Margaret and Helen

Margaret, I can’t understand why Mitt is behind in the polls.    Just think of the millions of jobs that he has created with his wealth.   Oodles and oodles of them.   Why, the Staples story alone should have put this election away weeks ago.

In 1986, Mitt Romney and Bain provided $4.5 million to two supermarket executives, Leo Kahn and Thomas G. Stemberg, to open an office supply supermarket.  That retail chain called Staples went public in 1989 and by  1996, the company had grown to over 1,100 stores, and by 2008, over 2,000 stores.  Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment, and Romney sat on the Staples board of directors for over a decade.  Rumor has it, he hasn’t eaten dinner at an ironing board since.

Well that’s impressive if you ask me.  Why wouldn’t we all line up to vote for that man? All that hard work keeping our economy strong deserves a good ‘ole fashion tax cut and a trip to the Oval Office.  What’s the problem?  It’s all simple math.  Create jobs.  Get a tax cut.  Use your tax cut to create more jobs.   The Republican way.

Now a smart man would simply shut up and let his actions speak for him.  But Mitt is not a smart man.  Instead of shutting up, he said this:

“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…  My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Ouch.  Some of those 47% are eating tuna fish off an ironing board right now.

See, here’s the problem.  Some of those 47% people are like me – old and eligible for Medicare.  Some of those people are like my grandson – smart and taking out loans to get through college because his dad doesn’t have a company to give him right now.   Some of those people are even military families just trying to make ends meet.   But some of those people – those 47% who think they are victims and expect the government to take care of them – are Staples employees who work full-time and are just trying to put food on the table for their families.  We call them the working poor.

An entry level job at Staples pays between $7 and $9 an hour.  If you do the math, that’s between $15,000 and $19,000 a year.    The poverty level in America for a family of three is $18,530.  As long as those hard-working Staples employees believe in birth control and don’t have any kids, they can stay just above the poverty level.   Success!  Vote Republican and wait for your tax cut to arrive in the mail.

Of course, you’ll be waiting quite a bit longer for that tax cut than your boss, the CEO of Staples, who made $9 million dollars last year.  I wonder who that guy is voting for?

The way I see it Margaret, it’s just simple math.  If the Republicans want more votes, they might want to consider handing out some raises at Staples.

The party of Jesus sure has gotten pretty far off track.  They forgot one of his basic rules.  I think it was something about the least among us… otherwise called the 47%.

Vote for the other guy.  I mean it. Really.

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