In light of the latest Romney debacle,
I think the proper question Mr. Romney should be asking American citizens today
amid all the media mewing about the "47%" might be: “how do
you run a democracy when almost half of its citizens do not pay income taxes?” Let us be clear this IS NOT a question of whether
Governor Romney “understands” or “relates to” the American electorate it is a
basic question regarding citizenship in our country. I would be interested in hearing Mr. Obama’s
response to that question.
The media is no help on this
matter, I know taxes are in my blood but I expect intelligent adults to know that
there is a difference between income taxes and “payroll”/FICA taxes. There are 2 elements to “payroll” taxes, Social
Security and Medicare. These amounts are
used to fund the benefits/entitlements of these 2 programs that many Americans
enjoy. Income taxes are the county’s “general
fund” (so to speak) that pays for everything else. While I have had this argument with some very
intelligent people I see these as 2 different taxes and as such I do not think
that “payroll”/FICA and income taxes should be lumped together.
But a serious question remains: how
do you engage an electorate on important issues regarding the country’s
finances and economy when they have no “skin in the game?” Whey should they even care about treasury
draining wars and entitlements, they aren’t paying for them (of course to a frightening
degree nobody is paying for them as they are funded by the U.S. Treasury
printing and borrowing money – but that is another story).
How does a democracy function effectively
in such as corrupt and disconnected economic environment; as we seem to prove
every day, it does not.
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