Bernie Sanders, Jon Stewart Dissect Squirming Little Insect On The TV

What was the real meaning of Romney's declaration of class war against 47% of Americans at the $50,000/plat dinner at Mark Leder's mansion? This isn't about a "gotcha moment" or an embarrassing "inelegant" misstatement. This was the real Mitt Romney taking to American elites like himself... the vicious predators and self-entitled social parasites who are determined to suck Americans dry. As John Stewart reminded his audience Tuesday, it turns out, nearly two-thirds of Romney's "moochers," pay payroll tax and these freeloaders are actually comprised of those making less than $20,000 a year-- including the elderly (i.e., "the Greatest Generation" and “Nana”), who worked all their lives and are entitled to food and shelter and medical care that Romney and the billionaires would begrudge them.

In his post yesterday for the Daily Beast former Bush aide Mark McKinnon seems surprised that Romney is a cynical man. I guess he never looked into elite Mormonism. "Mitt Romney," he wrote, "is running out of time, and voters like me are running out of patience."

[T]he release of the Romney tape was a moment that certainly revealed something about him. But not what I was hoping for. Just the opposite. It reveals a deeply cynical man, who sees the country as completely divided, as two completely different sets of people, and who would likely govern in a way that would only further divide us. ...This is a deeply cynical view of America. Not to mention wrong. And it’s a long way from the compassionate conservatism that welcomed more Americans into the Republican Party under President George W. Bush.

What about seniors on limited incomes who do not pay taxes? What about veterans? What about even middle-income families with young children and the deductions that go with them? They are not victims, although they might now view themselves that way under a Romney administration. 

How can anyone support a candidate with this kind of a vision of the country? Isn’t a divided America under Obama what folks on the right rail against?

New polls that were released yesterday showed Obama opening a nice lead over Romney-Ryan... in Wisconsin. (Is it any wonder Ryan just dumped $2,000,000 into TV ads to save his House seat?) And on the same day, polls show Obama ahead in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Virginia. So where is And even small business owners, the engine of growth the GOP is always making believe it worships, back Obama over Romney by a wide margin. Romney winning? Well among millionaires, of course-- especially the millionaires and billionaires like himself who don't pay any taxes or cheat and don't pay their fair share of taxes. And here are the real freeloaders-- corporations that paid ZERO income tax: Boeing, Wells Fargo, Verizon, Pepco, Bank of America. But what about geographically? What states are the Romney states? Let's take a look at what he might call, "the moocher states." Joe Conason broke it down. But take a look at this map of the states with the largest percentage of non-tax payers first; notice they're all shaded red-- Romney's base, almost the only states solidly behind him!

The Republican-leaning moochers, as defined by Romney, can easily be found in the red states, which contribute far less in federal taxes than they receive in per capita benefits. Alabama, for instance, receives almost $4000 per capita in federal spending on retirement and disability, while contributing just over $1000 per capita in federal income taxes. Kentucky receives upwards of $7000 per capita in direct benefits, including retirement, disability, student assistance, and unemployment, but contributes slightly less per capita than Alabama in federal income taxes.

Roughly the same dispensation exists across much of the old Confederacy, where white voters in lower income brackets  will faithfully vote for Romney despite his sneers at them. Across the red states generally-- from Mississipppi, Arkansas, and South Carolina to Kentucky, West Virginia, Missouri, Oklahoma, the Dakotas and Alaska-- there is a clear pattern. More money flows in from Washington via government spending than goes out to Washington via federal taxes, which belies the incessant whining of their “conservative” elected officials. (The difference is made up in revenues from the blue states-- New York, New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, among others-- that receive less from Washington than they pay.)

...Summing up his erroneous assessments, Romney said “my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” Perhaps that cold remark falls within the category of opinion rather than fact. But does Romney truly believe that a lifelong worker, an impoverished veteran, a struggling student, an elderly widow, or any of the millions of Americans in similar straits don’t merit the concern of the president of the United States?

That ugly sentiment, an insult to every citizen of this country, would be hard to express more “elegantly” without the use of a four-letter word.

And the ad, one I only wish would be played in states like Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Idaho and South Carolina as well as the usual swing states: