Nuns On A Bus: Romney’s 47 Percent Comments Show ‘He Has No Idea How Hard It Is’ To Be Poor

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The leader of the Nuns On A Bus tour that has criss-crossed the nation highlighting the effect the House Republican budget would have on low-income Americans said Monday that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s recent comments about the “47 percent” “show that he is “out of touch” and “has no idea how hard it is at the margins of our society.”

ThinkProgress spoke to Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby, in New York, where the Nuns got off the bus and onto the Staten Island ferry to highlight the GOP budget’s impacts on poverty programs in New York City. Aboard the ferry, Campbell said Romney’s comments “broke my heart” because they demonstrated his lack of knowledge about the living conditions of America’s poorest citizens:

CAMPBELL: I mean, it was shocking to me that a person who says he wants to be the leader of our nation believes that 47 percent of our country is basically lazy or dependent or indolent. That was shocking to me. But then, it broke my heart that he would be so out of touch, that he would so not know the truth of folks at the margins of our society who work so hard. And he obviously doesn’t know that if you work a minimum wage job, if you’re a child care, if you’re providing janitorial services, or if you’re a day laborer, if you work for minimum wage, you’re still in poverty. He has no idea how hard it is at the margins of our society.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/25/906501/nuns-on-bus-romney-47-percent/

[pinto]

1. Kick

[renate]

2. K&R

Love those nuns on a bus! They ROCK!

[pinboy3niner]

3. K&R

[HereSince1628]

4. With Romney it's not about a child left behind...it's about whole families, whole neighborhoods

that are going to be intentionally abandoned under his leadership.

Unfortunately, the problem goes beyond Romney to a majority of his supporters who are too closed minded to realize that poverty doesn't square with the mythic republican model of middle-class hard work and success. Circumstance traps huge numbers of the poor, and society can't help free them from the grip of poverty with the same tools used to make more profits for the wealthy, or to that argue that desire and a protestant work ethic is sufficient to lift a person above the escape horizon below which impoverishment, ill-health and indignity are inevitable.

[Cha]

5. Romney and Ryan are Running from the Nuns..

Tell R&R to RSVP to the NUNS!

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/romney_rsvp/

Nuns Challenge Romney To Spend A Day With Them To Learn About Plight Of America’s Poor

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/08/658741/nuns-challenge-romney/

[lark]

6. Why would Romney spend a day with folks for whom he has nothing but contempt?

They aren't rich, so they are of no consequence to him or his rich handlers.

[RVN VET]

9. exactly

its not that he has no idea -- its that he really doesn't give a damn about them. Seriously. If you ain't in the 1-5%, you ain't nothin'.

"But just stop it. This is hard." Yeah, living in a house where the darn automobile elevator isn't even operational yet: very hard. Getting to write off a paltry $77,000 for the care and upkeep of your horse: very very hard.

Romney giving a rat's behind about the poor? Impossibly hard for this heartless man -- and will never happen.

[SemperEadem]

7. I love Sister Simone!

Her speech at the DNC was brilliant!

[LuckyLib]

8. K & R

These are the real Catholics, in my book. Not those pompous male hats working very hard to keep our society (especially women) in the dark ages.

[WinkyDink]

10. Romney DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW. The needy can't make him RICHER.

[beachgirl2365]

11. They don't have a heart!!!

Bless yo Sister Campbell,..........................the following blurb is from the "Think Progress" website

The Nuns On A Bus tour invited Romney and Ryan to join them during a stop in Ohio early in October but have yet to get an answer. But that visit, Campbell said, might be exactly what Romney needs. “That’s why we’ve invited them to come October 10 to Cincinnati, to have him listen to folks experience,” Campbell said. “Not speak, we want him to listen, to let his heart be broken by the truth of people in the U.S. That’s what he needs.”

You may continue to pray sister, & I hope you do, but as far as Rob-Me's heart breaking by listening to the truth,......... Well you have to have a heart to begin with for it to be broken!!!,.. it also helps if you have good attentive listening skills,...... you know the ability to listen with not just your ears, but with your eyes and hearts as well,......... which gets back to the fact that the person has to have a heart to begin with,...... given Rob-Me's choice statements within the past 72 hrs, (i.e. ER's for the uninsured, i parent should stay at home with young kids, teachers have too much say, etc.) I don't think he has one

[Peaceful Protester]

12. God bless these people

The world needs more people like them who are willing to stand up and speak out!

[Peaceful Protester]

13. Romney's (un)lucky number: 47

1) Under Gov. Mitt Romney, Massachusetts ranked 47th in job creation.

2) "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."

-- Mitt Romney, (begging for money at a fundraiser)

NOTE: This, from a man who got $70,000 Government tax break last year for his pet horse.