The 47% of the people who will vote for Obama, no matter what, are the 47% of the people dependent on Government.
I'm not dependent on govt yet - talk to me when I'm 66. However, I have been paying into the system all my life so I don't consider govt benefits at that age charity. Do you?
Are those the "dependent" people that Romney has so much disdain for?
Probably the same ones I have disdain for, though with a nearly 9% unemployment rate what's a person to do...
Welfare Rolls - An all time record of 47% of Americans are now government dependents receiving some form of government benefits. (Forbes) Food Stamp rolls increased 46% from January 2009 to June 2012. Total individuals receiving food stamps as of June 2012 is 46,670,373, largest number ever. (USDA)
Probably the same ones I have disdain for, though with a nearly 9% unemployment rate what's a person to do...
[box]Welfare Rolls - An all time record of 47% of Americans are now government dependents receiving some form of government benefits. (Forbes)
In June of 2009 I got downsized from a job I had for 24 years. I survived off of my severence package from the job and unemployment checks for 9 months until I found a new job which I have now had for over 2.5 years.
No food stamps after I got downsized. Do you have disdain for me too?
In June of 2009 I got downsized from a job I had for 24 years. I survived off of my severence package from the job and unemployment checks for 9 months until I found a new job which I have now had for over 2.5 years.
No food stamps after I got downsized. Do you have disdain for me too?
Lucky you, doesn't sound like that has been the case for many, I have disdain for those that make a way of life from sucking the government teat. It is a drain on society as whole but, for your sake it does breed a larger democrat voting base...Gotta keep those checks comin after all.
The winner of the 2011 Truthsmacker of the Year Award
Probably the same ones I have disdain for, though with a nearly 9% unemployment rate what's a person to do...
[box]Welfare Rolls - An all time record of 47% of Americans are now government dependents receiving some form of government benefits. (Forbes)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking that 10% of that 47% consist of seniors living off their pensions and social security who also don't pay federal income tax.
Probably the same ones I have disdain for, though with a nearly 9% unemployment rate what's a person to do...
[box]Welfare Rolls - An all time record of 47% of Americans are now government dependents receiving some form of government benefits. (Forbes)
Today, Mitt Romney Lost the Election
By Josh Barro Sep 17, 2012 6:02 PM ET
You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser, released today by David Corn at Mother Jones, has killed Mitt Romney's campaign for president.
On the tape, Romney explains that his electoral strategy involves writing off nearly half the country as unmoveable Obama voters. As Romney explains, 47 percent of Americans "believe that they are victims." He laments: "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
So what's the upshot? "My job is not to worry about those people," he says. He also notes, describing President Obama's base, "These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax."
This is an utter disaster for Romney.
Romney already has trouble relating to the public and convincing people he cares about them. Now, he's been caught on video saying that nearly half the country consists of hopeless losers.
Romney has been vigorously denying President Obama's claims that his tax plan would raise taxes on the middle class. Now, he's been caught on video suggesting that low- and middle-income Americans are undertaxed.
(That one is especially problematic given the speculation about what's on Mitt's unreleased pre-2010 tax returns.)
Corn tells us there are more embarrassing moments on segments of the video he hasn't released yet. Romney jokes that he'd be more likely to win the election if he were Hispanic. He makes some awkward comments about whether he was born with a "silver spoon" in his mouth.
But those are survivable. The really disastrous thing is the clip about "victims," and the combination of contempt and pity that Romney shows for anyone who isn't going to vote for him.
Romney is the most opaque presidential nominee since Nixon, and people have been reduced to guessing what his true feelings are. This video provides an answer: He feels that you're a loser. It's not an answer that wins elections.
COSTA MESA, Calif. -- Republican Mitt Romney says a video clip in which he called nearly half of Americans "victims" was "not elegantly stated" and was "spoken off the cuff." But he says President Barack Obama's approach is "attractive to people who are not paying taxes."
