I think Mr. Romney spoke what 53% of Americans really think. I don't think the number is as high as 47% of Americans are dependant on the Government, but it sure is alot higher since Obama came into office. And people quit looking for jobs because the found the benfits are better if you can find a way to become disabled. Maybe the problem is not as prevelant in Iowa, but in other larger state's the people are taking full advantage of this Socialist Presidents agenda.
If you were an Independant rather than a Democrat, this Blog would have more meaning.

James, the number of those dependent on government is higher under Obama because George W. Bush ran the economy off a cliff. He put two foreign wars on a credit card, gave tax cuts to millionaires & billionaires, and deregulated Wall Street more than Bill Clinton did.

Mitt Romney's solution to a bad economy is to give MORE tax cuts to billionaires and millionaires, give more money to the Defense Department, and deregulate Wall Street even more. Those strategies won't lower the national debt. They are likely to raise the national debt.

Pres. Obama failed us by failing to indict a single Wall Street banker who ripped us all off & laughed all the way to the bank. Obama protects Wall Street bankers from angry citizens with pitchforks. Main Street is getting screwed.

Mitt Romney wouldn't just protect Wall Street. He IS Wall Street. He buys companies, forces them to borrow excessive amounts of money, forces them into bankruptcy, fires their workers, & walks away with piles of money.

If elected, Romney would be the richest president ever elected & the only president to hide part of his money in Swiss bank accounts, in the Cayman Islands, and in a Bermuda shell company he invested in to avoid paying federal taxes here.

Why doesn't he release more than two years' worth of tax records? Because he probably didn't pay any taxes for 9-10 years & he doesn't want us to know it.

Obama's a disappointment. He could have done more but chose not to. Romney'd be a disaster.

BTW, sometimes I am an Independent if I get too mad at the Democrats. Right now I'm a Democrat because the stakes are so high.

Evil Genius Villain, hahaha! Your satirical comments remind me of one of Tom Frank's satirical passages in his book "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America":

"... For decades Americans have experienced a populist uprising that only benefits the people it is supposed to be targeting.... The angry workers, mighty in their numbers, are marching irresistibly against the arrogant. They are shaking their fists at the sons of privilege. They are laughing at the dainty affectations of the...toffs. They are massing at the gates...hoisting the black flag, and while the millionaires tremble in their mansions, they are bellowing out their terrifying demands. 'We are here,' they scream, 'to cut your taxes.'"

I love how liberals have already called the election. Obama has done nothing he claimed he would and left America worse than he found it. When the Plebs realize they can vote themselves a handout... Democracy is lost or you get 4 more years of Obama.

Mitt dug this hole all by his lonesome (no one helped him---he's a self-made hole digger!) and us "liberals" are just watching him dig more holes. No election called. We're still working hard so yes, we can have four more years of having Barack Obama as our president. He's not perfect---no one ever claimed he was, but when he picked up the shovel it was to clean up the mess the GOP left him and the country.

Today we can wish them a Happy 20th Aniversery.

47 % of the population pay no income taxes! Shocking, this simply shows how bad the economy really is, 23 million plus are unemployed and have given up even looking for jobs. Just think, if Romney's economic plans were enacted, more of the 47% would be paying taxes and helping to bring the nation's debt and deficit down. As long as the maria and the democrats sing their siren song of victimology , the 47% will never pay any taxes, will never be employed, will be dependant on the government dole for the rest of their lives, will never be free to pursue life, liberty and happiness, will forever be the slaves of the democratic party , their slave masters.
Woe to the 47% who will never pay taxes and who will never find happiness tied to the government yoke which controls every facet of their lives.
Woe to Maria who is so misguided and drank the cool aid.
Maria and her ilk should see Part 2 of the movie Atlas Shrugged due out in theaters Oct. 3rd. It is a great story about the life and times we are living through but written in a book by Ayn Rand 50 years ago.
Remember Maria in November, Vote NObama, NOclintons, No dimorats!

Twas Night before the Election
T'was the night before elections,
And all thru' the town,
Tempers were flaring
Emotions ran up and down.

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap,
Had shut off the TV,
tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden,
There arose such a noise,
I peered out my window,
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet,
They wanted my pay
To hand out to others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money,
And quick as a wink,
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink.

