A 47%er and Proud of It

I'm one of  the 47% Romney despises.  And I'm am proud to be in the 47%!

I'm 76 years old and live entirely on Social Security.  All the savings my second husband and I had for retirement instead went to his medical expenses before he died.  Because I now have only Social Security as income, I owe no federal income taxes.

In his infinite ignorance, Romney doesn't know that a big chunk of the 47% he attacks are elderly people like me.  Also he fails to recognize that those of us who collect Social Security and use Medicare PAID into those systems for years and years.

I got my Social Security card when I was 12 years old.  My husband also began working as a kid.  We worked all our lives.  We put ourselves through college in the days before Pell grants and federal loans, but I certainly do not begrudge these to today's students, bless them.  (They too are among the 47% who get benefits but are too low in income to pay income taxes.)

My husband spent his whole working life in the defense and advancement of this country.  He worked on the space program, on the U2, on the ICBM silos.  He spent years in Vietnam as a civilian helping set up systems to detect Viet Cong tunnels into our camps.  And he was shot at.  He spent more years installing radio surveillance stations on the entire perimeters of Russia and China so we would know what they were up to and not launch  WWIII because our radar picked up a flight of birds.  He spent a lot of lonely years in hardship postings.

Before marrying my second husband, I raised six kids as a single parent for 15 years, working at whatever I could that would allow me some time with my kids.  My youngest had epilepsy and died at age 16. The others all turned out great and are solid, contributing citizens. I worked as both a volunteer and paid staffer in political campaigns and as a teacher of thousands of youngsters.  And I wrote a book,  "Women of the West" (under my then-name of Dorothy Gray).  It's about inspirational pioneer women on the frontier and, after 36 years. it's still in print.

In short, my second husband and I earned every single penny of what I get in Social Security, and we did it the hard way, all the time paying a higher rate of income tax than Romney pays.

Today there are millions of single parents struggling as I did.  They don't pay income taxes because they DON'T EARN ENOUGH!  The fault is not in their stars but in our society.  We have an economy that grossly favors the Mitt Romneys and not working people, as does our tax system. And compared to other leading nations, we do next to nothing to help our single parents or families in general.

Obama is trying to help families.  That's what Obamacare is about.  He's also trying to lift wages and create jobs.  That's what his Jobs Act would do if the GOP would let it pass.  He's trying to help all people get better educations, including single parents.  That's why he took the federal student loan program out of the hands of the banks and increased Pell grants.  He's the best friend of single parents.

Romney's whole holier-than-thou orientation looks down on single parents as moochers and probably as immoral.

Obama is also the best friend of Social Security and Medicare.  Romney is their enemy and thus the enemy of the 47% who are over 65 or will get there in a few years.

I'm part of the 47% and proud of it!  And I'm proud to support our fine young president.  Romney and his fellow plutocrats should hang their heads in shame for exploiting this country and not carrying their share of the cost of all they benefit from.

Those of us on Social Security may be old, but we are not stupid!

                                                     *********************

Hey, Mr. Romney!  When I was working as a consultant so I could stagger my hours around raising six kids, I had to pay the entire Social Security deduction of 15% because there was no "employer" to split the charge.  So I was paying a higher percent just for Social Security than you now pay in income taxes on your entire income.  Tell you what, I'll show you my tax returns and you show us yours!