The Mitt Caught Pandering. Again.
The Mitt was caught on video spouting a bit of right wing fantasy, that 47% of Americans don’t pay taxes. In addition to being freebooters, The Mitt went on to claim they were lock-in votes for President Obama. WC thinks The Mitt and his speechwriters have been listening to too much Limbaugh and not enough facts.
The Mitt claimed 47% of Americans don’t pay taxes. Before everyone works themselves into a froth over this claim, can we think for just a minute?
According to the U.S. Census, 23.7% of Americans are 18 years of age or younger. Seriously, does anyone expect minors to be gainfully employed, especially in the current economy? So half of The Mitt’s non-taxpaying Americans are kids. The same report finds that 13.3% of Americans are 65 years or older. You know, retired. Sure, not everyone over 65 is retired, and not everyone waits all the way to age 65 to kick back, but it’s another huge chunk of Americans who shouldn’t be expected to pay much in taxes. So 37% of The Mitt’s 47% should come as no surprise to anyone whose neurons function.
Now factor in spouses who do not work outside of the home, people with serious disabilities that prevent them from working at all and Limbaugh’s alarmist claims, thoughtlessly spouted by The Mitt, don’t demonstrate some huge, money-leeching underclass, sponging off the hardworking majority.
The Hamilton Project has a very nice article on this issue, including this helpful chart:
Taxpayers by Age
Set aside the fact that the 47% is cooked up by omitting folks who pay payroll taxes that equal or exceed their income tax obligation. The number itself is shocking only if you can’t reason. It’s like claiming 40% of all employee absenteeism occurs on Mondays and Fridays. It shocks only if your critical thinking is impaired or you listen to Sean Hannity too much. But WC repeats himself.
The other thing that’s astonishing about The Mitt’s claims is that it kicks one of his most reliable constituencies right in the fork. The older you get, the more likely you are to vote for a Republican presidential candidate. Among registered voters, the single largest constituency that doesn’t pay income taxes taxes is the retired. So The Mitt told one his more reliable voting blocks they were leeches, automatic votes for Obama and not worthy of The Mitt’s concern. Not a clever strategy, in WC’s opinion.
David Brooks, writing in the New York Times, concludes:
Personally, I think he’s a kind, decent man who says stupid things because he is pretending to be something he is not — some sort of cartoonish government-hater. But it scarcely matters. He’s running a depressingly inept presidential campaign. Mr. Romney, your entitlement reform ideas are essential, but when will the incompetence stop?
WC is not so charitable. A decent man has and holds to principles, A decent man doesn’t pander to the country club fantasies of the right wing. A decent man doesn’t pander, period. All of which makes The Mitt something other than a decent man. A decent man doesn’t claims half of our citizens are grifters. And certainly not a man who is fit to be president of the entire country.
I’m with you; a decent man sticks to his principles and cares about how his policies affect people. He is an opportunist plain and simple. To be fair, though, I don’t think he was including kids in the 47%. However, he didn’t consider how many of the 47% are mentally ill, developmentally disabled, or in the military.
WakeUpAmerica
September 19, 2012 at 7:33 am
I assume it speaks to the degradation and contamination of the Nation’s water supply that so many republicans who heard those comments actually agree with the Mitt! Can we please have a high school mandatory graduation requirement that you have to take and pass Critical Thinking Skills with a grade of C or better? Come to think of it, I remember back in middle school I had a Civics class (do our kids have those still?) where our teacher would show us commercials and have us analyze them. It was a real eye opener on manipulation and the suspension of reason and the power of blind belief.
Kate McLaughlin
September 19, 2012 at 7:55 am
Hey, in Texas, they are not allowed to teach Critical Thinking Skills because some kid might end up disagreeing with his redneck parents and actually support immigration reform and real public education. And in LA, public funds are going to private church schools who teach only from the Bible. And when these kids become adults, you can bet they will join their parents in the red states that pay less or no taxes. count on it.
sallyinmi
September 19, 2012 at 11:05 am
I’m a retired GA high school social studies teacher, Kate, and civics is still taught in high school here. The main problem I experienced in teaching civics to students in a red state was that the students would learn the material to pass the state-mandated social studies test, but it didn’t change their core beliefs which they learned mainly from their parents and pastors, the majority of whom were rabid consumers of Fox News and RW radio entertainers and who believed everything that RW politicians said. It seems as if many republicans in red states have been brainwashed into believing that they’re not the largest group of takers when research shows that they are.
majiir
September 19, 2012 at 12:20 pm
It is interesting to note how the views of RomneyRyan do not comport with the religions they claim to profess. Ryan’s budget was roundly criticized by Georgetown University faculty, as you pointed out earlier this year, WC. Sr. Simone Campbell dissected it at the Dem convention, and her critique was consistent with a similar critique of it by Roman Catholic bishops. Romney’s sentiments, most recently displayed, are not consistent with the communitarian strength of Mormonism that helps to explain its survival in difficult cultural and political times, not to mention a harsh frontier environment. The church continues to be in the forefront for its charitable works, like many other religious societies. I’ve not encountered any religious society with such charitable impulses that regard those they serve as freeloaders or as repulsive, as Romney’s comments seem to reflect. This only confirms my conclusion that there is no moral grounding whatsoever to RomneyRyan. It makes it easier to understand why Ryan so idolizes Ayn Rand.
Paul Eaglin
Fairbanks
paul2eaglin
September 19, 2012 at 9:21 am
It may appear to Romney supporters that much “piling on” over this despicable spiel to that small gathering of millionaire backers is occurring. Unfortunately for Romney he doesn’t recall or payed heed to the old axiom “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive”. Granted, embellishment of fact takes place continually in politics, but Willard’s campaign has engaged in a demagogic, falsehood riddled, crusade the likes of which US presidential contests have never beheld. To the extent that now the accumulation of lie upon lie has gotten too prodigious for him to cope with.
The magnitude of this brazen rhetoric first caught my eye with the release of an early campaign ad. It quoted then-candidate Obama back in the 2008 campaign saying “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” The problem was, that Obama at the time was actually quoting the words of a strategist from Sen. John McCain’s campaign. When confronted with his campaign’s blatantly dishonest ad, Romney refused to pull it and exhibited a flip, nudge-nudge, wink-wink demeanor. The egregious nature of his attitude left me wondering how long he was going to be able to sustain this subterfuge without garnering public ire.
twaharpies
September 20, 2012 at 10:53 am