Romney: I’m not concerned about the very poor

As the president race unfolds, we received a message from Mitt Romney that will certainly be replayed and analyzed:

I’m not concerned about the very poor…

No matter what he said after that, this is a certain blunder. Romney put the rest of the sentence into context by saying, “…there’s a safety net there, and if it needs repair I’ll fix it.” Watch the video:

One of the richest presidential candidates proclaiming his concern is not for he poor? This will send a shock through the political and religious establishment. Of course, Romeny has to be concerned about the poor. It’s required of his Mormon faith.   If you don’t think this quote is damaging, then just read about how the Associated Press changed their article head line of the comment.

To be fair, the whole comment is as follows from CNN:

“No no no no. I — no, no. You’ve got to take the whole sentence, all right, as opposed to saying, and then change it just a little bit, because then it sounds very different… I’ve said throughout the campaign my focus, my concern, my energy is gonna be devoted to helping middle income people, all right? We have a safety net for the poor in, and if there are holes in it, I will work to repair that. And if there are people that are falling through the cracks I want to fix that.”

You don’t have to be poor to worry about such comments.  There are more people, including mostly woman and children, living in poverty now than 50 years ago.  There are over 46 million Americans who live below the poverty line.

Mitt Romney is a generous guy… or least his tax returns show. Tax documents released in January by the Romneys detail that they gave $2.6 million in 2011 to the Church of Latter Day Saints (aka LDS or the Mormon Church), more than 12% of the roughly $21 million they earned. In 2010, the Romneys gave $1.5 million to the LDS church, 7% of their income.

In an age with Americans only give about 2.3% of their income to churches and other charities, the Romneys are large percentage givers compared to the rest of “Christian America”. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 79% of Mormons  said they give a tithe or 10% to their local church. About 19% said they don’t tithe.  The Mormon Church teaches tithing as a requirement and also requires believers to give 10% to their church in order to access to certain religious rites.

Comments and context aside, the poor do not have safety net.  The poor have assistance programs.  Sure, there are people who “work the system” but even that is not enough to feed a family.  The poor are often an invisible population who living in the margins.  Although Romney had a political gaff, it is no laughing matter than the poor need proper attention.

Jesus said that the poor would always be with us, but that doesn’t mean that we should forget about the poor.