Juvenalian Judgments: Mitt Romney Hates Poor People

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George Bush hates black people, Congress hates vegetables (but loves pizza!), and Mitt Romney hates poor people. True story. After his recent Florida primary victory over his opponent, Newt “The Angry Pillsbury Doughboy” Gingrich, Romney made a true-to-heart Republican comment, “I’m not concerned about the very poor …” When asked to clarify, he went on to say, “They have a safety net for them.” Brilliant, Romney. Just brilliant. My favorite part is when he says that, in our country, the very poor are doing just as well as the very rich. You know, since the poor have government safety nets, and the rich have … swimming pools filled with gold bullion. I think it’s fair to say that those two groups are evenly matched.

A couple days later, Romney made sure to clarify that he doesn’t actually hate poor people. Quite the contrary, in fact! He is very willing to fix any holes that may be holding “the poors” back. You know, since Romney’s “Believe in America” plan involves cutting poverty-program spending ($700 billion in Medicaid, and $127 billion in Pell Grants). So, if by “fixing the holes in the net,” he means, “destroying the infidel-holding net completely,” then he is absolutely keeping his promise to help the lower class.

Now, keep in mind, it’s not that Mitt Romney hates poor people. It’s just that the middle class is his supposed target audience (as in he is targeting to get rid of them). I don’t know about you, but I find it very interesting that Romney has taken on an Obama-esque campaign of pretending to be the savior of the middle-class. A working class hero, if you will. I’m sure John Lennon would be turning in his grave right now.

Before anyone jumps on the cult-leader’s bandwagon (although, in his case, I’m sure it’s more like a band-private jet), I think we shouldn’t forget that he is in the top 1 percent. In fact, if you took 2 percent of his $21.7 million, it would still put you into the elite(ist) 1 percent. So how can the ultra-rich relate to the lower class? I think that is the most important thing to consider. To start, I don’t think that giving a $82,000 tax break to his friends in the 1 percent is the most appealing to the lower or middle class. If that isn’t enough of a tax break, take into account that the Tax Policy Center calculates that Romney’s plan would give the top 10 percent of the top 1 percent an average tax break of over $865,000. Meanwhile, he is making sure that things like college tuitions are not covered by the government. Or health care. Or family planning medicine (unless it has to do with planning to pray to be abstinent).

So is Romney really looking out for the middle class? Is he really trying to maintain the safety net for the working class? I know he says he’s for America, but, as a friend of mine said, “He panders like a politician, and thinks like a corporation.”

Justin Huft is a third-year psychology and social behavior major. He can be reached at jhuft@uci.edu.