With the rise of the Tea Party has been the argument from conservative that nearly half of Americans don't pay taxes. That's the real problem! And that's the response frequently used to counter the argument by President Obama and Democrats that taxes need to be raised on the wealthy in order to start balancing the budget.

Apparently Mitt Romney buys into this argument, as we now know after Mother Jones reported on discussion Romney had with fundraisers in Boca Raton back in May.

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.

Let's get one thing straight: Romney is apparently focused on income tax. Because there are all types of other taxes people, including low income people, do pay for – like federal payroll and excise taxes as well as state and local income, sales, and property taxes.

This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2012.