To the editor:

In your Sept. 20 editorial, you equate “the 47 percent” with those who will vote for President Obama “no matter what.” I disagree with that statement. A good portion of that 47 percent are retired Republicans who are loyal to the GOP. Romney is putting Republicans in the company of working Americans of all parties whose income tax  liabilities on a modest income are likely reduced through personal, child care, and other exemptions which they need in order to get by. Moreover, these persons do pay sales and property taxes, and the elderly in retirement may be taxed on Social Security income, if they earn enough.

Food, shelter, school expenses, clothing, child care expenses, etc., all come out of modest wages with a much more significant effect on the spending power of less affluent families than that “suffered” by millionaires and billionaires.

Focusing only on income taxes is ignoring the rest of the story. We must not forget how a near depression put so many out of their homes and jobs — a situation not easily fixed. Romney himself said in one of his “truth telling” speeches, that by the end of his second term, he would have everything fixed. Can’t we give Obama the same time with a cooperative Congress to add to already significant economic progress?

History shows us that protecting the rich from taxes they can afford does not necessarily result in the much vaunted positive effect on the economy, the middle class and the working poor. Let’s not fool ourselves.