Just in case you didn’t know…I lean progressive on the political scales. I try not to let my political rants take over this blog these days. I did that in the George W. Bush years and it was a pain. So pardon the following politcal rant …

I am a member of the 47% who will never vote for Mitt Romney!

I also believe that Government is “of the people” and “for the people”. Not of the makers and for the millionaires. But I also pay taxes… Taxes at a higher rate than Mitt, than GE, than the Koch brothers.

There is something wrong with the way the “Tax Debate” is framed by these  conservatives. They are always quoting figures for just Federal Income Taxes, one of the only semi-progressive taxes in the country. They never figure in the payroll taxes, the state income taxes, the sales taxes, excise taxes, fees, etc. The other argument they always make is based on the nominal rates, both income and corporate, not the actual tax rates paid by real people.

Mitt Romney had this to say back in May…

Here is Mitt Romney speaking at a private fundraiser recently. At least, it was a fundraiser he thought was private. Turned out somebody had a camera rolling and caught him explaining what really animates Obama supporters:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what….who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it….These are people who pay no income tax.

….And so my job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. – Mitt Romney

via Quote of the Day: Obama Voters Are All a Bunch of Moochers | Mother Jones.

Yes…You name it… Schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, water systems, waste systems… Everything it takes for all of us to live together.

Even David Brooks is having trouble with what this comment says about Mitt Romney’s views of America…

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 who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare? Thurston Howell Romney – David Brooks – NYTimes.com.

This is where I have always wondered about the support the Republican Party manages to get from retirees as they fight to end the benefits those very same retirees are dependent upon. Their insistence on using the term “entitlement”, which has all of the negative connotations of the welfare state, instead of honestly telling voters that it is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid that they are fighting to end. All of the programs that their supporters assume are not entitlements but insurance like programs that they have paid for all of their lives… Here is David again…

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 Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor.  Thurston Howell Romney – David Brooks – NYTimes.com.

Hopefully, if Mitt keeps telling America what he believes, Barack Obama will get the chance to finish what he started four years ago. Then, just maybe, America will be on the right track… Again.

Now, back to your irregularly scheduled Coffee Muses….