Mitt Romney says half of Americans are grifters - GOP presidential candidate sees 47 percent of Americans as "victims" - VIDEO
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at 09:49 AM
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| GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney (Photo: AP) |
If you needed proof of how out of touch from the ordinary struggles of the people of this nation Mitt Romney actually is, it arrived yesterday, courtesy of a secret recording from a closed-door fundraiser released by David Corn at Mother Jones.
Romney regards forty seven percent of Americans as parasites, the tape revealed. In fact he sounded almost jealous of the poor, and how good they have it. But just wait till he becomes president because then their free ride will be over, he assured his private audience.
'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’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.'
Where we see poor but hardworking people struggling to escape poverty, Mitt Romney sees spongers living high off the welfare hog courtesy of his (we're supposed to believe) high taxes.
Romney clearly holds half of this country in contempt. He'll be there with his boots on when the time comes to teach them a lesson, I expect.
But here's the thing, Romney's own career has been about playing the system from the winners corner. With his secretive Swiss Bank accounts and his Caymen Islands accounts, and his secretive trust funds, and his refusal to document his own tax returns, why should we believe he's morally superior to the ordinary citizens he so casually condemns?
Recall that part of the reason so many Americans don’t pay federal income taxes now is that Republicans passed a series of massive tax cuts that wiped out the income-tax liability for many Americans. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush made that scenario a reality, remember.
It may be partially true that 47 percent of the population figure pay no net federal income tax but Romney hasn't noticed that most of them do pay federal payroll tax. Of those who pay neither income nor payroll taxes, most are the elderly. That's because elderly people generally don't have jobs. I'd have thought many seniors might have been trending toward Romney but hopefully this will make them reconsider. Students, if they're smart, have probably just been warned off him too.
The idea that half of Americans are just a bunch of grifters is how America's super rich talk about us all when they're among themselves. It's repulsive, but it's wholly accurate.
Mitt Romney has said he believes corporations are people, but he does not believe struggling Americans are. You're all bloated dependents. You're entitlement junkies. You think that the government should take care of you because you clearly lack the means and the smarts to take care of yourself. Perhaps they'll hire Clint Eastwood to lecture you.
After all, if you're so smart, why didn't you have a rich daddy like he did?
56 comments
bonjouryall | Sep 18, 2012, 08:16 PM EDT
This election is one idiot vs. another idiot and both doing their best to help the rich (remember Obama's bailout without a haircut of Wall St.-he supported the bill and he's the one who spent the money). Anyway, my bet is on the candidate who promises more dole to the 47%. It will 55% in four years and 70% by the end of the next decade; not to mention a citizenship grant to even more. And how to pay? Just print more money and raise taxes on and costs for the middle class and blame any cost cutters as racist.
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StevieVirginia | Sep 18, 2012, 07:32 PM EDT
Mitt Romney is a very rich but very stupid man. If he'd just shut up. He'd stand a fighters chance. Faux News & Rush Limbaugh can spin this however they want to. The man is a out of touch idiot being coached up by bigger idiots... Obama 2012 ... Romney 1040
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manhattan | Sep 18, 2012, 07:08 PM EDT
He might have not explained himself well but a lot of what he said is true. He just has put his foot in his mouth to often. He is handing Obama the election.
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seanomelb | Sep 18, 2012, 06:32 PM EDT
Three gaffes in one speech!! "Stuff the middle class and the poor". "I wish I was born a Mexican". And now "the Palestinians do not want peace" Then there is the unreleased tax returns and fools will still vote for him.
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Donegal6 | Sep 18, 2012, 06:19 PM EDT
Let me make is simpler.
Almost half of Americans would expectedly vote for the candidate most likely to continue or enhance their handout. Hardworking tax payers are NOT who he is talking about obviously. Therefore his out of context analysis of WHY a GOP candidate is going to write off a large percentage of the votes due to that.
Also as the scales tip with the rising flood of illegal aliens coming across the Mexican US border, this will become a thrid world country unless the taxpayers say no more.
You can't take the baby bottle out of their mouths as there are no jobs.
Create jobs then get the one's that can work get back to work.
This is the reality the rest is hyperbole and politics.
He is telling it like it is instead of the two faced liars politicians usually are.
