The above editorial cartoon by Bob Englehart ran in Wednesday’s edition of The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, playing off the recently released video of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney telling a roomful of donors that 47 percent of voters will likely never support him because they rely on government benefits.
And, of course, it draws in this week’s big animal news—the birth of a panda cub to the National Zoo’s Mei Xiang. As residents of a government scientific and tourism facility, one could certainly make the argument that Mei Xiang and her newborn baby are suckling on the federal teat, making them unlikely to ever support a corporate stiff like the former Massachusetts governor.
But are pandas really among the 47 percent who pay no taxes and instead live off the government lard? It’s complicated. Of the money the National Zoo spends on giant panda research, only $250,000 comes from taxpayers. Another $250,000 for conservation studies comes from private donations, while the Ford Motor Company recently gave $400,000 to upgrade the Panda Cam system.
Of course, the big panda money goes toward the rental fee. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian are on loan from the People’s Republic of China. The $10 million it cost to bring and keep them here came from the likes of Fujifilm, Discovery Communications and, perhaps most famously, Carlyle Group co-founder David M. Rubenstein.
Hmm, let’s see: They’re backed by the private sector, dependent on government health care, total attention whores and agreeable to the occasional mandatory ultrasound. These bears aren’t the 47 percent.
If anything, the pandas are living on the largesse of fat corporate wallets, while hardworking government employees go unthanked in catering to their every personal need. And like Romney, the pandas enjoy gaping tax loopholes to avoid paying Uncle Sam. (Mainly, because they’re bears who don’t have money, but still.) In the real world, Romney would more likely cozy up to the pandas than ridicule them.
Then again, pandas don’t vote. And even if they did, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian aren’t citizens. Maybe Butterstick could send in an absentee ballot.