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart.
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, on Pelosi'
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause,
And as they flew out of sight,
I heard him laugh at a nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!
So I leave you to think
On this one final note...
IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM - - GET OUT AND VOTE !!!

This blog looks like it will generate much enthusiasm. As an outsider ( ind.) looking in, here is my 2 cents worth :

- I think Romney did hurt himself in the latest round. But, on the other hand, he hit the nail on the head.

- What about the comments Obama made to the guy in Russia asking him to "let's wait" until after election time to proceed on whatever they were discussing?

- when you consider what a financial crisis this country is in, one must really wonder if Obama should even stay in office. This crisis will sink us if we don't start solving it NOW. Not 4 years from now when Obama will likely have us an extra 5 trillion in debt, but NOW ( that means TODAY, Sep 20, 2012 ).

- With Obama , we have more people unemployed than ever , more unemployment for a longer period of time than ever, more people on food stamps than ever, and on and on and on. ( like any boat taking on water, you have to have more people bailing water than watching. We have too many watching )

- be sure and ask your Congressman why, if the Affordable Health Care act is so good, why aren't THEY going to be on it ? And, while you are at it, ask for a summary of the new taxes that will be imposed as a result of this act. One of them that I wonder about .... WHY does anyone that sells their house have to pay a 3.8% excise tax to the government ? This is just one of many to come.

- Clint Eastwood said it best - we have to let him ( Obama ) go. It is our only hope of saving this country.

Re: Evil Genius Villain
10:11 pm on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Does this mean I don't get my revolution? I don't care who really starts it. I just want to get it over with and start rebuilding the country. I've laid out a great road map on rebuilding the country. It starts out like this......
"We the people of the United States of America........."

Reply: Evil Genius Villain, hahaha! No, not at all! I was frustrated during the Arab Spring that we weren't having our own. How much worse do things have to get before we realize that our corporate-owned oligarchy is out of control & strangling our democracy?

According to Charles H. Ferguson in "Predator Nation," Obama coddles Wall Street & makes sure that the statute of limitations runs out on corporate crimes of "accounting fraud, honest services violations and bribery, perjury & making false statements to federal investigators, Sarbanes-Oxley violations (civil & criminal), RICO offenses & criminal antitrust violations, federal aid disclosure regulations, & personal conduct offenses (possession & use of drugs [including] cocaine), hiring of prostitutes, employment of prostitutes for business purposes, fraudulent billing of personal or illegal services as business expenses (sexual services, strip club patronage, & nightclub patronage) fraudulent use or misappropriation of corporate assets or services for personal use (e.g., use of corporate jets), personal tax evasion, & a variety of other offenses."

Who do we choose to be our president??

Romney IS a tax evader, an out-of-touch plutocrat who has no clue how the rest of us live, and enjoys firing people.

Hmmmm...

I'm going with Obama, but the revolution can't come soon enough for me.

Maria is clearly quite misinformed and appears to be a party activist. Her comments are misinformed, and misrepresentative of reality of the economic circumstances the nation finds itself in. Obama and his ilk in the democratic party are the problem not the solution. So, making all these idiotic little smart alek remarks about Romney are really missing the real story of Obama's failed administration, failed policies and intentions to doom America into a permanently low to no growth economy with 47% of the people on the dole and so on...Maria needs to get off the liberal cool aid and start drinking from the cup of reality. As long as o bama and his ilk are in office, America will not get out of the ditch.
Remember in November, Vote NObama, NOclintons, NOdemorats...

I am tired of people crying about the 47% who don't pay taxes. Well most of them should be. I admitt that there are some people who need assistance because they are ill or have ill children or single mothers who don't get support from thier childrens fathers, vets who cannot work etc. but when women keep having illigitamate kids just to get a bigger ckeck is wrong. And what about those people who sell thier food stamps to get money for alcohol and drugs? The system is broken and until they start drug testing everyone who applys for assistance it will never change.

Joe, BTW, don't call me a party activist. I tried to serve on the Johnson County Democratic Central Committee and they wouldn't have me. You know how I got to appoint myself to the Johnson County Democratic Central Committee? I was the only Democrat/Independent to show up for the Jan. 23rd, 2010 caucus for Precincts 6 and 12. The only one!

You see how my conscientiousness was repaid, with insults and rudeness.

Republicans are sweet and polite in person. I even have good friends who are Republicans. It's Republican politics I can't stand.

