"Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?": Response # 13

Since Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and the GOP have asked, I will answer their question.
Response # 13 to the question:  "Are YOU better off than you were 4 years ago?"
The answer is yes.  Yes, I am better off. 
Ironically, today is the day I'm going to talk about how President Obama has charged us with caring for each other. 
I say ironically, because a video has surfaced of Mitt Romney, in which he accuses Obama voters as "moochers"--feeling entitled to suck the government dry...
Here's what Romney said: 
"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…These are people who pay no income tax."  

And you know what?  Four years ago, this was the same thing our president --George W Bush--was saying.  In actions and deeds.  And I was astounded, when I went to a Town Hall meeting during the Healthcare debate.  That sentiment?  It had trickled down to a whole lot of people--people who called themselves "good" Christians, but who openly said, "I have health insurance.  I will take care of my own."  Not, "I think guaranteed health care for all people is the right, is the Christian, thing to do."  I was astounded because I was not raised that way.  My minister in my church NEVER said, "Screw the poor, we got health care, and they want a handout."  And I knew, I knew for certain, that to deprive others of something as basic as health care was utterly, morally wrong.  
Imagine how I felt, knowing my new president, Barack Obama, agreed with me.  And he still does.  These are his words from his speech at the DNC this month.
"You know what? That’s not who we are. That’s not what this country’s about. As Americans, we believe we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, rights that no man or government can take away. We insist on personal responsibility, and we celebrate individual initiative. We’re not entitled to success. We have to earn it. We honor the strivers, the dreamers, the risk- takers, the entrepreneurs who have always been the driving force behind our free enterprise system, the greatest engine of growth and prosperity the world has ever known.
But we also believe in something called citizenship...a word at the very heart of our founding, at the very essence of our democracy; the idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another, and to future generations.
We believe that when a CEO pays his autoworkers enough to buy the cars that they build, the whole company does better....
We believe the little girl who’s offered an escape from poverty by a great teacher or a grant for college could become the next Steve Jobs, or the scientist who cures cancer, or the President of the United States, and it’s in our power to give her that chance
We know that churches and charities can often make more of a difference than a poverty program alone. We don’t want handouts for people who refuse to help themselves, and we certainly don’t want bailouts for banks that break the rules.
We don’t think the government can solve all our problems. But we don’t think that the government is the source of all our problems, any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations, or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group we’re told to blame for our troubles.
Because -- because America, we understand that this democracy is ours."
 Now if all of us--every one of us--believed in helping one another, imagine what I could say 4 years from now.  
But for tonight, I have to say, "Yes.  I am better off than I was 4 years ago."