Those 47 Percenters Get On My Nerves!
Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney didn’t say THAT but he did have words for those 47% of American voters who support President Obama (via Talking Points Memo):
Behind closed doors, Mitt Romney sounds like the leaders of the far-right flank of his party. That’s the central message from a video purportedly taken during a Romney fundraiser earlier this year and posted online by Mother Jones Monday.
The Obama campaign called the clip “shocking.”
In the clip, which was recorded surreptitiously at a Romney fundraiser that “occurred after Romney had clinched the Republican presidential nomination,” according to Mother Jones, Romney tells a room full of donors that people who voted for President Obama — a full 47 percent of the country — are dependent on the government.
“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,” Romney said, according to the Mother Jones transcript. “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.”
And the proverbial icing on the cake, especially to Team Obama, Democrats, and Liberals:
“[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
I appreciate Mitt Romney’s honest feelings. In the videos that TPM posted via Mother Jones, there’s a certain resoluteness in his tone that indicates that he’s speaking straight from the heart. But Mitt Romney has a huge problem with this: he’s essentially saying to a large part of the American electorate that he’s kicking them to the curb and being done with it. See in certain positions, it doesn’t matter if they don’t agree with you or don’t like you (or you don’t agree with them and don’t like them). And you may just want to kick them to the curb and be done with it. BUT in those certain positions or roles, you still are responsible for them. You represent them. So his words can easily be turned into a “Romney does not care nor want to hear and represent you”. He’s put into words what some feel about him. He’s given Team Obama meat redder than Obama’s “you didn’t build that” line.
Tough times ahead for Team Romney.
Much love to Taylor Marsh’s take on this for the motivation.
* UPDATE *
I listened to the video and audio excerpts a third time. And then headed on over to Hot Air to read Allahpundit’s take. Interesting point he made:
…but my hunch is that Ben Domenech’s right in believing that no one really thinks they’re part of the 47 percent. Everyone thinks they’re a “maker,” not a “taker,” due to whatever little tax they pay, so when Mitt lays into freeloaders, even people who pay no income tax think he’s talking about someone else. It’s sort of the flip side of senior citizens saying that America needs small government while telling politicians “Hands off my Medicare.”
I get that. But Ol’ Mitt comes off looking like the dispassionate CEO that looks at his employees as units that can be shuffled around. That 47%? Screw ‘em since they all getting handouts (even the ones very rich ones – Hollywood liberals anyone?). Handouts from a government YOU want to be the Executive of. Many people are focusing on the 47% and the government entitlement portions of the audio and video. As I mentioned before, it’s his statement that the 47% can essentially call it a four years since he doesn’t care for them will stick in some minds much longer than he wants. Even if you feel that way, you don’t want to say it sometimes.
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OMG!
What Romney just did was look at the number of Americans who pay income taxes – about 53% and generalize that NONE of these people are Democrats.
Really?? So nobody votes D because they want better education, healthcare, infrastructure, a cleaner environment, etc?? Not because they prefer to spend more on domestic policies than to prop up the Pentagon or gear up for the next ME war?? Nobody wants an administration that will work for pay equality for women and protect their reproductive choices??
None of them are teachers, librarians ,union workers, social workers, soldiers, nurses, etc etc???
This is the most outrageous and insulting comment to come out of the Romney campaign yet, and Priebus at the RNC backed it up today.
Campaign message If you vote for Obama it must mean you are a leech on society!
It tells me a lot about Romney because he is revealing that he only cares about half the country –he has written off the rest of us parasites!
It seems to me that Mr. Romney doesn’t care if 47% of Americans are dying in the streets. After all, he doesn’t think the government should help feed them if they have no money to buy food, help put a roof over their heads if they have no resources for a home, and help them get care if they are sick and have no health insurance.
I am disgusted.
Ok so earlier I said that the GOP will provide us with one really good piece of ignorance, bigotry, neanderthalism, or general foot in mouth comment per week to feet the news cycle. I was pretty sure we had this week’s already with Santorum’s comment about no smart people supporting the GOP, maybe we’d get another by Thursday or Friday. But no, here we are on Monday evening and this comes out. I can see clearly I’m going to have to revise my estimate upwards. Is anyone not in the .1%, not just 1%, still taking these guys seriously? They are just, awful, awful people. How sick of covering for insanely huge gaffs like this do you think the political operatives working for Romney and the GOP in general are? If I was one of them I’d pretty much want every single GOP candidate to have his lips stapled shut until the election.
Poor Mitt – he just can’t seem to hide the fact he is a sociopath. The good old days are feudalism and Romney would be the lord of the manor. A cynical and robotic smile for the serfs now and then. I am old enough to remember his father – a decent guy. In Mitt’s case the apple has fallen far from the tree.
wow…npr had a report this weekend that roe’s super pac hinting they might withdrawl funding the
presidential campaign and put the money towards taking the senate…now there is an understanding as to
where that one came from…
poor mitt it appears he has godzilla as internal sabatoure…
a billion dollars to self destruct is not financial resourceful…..
very scary…
OS, I’m about to submit a piece about Karls superpac. Your comment reinforces what I think he is doing.
I think people are totally blowing this out of proportion. I just don’t see what the fuss is about.
1) his comments are regarding fund raising, not “let’s let them die in the streets”
2) the “47%” meme is, and has been, part-and-parcel of the GOP campaign this cycle. This is not a “secret cabal” statement, it’s basically their campaign poster.