When are some people going to get it through their heads that MANY of the 47% are hard-working Americans who simply don't make enough money to pay federal income tax. They aren't going to pay more than the IRS requires of them just as those who make tons of money aren't. Following the tax code does not a freeloader make.

maxine wiemer
2 hours ago
"If I were lucky enough to have the money that Romney does, I too would put it in off shore accounts so I could keep more of it and not have to give the goverment a big majority. He isn't a tax evader he is a smart business man. It is his money and he can put it wherever he wants to."

Reply: You're straight out of Tom Frank's satirical passages in his book "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America":

"... For decades Americans have experienced a populist uprising that only benefits the people it is supposed to be targeting.... The angry workers, mighty in their numbers, are marching irresistibly against the arrogant. They are shaking their fists at the sons of privilege. They are laughing at the dainty affectations of the...toffs. They are massing at the gates...hoisting the black flag, and while the millionaires tremble in their mansions, they are bellowing out their terrifying demands. 'We are here,' they scream, 'to cut your taxes.'"

@ David Leonard and Maria :

Just like everything else that Congress dows, if they want to experience what they have approved for the citizens they represent, they should be on the same plan as they are proposing to everyone else. Otherwise..... where is the incentive to correct any issues ?

Plus, I would be willing to bet you that the Congress people have a plan that is pretty darn good .... paid for by the taxpayers. Since it is so good, they certainly would not want to get on "the people's plan".

We are in for a real string of bad years, I think.

And, regarding those 47% that supposedly don't pay taxes - they actually do pay taxes, but not on their returns. What they are doing is 100% legal and proper as our tax system is broken. The taxes they pay are things such as propoerty tax, sales tax, etc etc. What they don't pay ( or, better said is what they get back ) is the IRS taxes, because whatever they paid gets refunded, based on their AGI, tax tables, etc. Still, it points out that the system needs fixing, and it has been this way for quite a while. Just not this bad.

Romney did indead earn his money..people who say he didn't and say he is a tax evader are just jealous.

Maybe its because he has released what is required of him and the rest is his own business. Is it against the law to have accounts in those places and live in the US? No I didn't think so. Whats the big deal he has shown the world what he must and that is all he has to do.

I believe as long as obama refuses to release his school records at Harvard and his publications and themes at Harvard then Romney should even release a single fart!
Worse yet, the libs on this blog are not aware that obama was raised as a kid of privelege both overseas in Indonesia, in Hawaii and after claiming he was a foreign student was given free tuition and expenses at Harvard....
Kudos to Maxine for standing up Maria and her liberal rants...amen

Has any president ever released his college records and his college writing? If so, I'd like their names and where I can find what they released.

It may not be a requirement to release your collage records but it sure might give us alittle insight into the real meaning behind this attempted democratic takeover. Obama is just the puppet people, I believe their is a much bigger force working on all the people of our great country and "He" is just the messenger............Obama is a muslim, need I say more?

Muslim? Really Maxine? I have to believe by the tone of your writing that you are being sarcastic or a troll because it's all too off kilter to be anything but "baiting" satire.

Waiting for the "democratic" takeover----is that like the Rapture?
Laughing or else I'd cry at the insanity of some of these posts...

It is amazing to me that many Democrats while criticizing Romney for his comments about the lazy 47% still unwittingly buy into many of the false premises of that depiction of our economy.

The most obvious example is someone who has worked ALL of their lives and PAID income tax AND paid into Social Security and Medicare. When they retire and start to get Social Security checks and health care via Medicare then they suddenly become part of the lazy, irresponsible 47%! Really Mitt? Is that who the GOP considers irresponsible and dependent on government?

On the other side of the ledger we do all benefit when entrepreneurs risk capital and work hard to create successful businesses. In my opinion we do not do enough to make it easier for individuals to start businesses because established businesses lobby government to put up barriers that limit competition. And established businesses are very effective in offloading their costs onto taxpayers in ways that we take for granted; the costs of pollution, infrastructure, training, law enforcement and much, much more when corporations make governments compete against each other to site their facilities. Taxpayers built that and companies and wealthy owners benefit and they use their market leverage to limit competition.

Yes, those who build businesses should be well rewarded but that does not mean they should be able to pull up the ladders of opportunity behind them and not pay for the costs of doing business.

