Oh, and I just read a note from a "conservative" who explained the 12 cookies joke (A CEO, a Tea Party Member and a Union Worker are sitting at a table with 12 cookies. The CEO takes 11, and says to the Tea Party Member-- "Watch out, that Union Guy wants to take your cookie!") this way-- The CEO only takes 11 cookies because he produced the cookies, and therefore should have most of the cookies.

when my mother worked as a case worker/benefit examiner for medicaid for seniors, she had a lot more problems with wealthy people gaming the system and hiding assets so that they did not lose their inheritance by paying for their aging parents to be put in a nursing home.

Yeah, my granddad, while not really wealthy, did a bit of this. When Grandma's dementia got so bad that she had to go to a home, granddad put his land (MI Upper Peninsula woods) into my dad's name so Granddad wouldn't have to sell it to pay for Grandma's care. Dad got to pay all the property taxes, but Granddad kept on selling the timber and keeping the money. Which, theoretically, Dad could have stopped with legal action, but it was his father. So that never happened.

I'm assuming this map of people who don't pay income tax, by state, is true: [link]

granddad put his land

I think she would have considered this "wealthy". Interesting fact- Caseworkers are paid next to nothing. On her salary, as a single mom, she would have qualified for benefits but was to embarrassed because the people she would have applied with were her coworkers- they were just all married and their husbands had better jobs.

Yeah, I realize this is self-serving, but I think gaming the Medicaid system to some extent is fine. My parents put their house just in my mother's name years ago on the assumption that my father might need to get Medicaid at some point, and if it was still in both of their names, they'd have to sell it before he qualified. But my mother still needs to live somewhere!

The amount of money that can be saved by "gaming" the welfare system (food stamps, unemployment, Medicare) is nothing compared to the amount of money corporations save in taxes by hiring people like my dad. But apparently trying to save money on health care to pay bills means you're lazy and trying to save money on taxes because you're rich enough to hire a lawyer means you're resourceful.

Well, and people would not have to "game" the system at all if we had a universal safety net for eldercare/healthcare!

ETA: I have to confess that my mother HATES what she considers rich people, and her definition of rich people includes some middle class people. She tends to think they are all cheats, much like the Romneyans think the 47% are cheats. She STILL is mad at my friend who, when we were 10 years old, who accepted the 2 dollars my mother gave her so we could go around to some local garage sales when her father had already given her spending money!

Well, and people would not have to "game" the system at all if we had a universal safety net for eldercare/healthcare!

Sophia, why do you hate America???

Also, I need to calm the f down. I think I have some serious PMS, because I am turning into a pedantic asshole. Someone at work emailed me asking me to set up a meeting in a "small conference room" and then gave an example of the largest conference room we have, and I want to kill him.

I think the real benefit of Romney's 47% crap is that it adds to the media narrative of his campaign being incompetent. (Even many Republicans are saying this now.)

It's really bad for a campaign to loose control of its narrative, as they can't focus on what they want to due to all the damage control.