Yes. Romney took criticism for saying that half the population wouldn't be interested in his tax cut b/c they don't pay taxes. People wrongly complained that those were military people, hard-working people, and sweet grandmothers. Yes. We have nothing against them. But that doesn't change the facts. They don't pay taxes. No matter how great people they are, this is a simple question of whether they pay taxes.

As long as we have a large component of the voting public with no "skin in the game", i.e. on public assistance of some sort, we will continue to have to fight to keep our hard earned money!!

The founding fathers had a different set of requirements for voters: free, white, male, 21, literate, landowners. One of their greatest fears of threats to the republic were "factions". Those meeting their criteria were more likely to have similar interests.

Even the Red Coats wouldn't have dared to steal that much.
Dependency is very costly in the longer term. Independence can be very costly in the shorter term.