@ Joe Dygas - actually, the Kennedy family got their fortune by dealing in illegal liquor. The fortune they amassed has been passed down from generation to generation. To paraphrase one economic professor : to make a lot of money in life, start with a lot of money and make it grow. Our debt is actually this in reverse - a huge debt and getting bigger. It is close to the point of being irreversible ( too big to pay off, unless you extend it out 500+ years. ) What is the interest on 16 trillion dollars, at the low low rate of 5% per year. Astounding !!! Now, try to figure out a way to pay this off. What are the options ? This is the challenge facing America.

I was absolutely NOT being sarcastic, this world is nothing to joke about. You on the other hand are only barking up the wrong tree and need to get a clue.
If all the "so called" business owners had your mind set we'e all be in trouble.

Kurt B., another challenge we face is your desire to catapult the stagnant recovery into another Great Depression by drastically cutting back on spending at a time when we need to infuse the economy with money given to people who are likely to spend it the quickest: the struggling middle class, retirees on a fixed income, the unemployed collecting unemployment insurance, and the handicapped. Those folks can't afford to hoard money and collapse the economy by refusing to spend it -- that's what the rich are doing.

Our economy is 70% consumer driven.

Troy Murphy
12:29 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
"According to Democrats it does, you attack Romney on every turn for following the tax code then when we complain about the freeloaders, oh they are just following the tax code. Sorry but as usual you liberals want it both ways. Now we also know what Maria really thinks of the poor, they are peasants with pitch forks according to her, talk about an elitist attitude."

Reply: Troy Murphy, I grew up very poor. We often didn't have milk or meat in our house. I had to be nice to the son of our grocer, because his dad let us charge groceries and brought us venison once in a while. I worked at a local army base on a Youth Opportunity Grant. When I was 17 years old, I won a full-ride academic scholarship to the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY because I scored in the 700s on my SATs and had good grades. I am sorry that such opportunities are no longer as available to poor but intelligent students.

maxine wiemer, I never said I was special. I am educated, however. I am grateful that I was fortunate enough to have received an outstanding education. People can educate themselves, however, if they're predisposed to take the time and effort.

Well, it appears that in the world of business and folks who invent things, that most of the successful ones never went to college, so, college and university degrees are not always the path to great wealth or success in that sense. The origins of Apple and Microsoft got started ina garage...even zuckerbergs invention of facebook did not require college knowledge but only computer knowledge...starting a business does not require college but having a marketable idea ... not as easy as that sounds...and so on...look at obama with a harvard degree and he has turned America into a fiscal swamp overnight with his socialist anti colonial nonsensical ideology... where are the guys with the pitchforks anyway...let's have the revolution Maria keeps yakking about...ha ha ... Keep em honest Kurt...it is like batting flies with a swatter...ha ha

Kurt B., I actually think learning is a lifelong process. I continue to educate myself all the time. I'm reading "No Easy Day" by the Navy Seal (pseudonym = Mark Owen) who helped put Osama bin Laden away in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and I'm rereading Tom Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America."

I also like to read books about genetics, the history of the English language, and books about the economy and politics. Fiction is nice for a change sometimes too.

I don't plan to stop educating myself. It's a journey, it's interesting, and it's fun. If I quit learning after two degrees I wouldn't know very much.

Joe Dygas, on the contrary. I think Pres. Obama has made a good start on colonializing Afghanistan, and I'm not sure we shouldn't, assuming that we can afford it.

Also, for a socialist, Obama has amassed surprisingly massive campaign donations from Wall Street. If he were a socialist, I don't think Wall Street, including Bain Capital, would have given Obama a dime. All of his coddling of Wall Street and refusal to indict, much less prosecute, corporate criminals on Wall Street has really paid off! Some "socialist"!

oh thats good Troy!

Ok, so if Mitt is right, 47% of we Americans of working age do not pay income taxes. I just wonder how many stay-at-home-moms are included in his figure? None? Including Mitt's wife perhaps?- who I can't help but admire. But, still...If I was his wife when he made that comment, if I was there, I would've just cringed, while wanting to smack him. Moms who have ever stayed at home for whatever reasons, we see how our working at all, will never figure into that 47%.

@ Maria : your blog has generated some excellent feedback. Between Joe Dygas, Troy Murphy, Maxine and Charlotte, we have enough good ideas generated here to get a good start on turning this country around. Joe's 10-steps are priceless !! Excellent.

