Hemp Lover, don't keep us in suspense!!!
Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters
by darth frosty 553 Replies latest members politics
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rather be in hades
am i concerned over nothing?
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darth frosty
Where Are the 47% of Americans Who Pay No Income Taxes?
Mitt Romney says citizens who don't pay income tax will never vote for him. But eight of the top 10 states with the highest number of nonpayers are red states.
The political world is in a tizzy over hidden-camera footage of Mitt Romney at a fundraising event. Here's the money quote -- literally -- from the Mother Jones scoop: (props to eewwll)
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.
The horserace implications of this statement are what the chattering class is chattering about. Unfortunately, they're also unknowable at this point. On the one hand, it's always a bad idea to disparage voters (see: Obama, Barack and clinging to guns and religion), and the soundbite helps to cement the idea that Romney is out of touch with the average American -- clearly, he's not trying to connect with nearly half of them! On the other hand, Romney is disparaging folks whose votes he's already written off.
So let's set that speculation aside and look at who the people are who actually pay no income tax. Romney's statements are a little unclear, but it appears that the 47 percent figure represents all of those who pay no income tax, rather than the Democratic base. His problem is that those people are disproportionately in red states -- that is, states that tend to vote Republican:
One important note about these numbers: This measures only those Americans who filed for taxes with no liability. Millions more didn't even file; it's those millions, added to the estimated 52 million here, who combine to make that 47 percent.
It's important to remember that just because people aren't paying income tax doesn't mean they're not paying taxes -- they pay federal payroll taxes and state and local sales taxes, for example. One those taxes are factored in, the tax regime is basically flat. And the reason that most income tax nonpayers don't pay is they simply don't make enough income to qualify to pay. As one might expect, the map of states with the highest poverty levels resembles this map fairly closely. Many of them are also seniors, a highly contested voting bloc. Just more than 10 percent of households pay no income tax because they're retired. They might also be voters in places like Florida who are already jumpy about the changes to Medicare and Medicaid that the Romney-Ryan ticket has proposed -- although they would be mostly unaffected by those reforms.
So Romney appears to be wrong about these voters. But if calling for a less progressive taxation system was enough to alienate poor voters in the Deep South, the Republican Party would have already lost its stronghold there.
Hat tip: Matt O'Brien -
BizzyBee
who are dependent upon government,
I know some of these people! Guess who they are voting for? Oy vay!
They will be ok - but for some reason they don't give a flying fig about their children or grandchildren who will need SS and Medicare, maybe even Medicaid.
I seriously don't get it.
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darth frosty
BB that was outlaw worthy!
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Finkelstein
I think Mitt has been rich too long, its like he's completely out of touch with the lower middle class in society.
Thats why he's all for lowering the taxes onto the rich so in theory they will use that extra cash to expand their businesses
which would cure the unemployment problem. That old trickle down economic ideology thats decades old.
Most large corporations if they do have some more cash will just expand their companies over seas.
This might be a good to certain degree when the world economy is going full strength but thats not what the situation is now.
This is where Mitt fails to convince people that he has a good economic strategy, its nothing but old out dated Republican economic
strategy from off the shelf.
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Resistance is Futile
I realize that Romney was pandering to a specific demographic at this event, but you would think he would refrain from insulting vast segments of his voting base while doing so. A large percentage of those not paying income tax are senior citizens. Does Romney really feel that the senior citizens who are actually planning on voting for him are "victims" and mooching off the government?
Some of those also not paying income tax are the extremely poor who fall below the poverty line. It's a political mistake to assume that there aren't socially conservative Evangelicals that also happen to be poor. I know Romney has visited the southern states. The US states with the most people living below the poverty line also happen to be the most conservative.
Pandering to the rich will not win this election for Romney.
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Finkelstein
This guy has the pertinacity to insult people on a continuing basis.
Has his religious beliefs turned him into an self righteous arrogant and apathetic close minded boor ?
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darth frosty
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...-election.html
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.__________________
The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers.
The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question. -
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