3) i think it’s totally valid to discuss government dependency
4) he’s right: these people probably aren’t going to vote for him (although he needs to be careful, many of those “dependents” are in the South, Appalachia, Texas, and the Grain Belt, the GOP base).
Sorry, I’m having a hard time getting excitable of this one.
I’m hardly blowing this out of proportion Barky (or getting excitable. LOL!) I stating when you say “I’m not going to worry about that 47%” you are essentially shutting the door on them. That’s how it will be interpreted. And also, his words say that those 47% are Obama supporters. Well… There are a sizable amount of red-blooded conservatives that are Romney supporters, receiving government financial assistance. So are they now Obama supporters and don’t care about personal responsibility? And what about those Obama supporters that don’t receive government financial assistance that are personally responsible for their lives?
Mitt Romney’s biggest issue with this statement is the generalization that even includes some of his supporters. His words can be framed in so many unflattering and damaging ways to his campaign.
Nom, actually Mitt has been FOR a minimum wage tied to inflation for many years.
Makes one wonder about other inaccuracies. “Reminds me of historical Nazi rhetoric.” How interesting and pathetic an “observation”.
RB, “Poor Mitt – he just can’t seem to hide the fact he is a sociopath.” Nice.
Barky, thanks for trying to be reasonable, but Mitt does himself harm and then the crowd blows it up with hateful rhetoric (not T), as above.
While I certainly wouldn’t call it Nazi-esque, the man did just say that 47% of the US population does not take responsibility, and does not care for their lives. It’s pretty hard to get around the very literal meaning of those words. The fact that it fits so perfectly with every other gaffe he’s made and with every domestic policy position he holds makes it extraordinarily difficult to think that he meant something different than what he said. It’s easy to believe that he really thinks that half the US population are leeching off the rich when what he says and what he proposes point to that conclusion.
Furthermore, does anyone have a source on that 47% number that keeps on getting tossed around? What does that include? Is it people or households? Does it, for example, include children or stay-at-home spouses? Does it include those in the lower middle class who make enough to pay taxes but are also getting tax deductions for, say, putting money into a business or paying off student loans? The 47% number seems pretty unbelievable to me unless it counts things like that. I remember working a few hours a week in high school and paying taxes. I definitely remember a good 25-30% being taken out of my nearly-minimum wage retail summer job, and even more out of the teaching gigs I got. And I was definitely not bringing in enough for anyone to live on, certainly nowhere near the $40K national median.
Ok, just read my favorite thing on this quote so far. It has to do with this portion of the Romney quote:
Here is the quote, and I agree with the sentiment 100%:
Yep, pretty much. It was a portion of the quote I hadn’t even listened to.
He is definitely lumping everyone together and that does say a lot although if I may make a teeny tiny excuse, he was talking to a small group of probably rabid conservatives.
BTW: David brooks of the times, a guy I like, has an editorial today that is interesting, and to which I agree:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/opinion/brooks-thurston-howell-romney.html
I wonder if the millions of Republicans included in Romney’s forty-seven percent “victim/ slacker” demographic will “take personal responsibility and care for their lives” by not voting for Romney?
Romney in his statements mentioned health care, food aid, and housing assistance.
To put the 47% in perspective the number shrinks to 35% once you eliminate social security and medicare. If we look at just the items he talked about medicaid which covers 26% of the population, but in some states you can have a substantial income and still receive benefits, the next largest item is food stamps which about 15% of the population takes advantage of, and finally housing assistance which only 4% of the population receive. The above summarizes a good article on the subject linked below.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/09/romney_says_47_percent_of_americans_receive_direct_government_assistance_is_that_true_.htm
Of course I haven’t mentioned unemployment benefits, veterans benefits, and others. Of course large businesses and corporations get their share of write-offs, depletion allowances, subsidies, and other tax breaks, etc. which you could also argue are part of the government’s benefit programs. Perhaps we should rank businesses and corporations by the amount of goodies they receive, certainly there are many slackers and deadbeats here as well.
Nom, I guess we don’t agree on your calling this one. I guess you agree with the many who oppose Romney’s tying MW to inflation a 10-year old position. “a position sharply at odds with traditional GOP business allies, conservatives and the party’s senior lawmakers.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/mitt-romney-minimum-wage_n_1247852.html
Should he flip? Your call.
Nazi comparisons are not pathetic as you correctly point out.
So Romney does assign a value to the concept of paying taxes. But once you are a taxpayer, the goal is to pay as little as possible. For a guy who’s so shy about opening up his own books on this topic, he seems to be very much not shy about making a connection between your value to America and how much you pay in taxes. Although I’m rather surprised he made this attack on GE, Wells Fargo, Verizon, and all the other corporate “people” who fall into the 47% of non-taxpaying slackers who he doesn’t care about.
Slam, you make a nice pretzel argument.
Um..thanks?
You can tell the Republicans really picked a dud this election cycle. Here he is getting all of these super pac donations 3:1 Romney:Obama, has outraised Obama for the last 6 months– except for the month of August, is campaigning in a bad economy, can campaign on dissatisfaction with 8% unemployment, has allies in the swing states working to cull the Democrat’s voting rolls and end early voting– and
He still can’t pull it off! Not only is he losing but he is tanking and taking with him all his investors who were counting on a reformed tax code for their investment.