Mitt should worry about the poor, but that's not what he said.
Well Mr. Romney why did you open your mouth? OK . Now everything is now overblown . I really don't care what Romney said. The 1-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, where the chant was "We are the 99%," and 2. The day we got the video of Mitt Romney talking to his affluent donors and saying "There are 47% who are with [Obama], 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. These are people who pay no income tax." That was a paraphrase on what Romney said. Remember too about the 99% , who make up part of the 47 % ?
Any how Romney's transcript follows :
** "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 that 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 that government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49 -- he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect.
"So he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean, that’s what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not."
I didn't quote the worst part: "My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
I don't know if there is anything wrong about saying that to take personal responsibility and care for their lives is wrong . Mitt Romney is not wrong from an electoral perspective about what he said. He’s right, polls are consistently showing that Obama holds a statistically insignificant lead over Romney nationally, and battleground states across the country are even closer. Romney is right to say that a large majority of Americans feel victimized, and in large part Obama plays on this with his campaign rhetoric as well. From an electoral perspective, he’s right to do so if he wants to get elected. In America’s two-party system, it is critical to put divergent blocs of people together within your coalition to win. Mitt Romney’s comments are not bothersome because they correctly identified the fact that too many people in this country are reliant upon government assistance and re-distributive policies. It’s bothersome because he put a number out there: 10%, 50%, 99% ... it doesn't matter. The philosophical base that these people have is what’s dangerous, and regardless if one person or one hundred million people hold that philosophy, we need to ensure our government institutions reject that philosophy. Our government is here to protect rights, individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I don't know if there is anything wrong about saying that to take personal responsibility and care for their lives is wrong . Mitt Romney is not wrong from an electoral perspective about what he said. He’s right, polls are consistently showing that Obama holds a statistically insignificant lead over Romney nationally, and battleground states across the country are even closer. Romney is right to say that a large majority of Americans feel victimized, and in large part Obama plays on this with his campaign rhetoric as well. From an electoral perspective, he’s right to do so if he wants to get elected. In America’s two-party system, it is critical to put divergent blocs of people together within your coalition to win. Mitt Romney’s comments are not bothersome because they correctly identified the fact that too many people in this country are reliant upon government assistance and re-distributive policies. It’s bothersome because he put a number out there: 10%, 50%, 99% ... it doesn't matter. The philosophical base that these people have is what’s dangerous, and regardless if one person or one hundred million people hold that philosophy, we need to ensure our government institutions reject that philosophy. Our government is here to protect rights, individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
NOTES & COMMENTS:
** 1) Most of 47 percent of Americans who aren't paying income taxes don't get away tax free: Nearly two-thirds pay payrolltaxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.2) Of that smaller group that pays no income taxes orpayroll taxes, more than half are elderly -- a population thatskewed heavily Republican in the 2010 elections -- and over a third are low-income, earning less than $20,000 a year, according to the Tax Policy Center.3) Romney says his "job is not to worry about those people," assuming people who pay no income taxes are likely to vote Democratic. However, the Tax Foundation found that the states with the highest percentages of people who don't pay income taxes are overwhelmingly red.4) Finally, as New York Times columnist David Brooks pointed out in his reflections this morning on Romney's comments, people who rely on government funding are a diverse group of stakeholders, including everyone from veterans receiving health care from the V.A. to students receiving college loans. It's not just the poor and elderly.
It has now come out that, despite the claim of releasing the "full" video, Mother Jones is apparently now admitting that they released an edited version which cuts out what they claim is "one to two minutes" of Romney's response and then jump-cuts to him addressing another question.
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