PATHETICALLY FUNNY!!! - Mr. Romney - Where Are the 47% of Americans Who Pay No Income Taxes?

[kpete]

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:

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 funs 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:





http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/where-are-the-47-of-americans-who-pay-no-income-taxes/262499/

[lob1]

1. If Romney released all his taxes, we'd see he's one of the 47%.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

35. My version....

[IMG][/IMG]

[peacebird]

3. Maybe it's time to let the deep south secede?

And encourage the teahadists and ultrafundies to move there? I'm pretty sure I can convince my brother to move up from florida, and we can always still vacation in new oreleans... I doubt the fundies can destroy that culture!
Seriously - would letting the country split be that bad?

[SilveryMoon]

12. Painful in the short term

And probably for the best in the long term. And we can send the conservative Democrats down there with the government hating but want social security checks types.

But what about some states in the Midwest like Indiana? What should we do with them?

[former9thward]

22. "we can send the conservative Democrats down there"

Who is the "we"? You only speak for yourself with that trash talk. Maybe you could volunteer to put barbed wire around Indiana. I'll bet you could not wait to do it. Why are you posting on DU? You certainly are not a progressive in any sense of the word.

[SilveryMoon]

29. Who's we?

Only the people tired of the third way that continue to sell us out. Such as the Democrats who are against the wealthy paying their fair share and similar stuff. Politicians who are democrats but are against a public option or a single payer health care system.


As for me putting a barbed wire around Indiana, no. I'm much more ambitious. I'd quarantine the entire US for safety of the planet.

As for me being a progressive, I'm not. Politically I'm far to the left. I just the dropped the tolerance bullshit.

[former9thward]

44. "I just the dropped the tolerance bullshit."

An honest post. Thank you.

[TBF]

13. Romney isn't from the deep South.

He was Governor of Massachusetts and is residing in California, amongst other locations. I don't believe one of them is Texas though.

[peacebird]

18. We could encourage him to join his fellow rightwingers nonetheless. Perhaps taxing him the same as

my family is taxed would be sufficient ... We pay almost 28%

[RoccoR5955]

31. AFAIC, Robme isn't from Earth! n/t

[EdwardKingSolomon]

15. You sir, are finally beginning to realize it; however,

If we are truly to break free from the chains of the south, we must embrace this special thing. Care to know what it is? Read my profile info.

[former9thward]

25. As long as you let the West sucede as well.

The West would pass that in a heartbeat.

[freetrucker53]

34. But which states?

You think Arizona would be included? I know Arizona wasn't a state back in secession days but they probably qualify now.

[tomm2thumbs]

42. good question

maybe each state will split in 2 parts and people can run to the side they prefer

what a mess, eh


welcome to DU btw

[warrior1]

4. That's the point I was trying to make in my thread

Rmoney is calling Obama supporters the 47 percent. Freeloaders.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Remember he started this when he addressed the NAACP

and then he flew to Montana to talk about people who wanted "more free stuff"?

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/07/12/12700434-romney-naacp-members-want-free-stuff?lite

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Ha!

Great retort and it's time to break out the

Gonna have to fire up the big popcorn machine too!

[tufnel]

6. LOL

That is just too much. Nice one Mitt.

[Marrah_G]

7. Thank you

I just facebooked this

[fascisthunter]

9. right wingers are delusional liars

[WillyT]

10. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[gollygee]

11. Ha!

Figures. It's his base!

[Tennessee Gal]

14. So, when those folks in the red states that are among the 47% who pay no income tax

hear what Romney has said about them what will they do? Vote for him anyway like the good Faux News brainwashed twits that they are? Will they even understand that he is dissing them? Is there any chance that they will become angry that he holds them in such contempt and refuse to vote for him?

It is a very real possibility that Mitt cannot release his taxes because they show he did not pay income taxes himself for one or more years. If so, he then is a part of the 47% he despises so much. If he were to release his taxes and it was proven that he was among the 47% who pay no income taxes, will he then diss himself?

Questions that need answers.

[renie408]

16. PEOPLE!! We need to get this all over Facebook!!

[Glitterati]

28. Done.

A huge majority of my family a) live in the south and support Mitt Romney, and b) are idiots voting against their own best interests.

They post Republican BS on Facebook all day long. Payback is hell.

[RainDog]

17. k&r n/t

[BattyDem]

19. So he made the election about the base ...

and then told those lazy freeloaders they're on their own!



On edit: Just to be clear ... I don't think anyone is a lazy freeloader. I meant that Mitt thinks they're lazy freeloaders. You knew that, right?

[Cha]

20. Question: Does Romney pay Income Tax?

We know he LIED that 47% don't pay taxes..'cause he's either stupid or a liar. Okay, both.

[Bainbridge Bear]

21. It is very telling that Mittens doesn't mention

all of the corporations who make billions in revenues and pay little or no taxes. Some of them even get money back from the Feds. RMoney has no problem with them sponging off the system with this form of corporate welfare. Instead, he uses this preposterous statistic to attack those people of the 99% who have no lobbyists in D.C. to create their own gravy train.

