Dear Mr. Romney,
I want to introduce you to my father.
He is a proud man. He is also one of the hardest working people I know.
He is also a veteran.
He served in Korea in the 1950s.
He is still married to the same woman he fell in love with (and still dearly loves) some 58 years ago.
He started his own business.
He raised three kids, all of whom are decent, hard working citizens.
He is a happy grandfather.
He loves America with all of his heart and soul.
But none of that seems to matter to you, Mr. Romney. Your video tells us that you think of my father. My father, in your view, is a government leech. He's a lazy man that pays no taxes and thinks he deserves health care and to be taken care of and be provided housing and food.
My father does indeed think that he deserves health care and to be taken care of by the government and be provided food and housing, because that is exactly what the government promised him!
The government told my father that if he put his life on the line in the military, he would be rewarded with veteran's benefits. The government told my father that if he dutifully paid his FICA taxes, he would receive monthly check to sustain him in his retirement years. The government told my father that if he paid his Medicare taxes like a good little citizen, he would be given health care for the rest of his life when he hit the Golden Age.
He did all of that, Mr. Romney, and now you have the nerve to think he is some sort of drain on American society.
He is one of the 47% you talked about, Mr. Romney. When the economy collapsed in 2008 and 2009, my father and my mother saw their 401(k)s depleted by nearly 60%. They had to take out a reverse mortgage in order to make ends meet. So, because of that and their Social Security plus their deductions, they don't make enough gross income to have to pay federal taxes.
But I am willing to bet that my father would be more than happy to pay federal taxes if he could get all the money he lost from his 401(k) back. I am sure that he would be happy to pay federal taxes if he didn't have to rely on his reverse mortgage.
You have disrespected my father, Mr. Romney. My father deserves all of his benefits because he worked hard for them. Tell me how tough your life was, Mr. Romney, bicycling around Paris and the French countryside trying to gain converts to the LDS Church. I am sure it must have been significantly more dangerous than going to face the North Koreans and their Chinese allies near the 38th parallel.
I will state again, Mr. Romney, that I am very proud of my father. He is a veteran and a patriot and an American and he does, indeed, get government benefits and pays no federal taxes.
And he is 10 times the man you will ever be.