Just weeks ago, Governor Mitt Romney was passionately accusing President Obama of running a campaign of "division and anger and hate." But after the release of a secret recording of a closed-door Romney fundraiser, obtained and posted by Mother Jones, it could be argued that the Governor is the one dividing the country. Romney draws a line between the 53% of Americans who pay federal income taxes, and the 47% who don't, whom he says he will "never convince" to "take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Romney also calls this 47% "victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them."
We did some digging to see who makes up this group of Americans -- the so-called "forty-seven percenters." While they may not pay federal income tax, the majority of them still pay the payroll tax. According to the Tax Policy Center, more than a quarter of all Americans pay the payroll tax even though they do not pay federal income tax. But here's the great irony. Among this group, the total amount they paid in taxes as a percent of their income averaged 15.3%.
That means that these Americans, who Governor Romney calls "victims," actually pay a greater rate in taxes than the Republican nominee paid in 2010 -- the only full year of tax returns he has released so far. Before Romney tries to convince the 47% to "take personal responsibility and care for their lives," he may want to take a look at himself.
Check out our full breakdown of the 47% and the panel reaction in the video below.
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The statements Romney made that 47% of the country isn't paying any taxes and are basically freeloaders, lazy bums and refuse to take personal responsibility for themselves.
That 47% includes our brave service men & women, those working hard every day at the only part time jobs they can find where they live and making below the poverty line, seniors on Social Security as their only income, college students who can only work part time while attending college........ those people aren't freeloaders or lazy bums; they are Americans who earn so little that by using the standard deductions in the tax code they don't OWE federal income taxes.
They still pay all the other taxes everyone else pays but again, they are not the wealthy, they are those living at or below the poverty line..
I had a guy tell me today he met a woman at a big box retail hardware store, where she is employed.. the only jobs there are part time and that corporation does not pay any local property taxes in any locale where they build. The maximum this single mother could earn is about $18,000.00 a year, but she also gets food assistance so she can feed her children - he called her a mooch.... she's working but earns far less than the federal poverty level which is $26,050.00 a year for a family of 4.. could she get another part time job in her area? Maybe, maybe not but then she'd need to pay someone else to watch her children while working the 2nd job and all that income would go to paying someone to watch her children - then she'd be called a 'bad mother'.
Perhaps the saddest part, those who make the very least, those in Red states who pay the very least in taxes (because they are living below the poverty line), are for the most part white and for the most part have worked hard all their lives, while being undereducated, living in 'at will', 'right to work' states that offer no full time employment at a livable wage and the man who claims he wants to be the President of the United States does not even consider them to be Americans worthy of his concern.
Though he claims the majority of those trying to survive in poverty are supporters of legally elected U.S. President Obama, they are overwhelmingly voting for Teapublicans, like Romney, Ryan, Akin, Cantor, Bachmann, et al.
This is an interesting point. We all pay "payroll tax" up until we earn $110k. Even if you only earn $600/year. Between the employee and employer it totals 15%. If you work for yourself (independent contractor, self-employed, etc.), you pay the whole 15%. If you work for an employer, you pay half in payroll deductions, and your employer pays the other half. "Payroll tax" is a misnomer. It's what funds Social Security. It's shown as FICA on your pay stub.
While I think what Romney said was abhorrent, that's only because his percentages were exaggerated. I have no idea what the percentages are, but I believe there is some number of people that the Democrats rely on for votes whose primary focus is maintaining and enlarging entitlement programs. Not just those who receive benefits, but those who believe that it's the government's job to provide for everyone.
I am not saying that there isn't a need for these programs. I'm not saying that there aren't people who deserve to get help. I am saying that there are people getting help that shouldn't. Not that I even blame them for that. I blame inefficient government programs that are run without common sense, and without accountability.
Our government is so out of control because of it's sheer size. How can congress create a program without spelling out every little detail of how to run it? They can't because someone will do something different and then everyone will expect the same treatment, even though their circumstances are different.
