Ezra Klein sends me to a graph by Naomi Robbins, who is clearly a very smart woman (scientist, grapher). She has created this excellent graph that compares the Obama and Romney federal income tax plans. The main thing about this graph is that it does not distort how much Obama plans to raise taxes the way that most graphs do. If you are interested, check out Klein’s article.

Here is the graph:

If you’re in the top 5%, by all means, vote for Romney—he’s got your back. But for anyone else, you would be crazy to vote for Romney. Sure, if you are middle class, Romney will cut your taxes whereas they’ll stay the same under Obama. But Romney will cut the hell out of your social security and medicare. In the latter case, he will likely cut it to the point where it will be useless and you will face retirement without medical care.

For the bottom 95%, there is basically no change in your federal income taxes. Those in the lower middle class will see a slight decrease in these taxes. If you are in the lower class, Romney is going to raise your taxes as he decimates safety net programs for the poor and middle class.

Let’s be clear about this. Romney believes that the rich are morally superior and deserve to have even more money than they already do. This is bad enough. But what always goes along with this is the belief that the poor are morally inferior and deserve to suffer as much as possible. The middle class are just neutral, but in the effort to harm the poor and favor the rich, the middle class are also hurt.

I’m all for voting against my own self-interest. It is fine to vote for higher ideals. But I fear that most people who vote for Republicans do it for the wrong reasons. They think they are voting for their own self-interest, but they are doing the opposite. The Republicans are for the status quo; they don’t want the poor to become rich. (Can you say “Too big to fail”?) If you are poor and you aspire to become rich, vote for any party other than the Republicans.