Why Occupy Wall Street Hurt Romney's Chances

A post came  to light off of Mother Jones about some comments  Mitt Romney made during a fundraiser in Boca Raton Florida. Romney stated:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the 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. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.

This was a private comment made during a fundraiser of wealthy businessmen. At first thought we could assume that this was a misstatement, but today he doubles down  and said that his comment was, "not elegantly stated." He wants to focus more on the people in the middle.

Here is the problem with that is that only 7% of the population pays no tax not 47%.People in this 47% pay federal taxes for medicare,gasoline, and other broad base federal taxes.  The 47% number comes from people that pay no income tax, but that includes people get tax credits for children, houses, and other tax breaks. 

The funny thing is that majority of the "middle class" uses these tax breaks to help maintain their middle class lifestyle. An attack on these tax breaks is an attack on the middle class. It does not help that Romney's status as a wealthy elite and vague tax policy looks to hurt the middle and lower classes. 

Now how does Occupy Wall Street fit into all of this? About one year ago to a movement came into place  to highlight income inequality. It was different than all other movements that its agenda was formed by the mass than the leadership. It was not a formed by an organization or corporation, but with disgruntle people who wanted a change the current system. They decided to change the system by an old fashion protest. Unfortunately, their organic formation was their downfall. Without central leadership, the Occupy Movement was easily broken up by desperate city governments fearful massive civil unrest.  Many argue that the Occupy Movement was a flash movement, but I would disagree.

The Occupy Movement's emphasis on income inequality has made income inequality in the forefront in the news. Because of the Occupy's message people were aware of income inequality, and made this a campaign issue in 2012. So when Mr. Romney made his comments, it helped ignite a fire and anger that Occupy help build.


See the Full Romney video here.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/watch-full-secret-video-private-romney-fundraiser

According to the New Census Numbers ONE out of SEVEN people live in Poverty

The Census Bureau came out with its 2009 numbers on poverty. In their research, 14.3 percent Americans are in poverty. The number increased from 13.2 percent from 2008. This is the largest amount of Americans below the poverty line since 1959. The biggest increase came in a racial demographic Hispanic population. This is not good for America.
Two reasons this is not good for America.  Even though businesses are recovering, American citizens are not feeling the recovery yet. Second the increase of Hispanics into poverty. I will dissect these two groups in the following paragraph.
American businesses are recovering the stock market has rebounded from its low of 7,029 points in January of 2009 and has increased 3500 points now in September of 2010. Most businesses have recovered and most of the TARP money has been paid back to US Government. Our financial sector  is slowly recovering, and now the biggest problem for the American economy is that the working class has not recovered. These numbers show that the working class has not recovered like businesses. Granted most small businesses are not in shape to survive  another collapse, but its important to realize if businesses are going to survive the standard of living of Americans needs to improve. 
The second reason the increase of Hispanics into poverty is also troubling. It is known that the Hispanic population is the largest growing population in the United States. The increase of Hispanics into the US population, but their inability to get into the middle class will affect America. With the largest growing group having the most difficultly becoming middle class, the need to help this group is very important.  Now how to help this group is the more complex problem that needs to be solved.  I will tackle this in a later post.
It is important overall to realize that to solve our problems we need to work together.