Were Romney's comments shameful? I can't say for sure, even though the excerpt I saw appeared that way. That impression could be right on point. But it might also have been taken out of context.
In case you are wondering, I give Obama the same consideration when I see similar stories about him. I try to ignore all the "fluff" and crap that doesn't really make any difference in how one or the other will/has performed in office. I'm tired of both parties trying to pit one group against another, whether it's rich/poor, black/white, etc.
Anyway, just my 2 cents worth.
Do you have the numbers for those evil people living off the dole? I can give you some. The average time of people living on welfare is 2 years. It is quite difficult to get on welfare and there is a work requirement. The so called 'letting states off the hook' for this requirement is entirely false. The waiver was that the states could impliment other programs AS LONG AS WORK WAS PART OF THE PROGRAM. For the most part these waivers were requested by REPUBLICAN Governors. These numbers are public and easiy to find but they do not feed the stereotype so they are ignored by the suckers buying the Republican Con.
I continue to be concerned by the hard-line, left-wing rhetoric masquerading as news on your show. Today's superficiality is so glaring and absurd that I can no longer take your show seriously. You attack Mitt Romney, alleging that he has divided this country when from my view, Obama's policies have been divisive politically and socially, domestically and internationally, for four years. Obama's cavalier attitude toward women is dangerous to women, not helpful. His superficial attempts to manipulate women into block voting for him by trying to create a "war on women" fail miserably for this Southern woman. The attitude of your core viewers such as Gloria Lynn toward Southerners, ostensibly understanding us while simultaneously denigrating us by framing us as mostly "under-educated, poor white folks" is tiresomely characteristic of those who speak without wisdom, knowledge or understanding. This Southern woman with a graduate level education is unimpressed and unmoved by this kind of off-target rhetoric.
Alzheimer’s in Politics
The republicans have a short memory, After 8 years of republican control, at end of 2008, they had stole so much wealth from the world that it was on the brink of destruction. So as the white house and the world’s economy had been raped and set on fire by Bush and the republicans, he decided it was time; so as he was running out of the burning white house, he hollered at Hank Pualson, His treasury secretary “ you put it out,” the fire I mean. The one that was destroying the worlds financial system, the one that was burning and collapsing the whole world nearly sending the world and the US into a depression worse than the 1930’s .
So Paulson, a republican financial genius, trys to put the fire out with 780,000,000,000$. He gives all his buddies the money ,THE BIG BANKS, so they could pour on the fire they had created. And then just so happens their is a presidential election and Paulson, as he is running out of the white house he hollers at Barrack Obama, here you put it out.
So after the republicans have stole all our retirement, all our homes and sent all our jobs overseas to .50$ an hour people in other countries, so they can they can fill up their dump trucks with our money.
They blame the democrats, for all the carnage they created. But the Republican Party chiefs are smart, they use the black man thing to convince their base its all the black man’s fault.
The real thing is 90% of the rich white republicans who don’t pay much if any taxes are racists. It’s true, they have convinced their base, it wasn’t us! It was that black man! So now the base doesn’t look at the democrats as a political party any more, they see a black man.
But now, their whole racist base needs to remember who started two wars that sent our debit through the roof, has kept giving tax cuts to the rich, sending our debit through the roof. NOOOO!!! Not us the republicans!!! Yes!!! you the republicans.
Yes you republicans you have sent a whole generation of our kids to fight and die in a war based on made up reasons that didn’t exist, just so you could fill those dump trucks with money and blood of our kids. Republicans. It is sad the republican chiefs have been able to brain wash their base to vote for a party that just crippled the whole world.
This is not about Obama, its about being smart and rebuilding a future for our kids. The Democrats are not perfect buy any means, we have problems in the U.S. and we need to come together and get back on track. The past is the past, but we can’t forget; For if we do, we are surly bound to repeat those mistakes.
The Republicans are smart though they have convinced their base to accept a 2000$ tax increase so they can give the millionaires and boillionaires at the top a 250,000$ tax cut. That is the lawyers, wallstreeters. politicians, ceo's the rich elites.