So, Who Are the 47%?

Since Mitt Romney has identified the 47% of Americans who do not pay the federal income tax as people who "believe that they are victims, who believe that 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," I thought we might take a closer look at these 47% of Americans who are mooches and layabouts destroying the fabric of our society.

Although Romney said, "I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives," I'm an optimist.  Maybe we can identify some of these slackers and figure out how to stop them from further leeching off good federal income-tax paying Americans like you and me.  Or at least maybe we can deport them so that they stop wrecking the USA for the rest of us.


Active duty military in a combat zone: about 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan -- Oops. So much for my plan to move them out of the country. This group of non-payers aren't even in the country right now.  On the bright side GIs, maybe Uncle Mitt wants you to move out of that combat zone.  This seems at odds with his foreign-policy plan to keep you in Afghanistan indefinitely, so I admit to some confusion on the point. Maybe if you're lucky he'll just remove the combat-zone designation to give you your self-respect back by letting you pay federal income tax again.

And I must admit that Mitt has a point here. When my neighbor Nick got shot in Afghanistan, I'm pretty sure he felt entitled to free government health care afterwards, especially while the blood was still coming out of the wound.  In the meantime, I think those of us over here in the States would feel better about the direction of this country if you would all please start bucking up for those cushy barracks and tasty MREs.


People who pay payroll taxes, but don't earn enough income to pay federal income tax: 28.3% of all Americans -- It was probably news to these folks that Mitt doesn't think they pay "no income tax" since they certainly pay federal and state taxes on their income.  However, I'm glad that Mitt was here to break the news to them that they consider themselves to be victims.

The average Wal-Mart worker fits in this category, as do a lot of other service industry folks, laborers, and non-union factory workers. The next time you order a filet mignon at the local steakhouse, be sure to let your waiter know that he's failing to take personal responsibility for his life.  I'm sure your meal will be all the more flavorful for the exchange.

So, how did the folks the Wall Street Journal likes to call "lucky duckies" get to be so lucky? For the most part they were the recipients of tax reductions passed by Republican administrations, especially the Earned Income Tax Credit promoted by Ronald Reagan and the Child Tax Credit initially passed by Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress in the late 90s, then expanded by George W. Bush and the GOP Congress in the early 2000s. The idea of these credits was to reduce poverty by making work pay better for the working poor.  As a result, people who really were laying about would start working and climbing the income ladder.

As near as I can tell, this has actually worked pretty well.  The majority of people who collect the EITC do so for two consecutive years or less, and in the long run pay far more into the system in income tax than they collected from the EITC during the short time they benefited from it. (Americans who pay no income taxes, EITC edition.)

I have a lot of sympathy for this group because I spent some time as a member of it.  And you know what? Most of these people are busting their ass to build a better life.

If you want to know why Mitt Romney is no Ronald Reagan, and why today's Republican Party bears little resemblance to the GOP of 25 or 30 years ago, this is a good place to start.  Ronald Reagan understood that the working poor were working for a better life, and looked for policies and programs that would help them to make it up the ladder of American success.  Mitt Romney holds them in contempt as hapless slackers who "will never take responsibility for their lives."


The Elderly, 10.3% of all Americans -- Social Security income is exempt from the federal income tax.  Sure, you and I might say that these folks worked and paid into that system their whole lives with an expectation that it would pay them back after they retired.  Mitt Romney would say they "believe that they are victims ... who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it."

On the bright side for these folks, the Romney/Ryan plan to drastically cut Medicaid payments to nursing homes and replace Medicare with a voucher program should soon give our old folks some incentive to be out pounding the pavement and looking for work.

At this point you might think that Romney and Ryan are unlikely to do much about these 38.6% of Americans who are either the working poor or retirees.  Surely they can't possibly be planning to fund vast tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires by balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and elderly?

If you think that, you haven't been paying attention to the states in which these Tea Partying Republicans swept to power in the 2010 elections.  Here in Michigan, for example, the Republican Party passed a large business tax cut by reducing the state earned-income tax credit and increasing taxation of pensions.  This is no longer the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan.


Nonelderly, income under $20,000, 6.9% of all Americans -- I don't have much insight into this group, but most of them are the genuine poor.  I'm pretty sure it contains a fairly desperate assortment of the truly destitute, the homeless, prisoners, the mentally ill, and indeed some number of grifters and bums who really are hapless layabouts sponging off society.  On that last group, I'm pretty sure that Mitt and I do share a common opinion.

However, I should point out that -- although I think this country could use a good dose of sentencing reform -- unlike Mitt I'm pretty happy that quite a few of those two million or so prisoners are indeed receiving free government housing.

As for the rest of these twenty million or so genuinely poor folks, Mitt's main concern is apparently that "our message of low taxes doesn't connect."  I can ease a bit of his worry there, since this is a group that turns out to the polls in very low numbers because most of these folks have bigger problems on their plate.

But I guess this is also where I may fall out of Mitt's favor despite the fact that I pay income taxes.  Personally, I think some government intervention to get these folks back on the right track with a bit of health care, housing, and food might be in order here.


Other, less than 1% of all Americans -- Again, another group whose details are a bit difficult to figure out.  I suspect it includes many or most of the soldiers I mentioned at the top, and I'm pretty sure it also contains the final group that I'd like to discuss:


Millionaires, about 4,000 individuals with incomes over $1,000,000 -- Mitt Romney, why do you hate these "job creators?"

Is Mitt part of this final group?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Harry Reid's guess is yes, and he claims he has a source.



Footnotes

• Who doesn’t pay taxes, in eight charts. Brad Plumer on Washingtonpost.com. Sept. 18, 2012.
• Wikipedia: United States military deployments. Sept. 19, 2012.
• The Non-Taxpaying Class: Those lucky duckies! Wall Street Journal 20 November 2002
• Lucky Duckies Again: Look at who won't pay taxes under Bush's plan Wall Street Journal 20 January 2003
• Even Luckier Duckies: When a tax cut becomes a welfare check Wall Street Journal 3 June 2003
• Americans who pay no income taxes, EITC edition. Brad Plumer on Washingtonpost.com. Oct. 24, 2011.
• Romney's '47%' includes thousands of millionaires. David Lazarus on Latimes.com. Sept. 19, 2012.
• Wikipedia: Incarceration in the United States. Sept. 19, 2012.