And to Charlotte : I don't know how they figure the "47%" figure, but it is probably from the tax records submitted to IRS. Therefore, a housewife ( or a househusband, like I was once ) would not be in this category as they would not be submitting a return unless that person were the head of a household and submitted a return. I do think a flat tax is a good idea worth considering.It just makes sense .... everyone is benefitting from the security our armed forces are providing ..... let's all chip in. The only issue I see is - the legislature people are the ones that need to make the decision. If whatever they are proposing doesn't benefit them, they won't act on it.

It appears that us few bloggers are in some form of consensus on the way forward. Maria your mission impossible as the official english major grad of the group is to prepare a letter to Iowa's congressional delegation reflecting all the good ideas we have promoted here. Kudos to everyone for their passionate ideas practical or not.

Here is an easy one.... Flat tax.... Everyone pays, NO special interest deductions... Rich end up paying more than the poor... No one pays anything for the first $30,000 earned... Wouldn't need to wast so much money on employee IRS agents... Gov tax income would go up and spending on all the IRS would go down.... Eliminate the Earned Income Credit where people cheat and get a "TAX REFUND" that is more than the actual income tax they paid in... Pathetic

Can I get a rough age range of this remarkably enthusiastic group of Tea Partiers?

I'll start, though I'm not a Tea Partier, obviously. I'm 63 years old.

I have Maria beat age wise...I like the flat tax idea...further discussion and some facts are needed...but the real issue at the moment of course is preventing the apple cart from going over the cliff, and reducing spending in an intelligent way not by sequestration which is equivalent to fiscal castration to coin a phrase, ;-)

Charlotte G., you're on to something. Our disappearing middle class is getting poorer all the time. Our real wages (what our money is actually worth/can purchase) have been declining since Bill Clinton left office. Between 2002 and 2006, the average inflation adjusted income of the top 1% of earners increased by 42%, whereas the bottom 90% only saw an increase of 4.7%.

As my bumper sticker says,

"At least the war on the middle class is going well."

According to the British historian and journalist Godfrey Hodgson, "On the basis of such evidence I myself have written that 'by all statistical measures . . . the United States, in terms of income and wealth, is the most unequal country in the world. While the average income in the United States is still almost the highest in the world . . . the gap between wealth and poverty is higher than anywhere else, and is growing steadily greater.'"

-- "The middle-class squeeze," Wikipedia

Charles H. Ferguson ("The Inside Job" and "Predator Nation") said that the United States has a more rigid class structure than Europe.

Can't you feel it? Isn't that why the right-wing shock troops resent the educated so much? Be assured that some of your suspicions are correct. Guys like the sexist former president of Harvard University, Larry Summers, and others like him have made it clear that they are for sale. Academia is corrupted like the rest of our society.

O wow, I have missed lots of good conversation here. Lots of mud slinging. But it's been fun to read. Troy Murphy, your logic is on point.

I think as much as I don't want to admit it, there are those people within the 47% range who do choose not to work because they feel entitled to receive all the freebies as they possibly can. Be it food stamps, money or any other kind of handout. That is why the welfare system is in dyre need of a major overhaul. Those women who continue to have children well into their forty's just so the checks they receive will keep getting bigger is just plain wrong. And what about the people who sell their food stamps or trade them for drugs? Mandatory drug testing for every single person who applys for assistance should be a law. I beleive there are those who qualify and those who need to prove it.

Just for general info, alittle about myself so some people won't think I am just some random loon. I am 58 yrs. young, still married to my high school sweetheart after 40 years, have 4 beautiful grown children, and 8 even more beautiful grand children. I lead aquiet life, have my own homebased business and am very passionate about what I care most about and one of those things is doing all I can to make sure my grandkids will have the freedom to persue the things in life they may choose to. Life, Liberty and the persuit of Happiness...that's what they deserve, thats what we all deserve. Obama's gotta go.

