The subject of so-called ?entitlements? is sure to come up at tonight?s first?presidential debateand so perhaps it makes sense to disabuse candidate Romney of his transfer payment fallacies and fantasies before he begins to speak.?
By now we?ve all seen the?footage.? First publicized by Mother Jones in September, the infamous seven-minute clip depicts Mitt Romney openly excoriating the ?47 percent? of parasitic ?Americans dependent of government? at a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida. (As an aside, the inflation-adjusted?median household income?for an American family is currently $50,054.)
I give you, Mitt, in his own words?
?There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for [P]resident [Obama] 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 that 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.?
Although Romney?s claim that ?47 percent? of freeloading Americans don?t pay?income tax?is easy enough to disclaim, his remarks represent a more insidious worldview that many conservatives unwittingly embrace. Romney?s anomic ?entitlement society? theory begs the question: Exactly who? do republicans think benefit most from programs like unemployment insurance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), food stamps (SNAP), and Medicaid?
Well, remember back in January when?Newt Gingrich?told a crowd of seniors in New Hampshire that “the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps?? Or recall when Rick Santorum claimed that he ?[didn?t] want to make black people?s lives better by giving them other people?s money? (although he later contended that he never intentionally said “black”)? Or what about back in 1976 when presidential candidate Ronald Reagan repeatedly recited tales of a woman?a ?welfare queen? from the ?South Side of Chicago?who ?has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security card, and is collecting veteran?s benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands?Medicaid?food stamps, and welfare under each of her names?? Remember that?
Conservatives have mastered the art of generating and then exploiting the racial anxieties of white, rural, working-class voters at the expense of fact-based discourse.
Contrary to the well-worn GOP mantra, the most recent non-partisan research on social service programming suggests that the typical so-called ?entitlement recipient? isn?t black, or brown, or an undocumented immigrant, but rather a low-income, elderly white woman living in Appalachia.
According to data released last February by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), eight of the ten states in which transfer payments comprise the greatest percentage of personal income are those with a disproportionately large population of ?non-Hispanic white? voters. And, in fact, the state whose residents most benefit from transfer payments?West Virginia?is??93 percent??non-Hispanic white.?
These data are further substantiated by a February 2012 report published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) finding that ?non-Hispanic whites receive slightly?more?than their proportionate share of ?entitlement? benefits.? Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 64 percent of the population in 2010 and received 69 percent of the entitlement benefits.?? In contrast, they report, ?Hispanics made up 16 percent of the population but received 12 percent of the benefits, less than their proportionate share ? likely because they are a younger population and also because immigrants, including many legal immigrants, are ineligible for various benefits.? And finally, ?Non-Hispanic African Americans account for 12 percent of the population and received 14 percent of the benefits.?
That these data are not more frequently cited is unsurprising because they represent a direct challenge to entrenched linkages between whiteness and self-governance and whiteness and personal responsibility.? The fact is that white Americans in predominantly red states are the largest beneficiaries of transfer payments.
Conservative attempts to cast people of color?especially African Americans and Latin@s?as overly dependent on government largess can only work for so long. The public is?entitled?to know the truth.
Source:?CHRISTOPHER PETRELLA