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Eschetic | Sep 18, 2012, 05:59 PM EDT
It's one thing to stick your foot in your mouth - but this far down your throat is ridiculous. Even though this video was from a fund-raiser and only meant to be heard by super-rich potential donors, it's things like this - not just the open hostility to half the nation but the callous disregard for the truth (the very study Romney cites acknowledges that when you add PAYROLL taxes paid, all but just over 18% of the country pay federal taxes and all but the tiniestpart of those who DON'T are either students, the retired or others whose incomes UNDER THE FEDERAL TAX STANDARDS earn too little to be required to pay taxes. BIG difference between 80 % paying taxes and only 53% - and for some reason half the country is still well enough informed to back the President! I begin to think that Former Governor Romney is intentionally trying to throw this race in an effort to save the Republican party by having a pure right wing agenda soundly rejected once and for all so responsible MODERATES can take control once again. There are only two problems with that: he's being a little too obvious about it, and the right wing (as Molly Ivins long ago pointed out) never give let reality stand in their way.
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cillowen | Sep 18, 2012, 05:02 PM EDT
you can fool all the people sometimes and some of the people sometimes but not all the people all the time. It'll still work for 53%er Romney who'll get many of the 47%er to pull lever for him, cause they are, bottom line stupid, racist or both.
Like many of the 53%ers who equally crave destruction.
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aloistmartin | Sep 18, 2012, 04:39 PM EDT
Until you hear ( and see ) it for yourself, you never think the People who`s Job it is to push this Hogwash, actually subscibe to it themselves ? Makes you wonder if America really is nothing more, than a Prime Time Reality T.V. version of George Orwells 1984 ? ( And Zooey Deshanel, does she star in the role Originally played by Suzanna Hamilton in the full length, Film version of the Old School, Sci Fi Classic ? )
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merefalow | Sep 18, 2012, 04:34 PM EDT
untill some one has tasted poverty, until you truly understand what it is like ,there are different kinds of poverty,some are born into it,some court it and win it by drug or alcohol abuse,there is a poverty of intellect,a poverty of circumstance,a poverty of never knowing parental love,allkinds,but a rich man seldom samples these poverties so therefore,bereft of sympathy and understanding he is not realy qualified to opinionate, Obama has tasted and known poverty of a sort,i suspect we all dislike the freeloaders in society,the ones who have never worked,the bad back suffers etc etc,well its only doctors who can cut those malingerers out of the herd and make sure the genuine cases get the help they deserve.i dont believe many people on welfare live high of the hog,crtainly no where near the league of super rich or middle class people,these rich people are just a few steps away from the final solution in their thought process.thank god there is a welfare state and thinking caring people to provide some degree of help in a hard world,not to say it cant be cleaned up a little if it is being abused.
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pilib04 | Sep 18, 2012, 04:13 PM EDT
Show us the tax returns Robme. As President Reagan said, "Trust but verify!"
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pilib04 | Sep 18, 2012, 04:12 PM EDT
The best part is how James Carter IV put Corn in touch with the source for the video. President Carter was certainly amused as any grandfather would be.
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eiriamach | Sep 18, 2012, 03:59 PM EDT
I'm not suggesting that he should *remove* the money, Scrivner, just questioning why he would put so many assets into a tax-sheltered account of that kind to begin with. If he had no other source of income in retirement, that large an IRA might be a sensible investment for someone used to a rich life, but he has plenty, and very few if any other Americans have IRAs of that magnitude. It's a perfectly obvious tax dodge. I'm no financial or math whiz, so I'll just defer to you on tax rates, etc. Now why don't you send some of your financial wisdom to Oliver12, who thinks half of us are supporting the other half! Oliver needs more help than I do.
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CelticQueenUSA | Sep 18, 2012, 03:58 PM EDT
HE NEVER SAYS HOW HE WILL DO THIS CRAP.
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Scrivner | Sep 18, 2012, 03:32 PM EDT
eiriamach, your rant really showcases your ignorance. 1st why should Romney, or any other taxpayer, remove money from an IRA just to have it taxed? Would that be considered patriotic or just stupid? 2. As to "offshore" accounts to avoid "unrelated business income tax" in an IRA, you have mixed up your tax law with delusional fantasy. A trustee of an IRA must be under US supervision (a bank, annuity company, mutual fund company, etc. that is subject to US regulators). "Unrelated business income tax" (UBT) in the case of an IRA, as opposed to a public charity, kicks in if debt financed investments are made within the IRA. With Romney's financial team this is a ridiculous assertion. Being "offshore" is no protection from this UBT liability. 4. By the way, you quote the wrong marginal tax rte on dividends, go look it up! 5. So what if he is the weathiest person to run for POTUS? I think that, in inflation adjusted dollars, George Washington may have been almost an equal and he seemed to do well for the USA.
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