Hi Maxine congratulations on staying married so long. I also have 4 beautiful daughters 5, 9, 12, and 14. Married 21 years and I am 46. I argue politics for 4 reasons and they are listed above. I hold the fundamental belief that you can't tax and spend your way to prosperity and that taxing one man at a higher rate than another is fundamentally thievery at best and immoral at its worst. On social issues I really am ambivalent as long as I don't pay for the consequences of your actions

@ Maxine : As I see it - yes. The IRS would have you down as a taxpayer since your return is a joint one. And, I do agree 100% with you .... a flat tax is much fairer than what we have now. I see that the geniuses in France have decided to tax those that make over 1 million Euro ( about 1.25 million $ ) a hefty 75% rate "until the crisis is over". The only thing is ..... the crisis is never over so once they get the revenues coming in from the wealthy at the 75% rate, something else develops that requires them to raise it to 80% and so on. We can't let this happen here.

And I , like others blogging here, have 4 reasons also that makes me super-concerned. 4 kids ; 3 girls and one boy. As I had stated in other blogs, I am a naturalized citizen but went to h.s. in USA , graduated from college in USA , served in the US Army, and have traveled all over the world. I can tell you one thing : from what I have seen in the USA, we have very very little poverty compared to such countries as South Africa, Brazil and Mexico. There is no place in the world like the USA and it is worth all of our efforts to make sure we do not get shoved over the financial cliff that is upon us.

One other thing : Maria can sure generate some feedback from the local communities !! Congrats Maria on your blog !!

Charlotte, as I grew up I always heard things like "poor" middle class, "the middle" class and "upper" middle class. So I assumed it was some sort of tier used only for measureing where you actually fit into the middle class.

As much as I am enjoying this forum, I'm sorry but everytime I log on I have to see "Mitt the Twit" and it is really pissing me off. I would rather see something like "Obama the one term President!"

Charlotte, I think maybe you had a few too many nips at the koolaid last night if you really believe what you just posted.

Charlotte....being in the middle class is certainly a waypoint in life and not a destination. Think about it, do you tell your children to strive only to make it to the middle class or do you tell them to go far and become all they can be? Who would settle for being in the middle class if they could make into the "rich" catagory? What you said makes no sense and why do you think Romney wants to do away with the middle class? Are you saying there should only be 2 classes of people...the rich and the poor and no one in the middle? That is absurd.

Last man/woman to post wins? I think you all have set a new comments record on Patch.

maxine, please stop with the personal attacks and insults. You're not contributing anything positive or fact-based to these comments.

To Charlotte G.'s comment: "Jack, I am tired of hearing about the middle classes' woes, too, but why should you subject/object to any subjective "middle class." as you say? However you define it? Do you want to get rid of that class here? You say middle class is a "waypoint in life not a destination." Wow! It seems many in the middle class are sitting quite happily there, as always, while certainly never thinking they were living "on a very low income.", as you say. Oh, I see so clearly, whatever concerns the middle class has now, in their newest definition, should all realize their class is about to be eliminated if Mitt is elected. You make no mention of the lowest caste, oh, I mean, class-the poorest of the poor? They will be left over afterwards as always in being poorest, if Mitt wins, but it will be a very hard leap for any of them to climb out of their class, to the next, since there is no middle class in-between. Thank you, and goodnight, dear Jack...."

Reply: Yes, I was struck with the "middle class as waypoint" comment too. It looks like at least one of the posters here is Mitt's target audience: the rich. You're right about Mitt Romney consigning the working poor, the elderly, the handicapped, veterans looking for work, and the middle class to oblivion. That's an awful lot of us.

Mitt doesn't seem to realize that 61% of those who pay no federal income taxes, though they do pay payroll, property, and sales tax, are the working poor.

The simple reason Maria is not wealthy as she has said, is because english majors are not in demand for any particular reason. Now if she had written a famous novel and published it, Like Ayn Rand published the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged then she would be both famous and wealthy. Had she been an engineer she might have made it into the upper middle class, had she majored in Business she would be in bankruptcy thanks to obama, had she majored in science she might have become famous but would still be living in poverty or she might have majored in religeon and perhaps she could have saved the souls of the world of islam .... but alas it is too late for any of that now. But to be jealous or envious of the success of others is merely pathetic.

I'm not rich and never have been. I would like the negative comments to stop. Maxine, I never said I'm "not rich because I have an Ivy League education." That would be a ridiculous thing to say. My sister Kristin has an Ivy League education (Yale) and she IS rich. She's an attorney. I am not rich. Having an Ivy League education is no guarantee of wealth.

Given that 47% are living off the federal state

including 25% which are unemployed probably because the 1% send their jobs to China, Robots and low pay countries?

