Cable news media discussions have been very lively concerning Willard Mitt Romney’s supposed ‘gaffe’ when he said in a CNN interview on Wednesday that he was not concerned about the very poor because they were just fine and he rather wanted to focus on middle-class America.
However, this was no verbal mistake, but was instead a picture of his true thought process. Romney simply has no grasp on how critical the poverty issue is in America. According to a study released by the United States Census Bureau in September 2011, poverty in America increased to 15.1% of the U.S. population in 2010. In real numbers that is 46.2 million Americans who struggle to survive each day, a truly staggering number.
In addition, Romney has no empathy with this sizeable portion of America who, with the cuts in critical programs like education which give them a potential to help them elevate themselves out of poverty, see a bleaker and bleaker future for them as well as for their children. Such a lack of understanding of the plight of the poor by Romney is astounding. In his mind subsisting upon governmental programs is a solution. (Never mind the fact that he and his GOP brethren have made it a point that if elected they will drastically reduce or entirely eliminate these programs).
Romney stated that he would focus on elevating the middle class because the poor have this “safety net.” In order to entice middle class swing voters he is basically saying that the lives of the poor are just fine and the nation should leave them behind in order to focus on those more fortunate. Such divisive thinking may work for a party platform, but it is no way to run a country.
Indeed, it is the duty of the government to strive for all Americans to have equal access to the ability to better their situations. After all, rather than accept the idea of a perpetual poor class in America, the Nation would be much better if all levels of the economy have a chance at increased prosperity.
Romney is correct about the need to help the middle class which, without a major fix in our economic system, is in danger of slipping further into poverty. However he is way off base when he creates an ‘us or them’ mentality in an attempt to equate critical programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Food Stamps to economic prosperity.
Romney did say that he was not concerned about the top 1%, that they were doing fine, and he is correct; the wealthy have indeed accumulated an incredible amount of wealth from the other economic sectors of our society by rigging the economic system in their favor. Even so, his planned economic policies contradict his supposed lack of concern for the top 1%: rather than correct the tax inequities which have driven the nation’s runaway deficit for the past decade his proposed tax plan increases these inequities dramatically.
In order for the nation to prosper, there must be an economic policy in place which helps all economic levels rise, not just the rich. And while the middle class needs attention, the poor need it even more so. Until this occurs our Nation will never rise to its true potential as a beacon of economic justice and for prosperity for all of its citizens.
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