About That 47%
Governor Romney Is Correct
by
Andrew P. Napolitano
Recently
by Andrew P. Napolitano: What
If November Changes Nothing?
As readers
of this column and viewers of Fox News Channel may know, I have
not hesitated to criticize Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign
and the governor himself. I have argued that his message is muddled
and his values are unknown beyond his ardent wish to improve economic
conditions through the use of free market mechanisms rather than
central economic planning, a position with which I agree entirely.
I have also
maintained that his willingness to abandon, or not to accept, first
principles has made these questions reasonable: If Romney is elected
president, which Romney will show up for work on Jan. 20, 2013?
Will it be the Romney who ran to the left of Ted Kennedy in 1994,
the Romney who governed Massachusetts as Mario Cuomo governed New
York, or the Romney who now claims to be a “severe” (his
word) conservative? Will it be the Romney who spent the entire presidential
primary season assuring conservative Republican primary voters that
he’ll dismantle Obamacare on “Day One” (his phrase), or
the Romney who told reporters last week that he approves of a limited
federal role in managing health care? Or will it be the Romney who,
when caught by the press saying something not intended for public
consumption but demonstrably true, sticks to his guns?
A few months
ago, at a private fundraiser, Romney spoke to supporters and contributors
and observed that 47 percent of Americans do not pay any income
tax, and thus his call for not raising taxes (though he wants to
eliminate some familiar deductions, which is the functional equivalent
of raising some folks’ taxes) will not resonate with the voters
in that group. Then he went on to say that this is roughly the same
47 percent who are dependent upon the government for part or all
of their subsistence; and to that subsistence of food, shelter,
education and clothing, the feds have now added health care. Then
he referred to those dependent upon the government as “victims”
(his word). Then, among my leftish colleagues in the press, all
hell broke loose.
The reason
hell broke loose among most of the media is that Romney spoke a
painful truth, and often a painful truth is difficult to accept.
I have argued that FDR deliberately set out to create dependence
upon the federal government – and hence upon virtually all Democrats
in Congress and Republicans afraid to resist them – by establishing
entitlement programs and inducing reliance upon them. FDR went so
far as to lie to Americans when he stated that the federal government
will “hold” (his word) your Social Security contributions
for you until you retire, and then you’ll receive your nest egg
of cash. We know he lied about this, because at the same time he
was saying that the money deducted from your pay is yours, he dispatched
Justice Department lawyers to argue in a constitutional challenge
of Social Security before the Supreme Court that the money deducted
from your pay is the government’s money, and the government can
spend it as it wishes. The Supreme Court agreed with that argument.
Now comes Romney
to say that this has gotten out of hand. The feds have deliberately
created a class of persons – 47 percent of people living in America
today – dependent upon them. The governor is right. Anyone lulled
into a false sense of security is a victim, and any government that
has deceived members of the public to get them there is dangerous.
Thus, the revelation that the big-government types who have dominated
the federal government for 100 years, who want voters dependent
upon them so that they can count on their votes, and who have made
those voters victims have stung the Obama campaign and its media
supporters. Romney was correct to call the 47 percent who are dependent
upon the government victims of the government’s deceptions and lust
for power, and he is courageous to stick to his guns.
Dependency
breeds a sense of complacency and entitlement and fosters a government
that – in order to stay in power – will further that dependency.
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton agreed on little publicly,
but they did agree that when the public treasury becomes a public
trough and the voters recognize that, they will send to the government
only those who promise them a bigger piece of the government pie.
Then, sooner
or later, the government will run out of other people’s money. Romney
understands that.
Reprinted
with the author’s permission.
September 20, 2012
Andrew P.
Napolitano [send
him mail], a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey,
is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano
has written six books on the U.S. Constitution. The most recent
is It
Is Dangerous To Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case
for Personal Freedom. To find out more about Judge Napolitano
and to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists,
visit creators.com.
Copyright
© 2012 Andrew P. Napolitano