Including 30% of Americans that are living off the military industrial complex ?

I can understand that those 30% must have the US go waste ammunitions, vehicles, and armament in some countries so their business strive while they keep their jobs secure, living off government contracts ...

maxine, you're right. I said, "Joe Dygas, some naive folks like myself think that getting a good education is a good thing in and of itself. I'm not rich because I got an Ivy League education."

I was wrong. I should have said that I feel intellectually and spiritually enriched because I got an Ivy League education, but I do not possess a lot of money.

I got to hear lectures by Carl Sagan and other outstanding professors. I like learning, and learning is a lifelong process. I enjoy reading and learning about other people.

Raising children was/is probably the most challenging things I've ever done in my life. I didn't have good parents myself, so having poor role models makes it very tough to do the right thing when you're frustrated. What I've tried to do is be a "good enough parent," in the words of Bruno Bettelheim, and give my kids the most love and nurturing as well as the best advice from life experience that I'm capable of.

Maxine, you've raised children who went to college. That's an achievement in and of itself.

John Doe, thanks for coming in to remind us of the wealthiest 1% of Americans like Mitt Romney who got rich buying factories in China and shipping jobs overseas. He also got rich by buying American companies, forcing those companies to borrow huge amounts of money, driving them into bankruptcy, and then firing 30,000 workers at a time. The companies he bought often suffered. Only a few survived, like Staples, which offers low-wage jobs with few if any benefits.

What makes people think a president who spent most of his FIRST TERM as a US Senator campaigning for another office, knows what he is doing? The man has never run anything.

More people are out of work now then when Obama took office. And some want to re-elect him??? WTF?

Keith Best, not me. Obama certainly wasn't my first choice. He was my last choice ahead of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM). However, despite Obama's coddling of Wall Street, failure to indict a single corporate criminal, and failure to indict a single Bush43 administration war criminal, I'm going to hold my nose and vote for him.

Mitt Romney is so rich he has no clue how the rest of us live. He thinks that if kids want to go to college, they should "borrow money from their parents." In his world, maybe. My parents gave me a blanket to take with me to college. My father quit work and went to the same university I did. After I left home, sometimes my brother and sister didn't have enough to eat. My father accepted a Thorgrad Fellowship to do his post-doc in Sweden, and my parents weren't allowed to work in Sweden.

Mitt Romney is a sociopathic predator who "enjoy[s] firing people."

I think Barack Obama has some idea of how the rest of us live and wants to get as far away from an economically marginal life as fast as he can.

We have to vote for the lesser of two evils. I'm voting for Obama in the hopes he grows a pair in his second term.

Keith I have to agree with you that Obama didn't have what it takes to be president. The only good thing he had and still has is his smoothe way of talking. But this is a loosing battle when you try to get any democrat to see things from the other perspective. They are blindsided by the light of Obamas mouth. He is being told what to say every step of the way, thats why its so hard for him to speak without the teleprompter.He isn't a genius, he is the puppet..

And Maria, Romney dosen't "enjoy" fireing people, that was his job at the time, but if he is elected you better believe there will be plenty of fireing

Maxine, I'm happy that your life turned out so well. I'm glad you enjoy your children and grandchildren. Life is what you make of it.

Exactly.

Maria I am one of the lucky ones because I had parents who loved and guided me in the right direction, a husband for 40 years who supports me and still loves me after all these years and 4 wonderful kids and 8 fantastic grandkids who all have my heart. I wouldn't trade any of them for anything. I only wish other women could see how precious life really is and not treat it as if it were a candy wrapper on the floor.

maxine, you may accuse me of making no sense in my postings to you. Fine. But, while I make no sense, intentional or not, to your views, well, you are the epitome of senselessness. It doesn't take long on this blog to see how your views only tend to rabble rouse, for whatever issue, and purpose of yours. You, while being passionate in your varied views, just reminds me of the need for your kind to move east, way east. Like to other countries where women's rights are not so secure as ours. Nothing to do with abortion, btw, or the hcm paying for contraception or not, or the other social issues here, not to mention the economy, maybe?...BUT, your backwards views, at your age are, well, just like a candy wrapper on the floor. Wow! I saw this analogy from you before, and I was floored. You are precious!