[VPStoltz]

23. Just bettin' that those are the state with the highest of quite a few things that REEPS hate.

[Skidmore]

24. Went straight to my FB page. Thank you.

[valerief]

26. I never knew 47% of Americans were Swiss/Cayman bank account multi-millionaires. nt

[Beartracks]

27. K&R n/t

[EC]

30. And the rest are trust fund creeps

that make all their money on money.

[liberalhistorian]

32. I think that you left out the worst part of Romney's statement

he also said:

"My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives,"

[kestrel91316]

33. Does that include Rmoney and all his billionaire friends who don't pay a dime of

income taxes because of offshore investments and hidden bank accounts and shady loopholes??

Does this mean THEY are going to be voting for Obama, too?

Sigh. I didn't think so.

[movingviolation]

36. They can take my funs.....

and religion from my cold dead hands.

[rickyhall]

37. All Southerners are not teabaggers

I live in Arkansas. I am not a teabagger. I've voted Democratic all my life. I believe in democracy and progress. I am a liberal. I have a job but only get 15 hours a week. I still get unemployment. I've been paying taxes for over 40 years, since I was 15 bussing tables for Steak & Ale. When my father got in trouble over his taxes, when I was 15, the IRS took the money I had saved in my school savings account. Over $1000 I'd earned throwing papers, mowing lawns and washing cars. I've been paying taxes ever since. I earned the money I'm getting in unemployment which I've only received once before and that was only one check for one week. If I make it to 66 (not 65) I get a whole $978 a month to live on for the rest of my life. Most people in cities pay more in rent. And this is because of dicks like Mitt Romney, Dick Cheney and the Bush Crime Family. I'm beginning to think like Robespierre and I know how he died and it may have been worth it.

[movingviolation]

38. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Cool post though, fuck mitt and his dog whistle politik, he tries to make it sound like all Obama voters are black or white losers, while blue states basically support red states and rich corporations, robber barons, and trust fund kids get a free ride.

[joanbarnes]

39. We STILL want to know how much Mitt paid in taxes!!!!!!!!

[progree]

40. More professionals are Democrats than Republicans

I've read from a number of sources that college educated professionals affiliate in larger numbers with the Democrats than the RepubliCONs. So it is not true, as Romney indicates, that it's just low-income who affiliate with Democrats. Actually, the base of the RepubliCONs, according to David Brooks, are high-school-only whites.

Below is a Gallup poll (5/24/12) that shows professionals siding with Obama. But there are some unpleasant numbers too. Realize that this is an old poll taken when Romney led Obama by 2%. So a more recent poll would likely look better for most/all of the occupation groups. Still, it is indicative of the preferences of the occupation groups relative to each other.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/154883/Professionals-Pick-Obama-Execs-Business-Owners-Romney.aspx

In the below, Margin is difference between Obama and Romney. For example, 45% of all workers chose Obama and 47% chose Romney, a difference of 2% in favor of Romney (a margin of -2% in favor of Obama); while 51% of professionals choose Obama and 43% choose Romney, a difference of 8% in favor of Obama.

Arranged in descending order of support for Obama (only the first 3 categories favor Obama over Romney):

Margin Type of Worker
13 Service worker (police, firefighers, waiters, janitors,...)
8 Professionals (lawyers, doctors, scientists, teachers, engineers, nurses, accountants, ....)
0 Clerical or office worker
-2 All workers
-7 Manager or executive
-8 transportation worker
-13 Sales worker
-16 Manufacturing or production worker
-18 installation or repair worker
-19 Business owner
-22 Construction or mining worker
-37 farming, fishing, or forestry worker

-----------------------------------------------------------
Point #2 - some talking points to use if some RWB (Right Wing Bozo) tells you that Democrats are takers and tax-eaters and so on:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002999321

One point among many -- my favorite -- and fits in with the OP:

# Red states take more tax dollars than blue states - http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-18/politics/30039546_1_blue-states-federal-taxes-red-states

[krispos42]

41. Oh, snap.

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!

[TrollBuster9090]

43. That won't hurt Romney, given that modern GOP campaigns are based on an appeal to:

A) POLITICS OF RESENTMENT
B) COGNITIVE DISSONANCE, and
C) POLITICS OF PROJECTION.

ie-take the quality you subconsciously hate most about yourself and project the hatred for it onto others.

We all know that the Red States typically have the highest rates of divorce, unintended pregnancy, and welfare dependence. The people of those states generally project all of those things onto the blue states.

Anybody who thinks Romney's comment will hurt him in the red states is dreaming in technicolor. It will only BOOST his credibility.

If you ask me, the best thing to do is point out that HE'S JUST RAISED THE ISSUE OF INCOME TAXES again, and ask him how much INCOME TAXES HE'S paid over the last ten years. PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF!