Mr. Romney's Indigence Envy

Here is another of those posts I really had no intention of getting into - I just hate doing politics.  Let’s just say, “The devil made me do it.”  In this case the devil is Facebook. 

In a moment of weakness (not really) I felt compelled to share a commentary about Mitt Romney and his income tax finagling.  The point of the commentary being Romney fudged his returns so that he paid MORE in taxes than he actually had to.  In 2011 he donated over 4 million dollars to charity but claimed only 2 million.  Why?  Because by taking the full deduction he would have paid less than the 13% he claims is the lowest that he’s ever paid.  The commentary went on to describe the many and varied Romney tax avoidance strategies including Cayman Island tax havens and a $77,000 deduction for Ann Romney’s Olympic horse.  My comment on the op-ed was, well, a little caustic towards Mr. Romney. 

A response to my post objected; He earned every penny and used legal tax deductions that our politicians put into the tax code. He paid more in taxes than 99% of the population yet all many people can do is complain that he is successful and did not pay enough. Wealth envy is an ugly thing. GIVE ME A BREAK!

For the most part I have no quarrel with the man’s response.  I can’t say whether Romney earned every penny or not.  Most of his income is from investments and I suppose that being a successful investor requires work; of some sort or another.  

And yes Mr. Romney’s deductions were probably all legal; deductions that most of us would take without a second thought if we possessed the Romney's coin of the realm.  And absolutely, Romney and the missus paid way, way, way, more than my wife and I; scads more; a lifetime of my income more.  Looking at it from another perspective though, the Romneys paid about 14.1 percent on just under 14 million dollars.  Poor babies had to make due on just under 12 mil.  The family making $77,000 (the amount of the deduction for Ann's horse) likely paid 25% leaving them with $57,750.  That doesn't seem very equitable. And if I really want to split hairs, what did Mr. Romney bring to the societal table?  Sure I suppose he supplied financial juice to some company but does it really count for as much as what the $70,000 cop or firefighter brought? 

My chief problem with Romney isn't his taxes or the sexy headlines we're bombarded with. Frankly I don’t give a shit about his tax issues as long as it was all above board.  Do I really care about the so called dumb comments like putting windows that you can open on airplanes?  We all say stupid things and most of us are lucky that someone isn’t lurking with the gotcha cam.  I’m not going to get worked up over alleged high school hazing; a lot of very decent men were absolute jerks in high school.  In the sixties, Romney collected draft deferments instead of combat pay in Vietnam.  Avoiding Vietnam was something of a national pastime in the sixties.  I suppose that at the time he might have done things differently had he ever thought he would someday be running for President   Times change; people change.  To mix metaphors; it's all spilt milk under the bridge. 

No, what bothers me is a queasiness from an unmistakable odor of smarminess and an overall uncomfortable feeling; those heebie jeebies you get when someone is trying to cozy up and you just know that his sincerity is wafer thin.  That hand on your shoulder that you want to remove with the tips of your thumb and forefinger.  He’d like to be my pal right up until he gets elected; at which point he kicks my vulgar, plebian ass to the curb.  There’s this disquieting dichotomy in Romney.  He’s a very, very rich fellow who has lived a very comfortable life and he's trying to connect with middle class shlubs.  The problem is that there is no connection; there can be no connection.  He isn’t middle class and never has been.  And there is no crime in that.  The offense is in trying to step off his yacht to come aboard the middle class rowboat and the more he tries the more contrived, the more affected it becomes.  And then there are the remarks; the ones that reveal a sort of bizarre indigence envy or, even worse, outright clueless disdain.

