadness about Governor Mitt Romney, a Faustian figure of a striver who took the tea party's promises of power, to surrender his soul, and is now acting like a Kabuki figure in front of the world, wavering like a marionette to match his sponsors’ expectations. The May 2012 summer whisper of Mitt Romney to his sponsors, claiming that “it is not my job to worry about the fate” of the 47% non-tax-paying Americans, and that he would “never convince them to take personal responsibility and care for their lives” paints an elitist picture of the candidate that is truly threatening. Romney, at this May fund-raiser, writes the 47% off as “moochers,” as opposed to “makers.” This attitude is tragic, and if he has followers, we may be facing the destruction of the Republican party, founded on all American principles of compassion, religion and social compact. The non-logic described here is excerpted from a masterly op-ed by David Brooks, a Republican thinker, published in NYTimes in 9/17/2012. The title, Thurston Howell Romney, harks back to the jovial ignorant millionaire hero of TV’s The Millionaire, who lives on a desert island. At the end, I have added an excerpt of an analysis from Tax Foundation, via Atlantic Monthly, of the 47%, who turn out to be mostly Republicans. Per Brooks, in 1980 about 30 percent of Americans received some form of government benefits. Today, as Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise has pointed out, about 49 percent do. In 1960, government transfers to individuals totaled $24 billion. By 2010, that total was 100 times as large. Even after adjusting for inflation, entitlement transfers to individuals have grown by more than 700 percent over the last 50 years. This spending surge, Eberstadt notes, has increased faster under Republican administrations than Democratic ones. There are sensible conclusions one can draw from these facts. Maybe the entitlement state is growing at an unsustainable rate and will bankrupt the country. Maybe America is spending way too much on health care for the elderly and way too little on young families and investments in the future. But these are not the sensible arguments that Mitt Romney made at a fund-raiser earlier this year. Romney, who criticizes President Obama for dividing the nation, divided the nation into two groups: the makers and the moochers. The 47% of the country, he said, are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them,” through health care, food, housing, you name it. This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran treated at the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare? Per Brooks, the above sentiment shows 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. Also, 92% say that hard work is the key to success, according to a 2009 Pew Research Survey. Further, it says that Romney doesn’t know much about the political culture. Americans haven’t become childlike worshipers of big government. On the contrary, trust in government has declined. The number of people who think government spending promotes social mobility has fallen. The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Brookings Institution reports, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, who contribute, more so than the dependent poor. Romney’s comments also reveal that he has lost any sense of the social compact, the underlying government and tax structure that changed mankind from savages into society. In 1987, during Ronald Reagan’s second term, 62% of Republicans believed that the government has a responsibility to help those who can’t help themselves. Now, according to the Pew Research Center, only 40 % of Republicans believe that. The Republican Party, and apparently Mitt Romney, too, has shifted over toward a much more divisiveis social view — from the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language of makers and takers. This country will not trust the Republican Party to reform the welfare state if that party doesn’t have a basic commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of their own. The final thing the comment suggests is that Romney knows nothing about ambition and motivation. The formula he sketches is this: People who are forced to make it on their own have drive. People who receive benefits have dependency. People are motivated when they feel competent. They are motivated when they have more opportunities. Ambition is fired by possibility, not by deprivation, as a tour through the world’s poorest regions makes clear. Sure, there are some government programs that cultivate patterns of dependency in some people. I’d put federal disability payments and unemployment insurance in this category. But, as a description of America today, Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy. It’s what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. It reinforces every negative view people have about Romney. Personally, Brooks thinks that Romney is 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. Romney’s entitlement reform ideas are essential, but when will the incompetence stop? Per Tax Foundation, who are the 47% of non tax-paying Americans? As you guessed, they are mostly Republicans, 10.3% are elderly, on SS, 6.9% non elderly with incomes under 20K, and 28.3% payroll-tax-paying, with inxomes under $30K.One percent are non-tax paying millionaires. As to where the 47% are, the highest percentages are in the red GOP states, the South and IA, the lowest in blue . NY numbered 23 is in the middle, PA and WI are better, MI at 20 and CA at 16 are worse off. Wally Dobelis thanks David Brooks, NY Times, the Tax Foundation and Atlantic Monthly. A postscript: after tis column was written, Romney took a big boost in his winning Denver dialogue with the President, and Brooks nerly recanted his position, in joy

Labels: 47%, David Brooks, Romney