Romney spoke to reporters Monday evening in a hastily called news conference after the emergence of a video in which the GOP presidential nominee told donors that almost half of American voters "believe that they are victims."
The Republican nominee did not disavow the comments but said they were made during a question-and-answer session. He said it was indicative of his campaign's effort to "focus on the people in the middle."
The website of the magazine Mother Jones posted a video of Romney's comments from a private fundraiser.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking that 10% of that 47% consist of seniors living off their pensions and social security who also don't pay federal income tax.
I was wrong when I said how many of that 47% consist of seniors on fixed incomes
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The nonpartisan and highly respected Tax Policy Center derived the 47 percent number – it is actually 46 percent, as of 2011 – and published an excellent analysis of it last summer.
It found that about half of the households that do not pay federal income tax do not pay it because they are simply too poor. The Tax Policy Center gives as an example a couple with two children earning less than $26,400 a year: The household would pay no federal income tax because its standard deduction and other exemptions would simply erase its liability.
The other half, the Tax Policy Center found, consists of households taking advantage of tax credits and other provisions, mostly support for senior citizens and low-income working families.
Put bluntly, these are not households shirking their tax liabilities. The pool consists mostly of the poor, of relatively low-income working families and of old people. The tax code is specifically designed to reduce the burden on them.
Indeed, the recession and its aftermath have left tens of millions of workers out of a job or underemployed, removing more households from payment of federal income taxes. Moreover, the Bush tax cuts – the signature Republican economic policy of the 2000s, which doubled the child tax credit, increased a number of other deductions and exemptions, and lowered marginal tax rates – erased millions of families’ federal income tax liabilities.
It is also worth noting that though tens of millions of families do not pay federal income taxes, there are virtually no families that do not pay any taxes – between payroll taxes, sales taxes, state and local taxes, and on and on.
I was wrong when I said how many of that 47% consist of seniors on fixed incomes
then again, maybe I was wrong about being wrong
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. 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect… my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.
Let’s set aside the question of whether this is what Mitt Romney really believes deep down in his heart. Maybe this is what he thinks. Or maybe he just thought it was a good line to buck up jittery donors. What we can say is that the last part is wrong. There is no fair accounting in which 47 percent of Americans take no “personal responsibility and care for their lives.” Take this simple breakdown from the Tax Policy Center of what households paid in taxes in 2011:
(Tax Policy Center)
Here’s what we have:
— 53.6 percent of households pay the federal income tax. Presumably Romney is okay with these folks.
— 28.3 percent of households pay no federal income tax, but they do pay the payroll tax. That means they don’t need Mitt Romney to convince them to “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” They already have jobs.
Most of the households in this group don’t pay any federal income tax because they qualify for enough deductions that their income tax liability has shrunk to zero. See this Tax Policy Center report for more, which gives an example of “a couple with two children earning less than $26,400. They get an $11,600 standard deduction and four exemptions of $3,700, and that takes their liability to zero.” Indeed, it’s worth noting that many of these deductions and credits were part of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, which Romney wants to extend.
— 10.3 percent of households pay no federal income tax because they’re retired and elderly. Many retirees aren’t taxed on their Social Security benefits, which they earned by paying into the system over many years. If Mitt Romney secretly thinks that these households are all irresponsible freeloaders, he has a weird way of showing it, as he keeps insisting that he doesn’t want to cut Medicare or Social Security benefits for those over the age of 65.
— That leaves 6.9 percent of households which are non-elderly and have incomes less than $20,000 per year and aren’t paying the payroll tax. These poorer households pay neither income taxes nor payroll taxes. Perhaps Romney thinks that they should all pay more in federal taxes. It’s hard to say. But this is also a much smaller fraction of Americans.
Meanwhile, just as a reminder, the vast majority of Americans still pay state and local taxes — in fact, these taxes tend to be more regressive. When you add up all the different types of taxes, most income groups in the United States tend to pay an amount that’s roughly commensurate with their share of the national income. Here’s a relevant report from Citizens for Tax Justice:
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