Oh, maxine, I used to think just the Dems could truly be so mean as you in getting their views across, but, I see you and yours are only trying to catch up. Good luck!

maxine, what is your view of independents in this election? Is there a place in either party for them? If not, how will both major parties, at this late stage, try to win them over to one side or another? Is it too late? Please, tell me, and mine...

Charlotte, there is absolutely a place for Independents. They affiliate themselves with neither the Dems or Repubs and make their decisions as to which candidate makes a better fit for them. They will decide which candidate has better views for their way of life and they don't always vote for the same party. This opposite of me because I vote Republican straight across the board.

I early voted yesterday in Iowa and went with the whole Republican Ticket. It is time for real hope and change for policies of substance and not socialism. MR exposed obama's domestic policies for the failures that they are and will in upcoming debates expose his failed foreign policies. For example, the withdrawl from Iraq has allowed Iran to funnel weapons and ammo thru Iraq to the Syrian government which by anyone's standards has been committing genocide of its own people. Obama's policies in Libya and incompetance by sec. clinton led to the death of a US Ambassador and others. Sadly .
Now is time for change. Rise up Independants and show yourselves as a voice for change.
Remember in November, Vote NObama, NOclinton, Nodimorats...amen.

Joe, I agree with you. Not only that, frrom what I read he has a number of UN treaties to foist on the United States and other hard working northern hemisphere countries that would transfer large sums of our hard earned money to third world dictators ( not their people). Also why else would someone want a private gun ownership ban other than to prevent overthrow of nonrepresentative govermnemts?

There is no doubt when obama was elected no one knew just how far to the left he really was thanks to the worthless biased news media. He has been making deals with left wing communist and socialist regimes everywhere. His involvement with the UN has been especially insidious and odious. Since the US is running a trillion dollar deficit for many years into the future, it seems appropriate to put a stop to foreign aid to all these unfriendly, unreliable, unsupportive islamic nations in the middle east. Obama and clinton have avoided conflict with Iran and Syria to say nothing of Libya. Had he not withdrawn troops from Iraq we might have had some influence there. But not now. It is the same old story with the democrats. They have this world socialist view of everything even to the demise of their own country.
Remember in November!

I also think we have to do whatever it takes to have a more balanced and truthful media. The coverage is so left wing biased that we might be better off with no coverage at all. The media needs to be held responsible lawfully for the lies they tell

To All: I've deleted a number of comments that violate Patch's Term of Service. In a nutshell, those terms are: Be Civil. Period. We at Patch have received complaints from readers who are tired of the name-calling posts and general nastiness of a few of you. You likely know who you are. If one more post goes up from you that involves name calling or is otherwise violates our Terms of Service, we'll take the next steps to ensure that Patch remains a forum for CIVIL community interaction. That can include revoking Patch accounts and blocking IP addresses.

Todd, please follow through with your threat. The no name-calling rule goes farther to ensure civil debate than any other single thing you can do. I've been about to go down that name-calling road myself but didn't because I remembered the rule.

+1, Todd Richissin and David Leonard! I embrace the new policy and think that rational people will be more likely to comment with a few rules of engagement.

Thanks, David and Maria.

Ok, I will also play by the rules but there are also those who push your buttons just to get a reaction.

What 5 trillion? The goverenment took in 1.2 trillion dollars in 2012 in federal income tax not total revenue, income tax. 20% of 1.2 trillion is 240 billion. A president serves 4 years so 240 billion times 4 years equals roughly 960 billion dollars or if we assume a growth in income tax that would equal roughly 1 trillion dollars. This also does not take into account any revenue increase due to increased economic activity that can be attributed to the tax cut nor the fact that Romney has stated numerous times that he would close loopholes etc that now exist. That is why Romney says he doesn't have a 5 trillion dollar tax increase and why Obama is a liar.

Basically What Romney said on the ACA is that he would require companies to cover pre-existing conditions as long as their was no lapse in coverage, the difference is it would be up to you to make sure your coverage didn't lapse instead of the federal government baby-sitting you. The second part of his plan was already law before Obamacare. Kids were covered until they were 21 or no longer a DEPENDENT. Here is an interesting fact, I have an employee who has a child who has graduated from college, she is 22, works full time and lives with her significant other. She has insurance available through work. She will be on my insurance for another 4 years at no cost to her. Because our plan has 2 tiers, single and family, she is staying on her parents insurance but what that means is everyone else is paying for her.

+2 Troy