      In her RNC speech Ann Romney reminisced about living in a basement apartment, eating tuna fish and pasta and using a door for a desk.  It all sounds very starving student until you realize the Mr. Romney’s dad was a multi-millionaire.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.  Just don’t leave us to believe that you were surviving the dead of winter with a couple cans of Star Kist and the wolves howling at the door.  You see I was in a similar situation after I got out of college.  My staple food was Ramen with a little meat and veggies tossed in.  I had hand me down furniture and I lived paycheck to paycheck.  But I never lived in fear of the power getting turned off or of bedding down in my car if I failed to make rent.  I knew that I wouldn’t be going through the humility of having to eat cat food bought with food stamps.  I didn’t have the sword of massive medical bills dangling over my head.  My parents were living a comfortable middle class existence a short drive away and made it perfectly clear that they were my safety net (albeit not as substantial as Mr. Romney’s).  Being frugal by choice is not the same as just making ends meet and saying a nightly prayer that they will continue to meet.  

                Speaking at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, Romney encouraged students to finish their education and even, “Start a business,” he said. “Borrow money if you have to from your parents.”  That’s all well and good I suppose if mom and dad are going to have money left to loan after tapping the savings and going into debt to pay that tuition. Encouraging someone to borrow from parents is understandable if, like Mitt, your parents are stinking rich. And Mr. Romney's suggestion veritably drips unmitigated gall when you consider how active the GOP has been in gutting higher education and stifling opportunities for higher education.  

And then there’s Mr. Romney’s recent assertion on “60 Minutes” that every American is afforded health care;  "Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance," he said in an interview with Scott Pelley. "If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care."  There is a horrifying callousness in that suggestion.  Mr. Romney expressed concern that his wife suffered the discomfort of a smoke filled aircraft cabin. Would he be outraged if his wife were forced to get her primary medical care at the ER?  ER's are miserable places folks.  I've been there.  It isn't were people should take a kid to get a prescription for cough syrup.

Mr. Romney has been banking (no pun intended) on his business acumen to carry him to victory in the upcoming election.  I’ve no doubt that Mr. Romney is an astute, shrewd businessman; a man who can recognize top notch individuals and utilize their skills – an indispensable talent for a corporate leader.  But he’s not applying to be CEO, he’s asking us to hire him to be President of the United States and despite what he would have us believe they are not the same.  In the corporate world you have the luxury, for lack of a better word, of being able to fire the perceived slackers.  As convenient as it might be, The President can’t disappear the poor, the infirm, the aged, the hungry, the uneducated and all the other bothersome folk who don’t “pull their weight.” 

It may not be good business but a CEO can be the meanest, stingiest, most miserable son of a bitch in the corporate valley.  The President however must have some measure of the milk of human kindness; something I perceive to be lacking in Mr. Romney, unless it’s of the powdered variety; useful in emergencies or when convenience warrants.  And it’s further vexing to realize that one of the stated goals of the RNC was to portray and showcase the human side of Mr. Romney – a mission that was left up to his wife.  Can’t the man do that himself?  I haven’t tried it yet but maybe at my next job interview I’ll offer up a similar suggestion, “If you want to find out what a swell guy I am, just ask my wife.”

My feeling is that if we’re put off by Mr. Romney, it is not due to his wealth.  By and large American Presidents have not been paupers by any stretch of the imagination.  Washington had the equivalent of a boatload of Benjamins (before they were Benjamins) to the tune of a net worth of 525 million dollars.  It isn’t the man’s money that matters but the intentions, real and more so, perceived. We're swayed by the heart and soul, not the bank account.

Among our 20th Century Presidents, three who most championed social programs and civil rights legislation were among the wealthiest.  Franklin Roosevelt was worth 60 million dollars, JFK’s family was worth nearly one billion and Lyndon Johnson was worth 98 million.  They were vilified by many for various and sundry reasons but money wasn’t among them.  The common man had a sense that these wealthy presidents, while not of their social strata, had their backs.   

Mr. Romney's problem is that he comes off as Thurston Howell in Gilligan drag; the clueless frat boy, ROTC lieutenant in Platoon who tries unsuccessfully to schmooze with the grunts; he's the country club dandy showing up to the “D” league softball game in his Ralph Lauren sweater; it doesn’t work and in the end what we’re left with is the vision of a humbug wanting us to freshen his Brandy Alexander.