Mitt Romney We’re a Nation of Makers and Takers, Including Romney — and Me----Agree?

I try not to get worked up about politics, but I hate the Tea Party delusion
that we’ve become a nation that is split between makers and takers. It’s the
false idea that Mitt Romney,
who probably doesn’t believe it, parroted in that cringeworthy video to suck up
to wealthy donors who do. The point of my Sept. 17 TIME cover story, aside from getting pictures of my
kids and dogs in the magazine, was to show that most Americans are makers and
takers, including me. But we’re proud of our making and blind to our taking,
which is why appeals to the 53% — minus Romney’s gross I-got-mine attacks on
families who think they’re entitled to eat — have some political appeal. Most of
the alleged moochers in the 47% — seniors, disabled veterans, the working poor —
don’t even realize they’re part of it. They understandably assume politicians
must be talking about some other moochers, because they don’t feel like
moochers.

(PHOTOS: The
Rich History of Mitt Romney)

I really hope the stir over Romney’s political snuff film will help end the
slur that half the country pays no taxes. As many political reporters who never
bothered to correct that nonsense when it wasn’t part of a “gaffe” are finally
pointing out, the 47% of Americans who don’t pay something imprecisely called
income taxes do cough up payroll taxes on their income as well as state and
local taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes and other taxes. And most of us cough up
more than the 13% of Romney’s (unearned!) income that he paid in 2011 while
running for President. It’s hard to say if we pay more than Romney did before
that, because, well, you know.

It’s good to see a broader recognition that most of us are makers and that
most of the nonmakers are seniors on Social Security and Medicare.
What I tried to show in the article is that we’re takers too, even those of us
with a comfortable income. We benefit not only from publicly subsidized roads,
water, electricity, schools, trash collection, police protection, national
defense and, in my case, tennis courts but also lucrative tax advantages for our
mortgage interest, health
care, child care, 401(k)s, business expenses and, in some cases, dressage
costs. Some Americans who work in the financial sector enjoy lucrative tax
breaks for their “carried interest,” but of course it’s impossible to know
without seeing their returns.

I hope you’ll read the article; it’s even more relevant today, although I’m
heartbroken to report that one of those hyperactive unsubsidized Boston
terriers, our beloved Shamu, died last weekend after his star turn. I hope
Romney’s nasty comments will attract more attention to that crazy, irritating,
theatrical, soulful, unbelievably wonderful dog scavenging under the chair. RIP,
Shampers. We miss you terribly.

(LIST: All
Campaign Gaffes from 2008)