Romney’s theory of the “taker class,” and why it matters

[PoliticalTiger]

“My job is not to worry about those people,” Mitt Romney said of the 47 percent of Americans who are likely to vote for Barack Obama. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

There will be plenty said about the politics of Romney’s remarks. But I want to take a moment and talk about the larger argument that they’re part of, because this vision of a society divided between “makers” and “takers” is really core to the Republican nominee’s policy agenda.
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For what it’s worth, this argument isn’t true. Among the Americans who paid no federal income taxes in 2011, 61 percent paid payroll taxes — which means they have jobs and, when you account for both sides of the payroll tax, they paid 15.3 percent of their income in taxes, which is higher than the 13.9 percent that Romney paid. Another 22 percent were elderly.

So 83 percent of those not paying federal income taxes are either working and paying payroll taxes or they’re elderly and Romney is promising to protect their benefits. The remainder, by and large, aren’t paying federal income or payroll taxes because they’re unemployed. But that’s a small fraction of the country.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra...t-matters/

[jaxx]

Hearing on Lawrence that Willard is frantically trying to walk this back. That will be impossible.

[janedrake]

It's late, and I may not be able to say this "elegantly," but as long as the mofo Willard Mitt Romney is paying HALF the tax rate I am - after having made his dough f*cking people over and hiding his money offshore - I don't kindly take to his "47%" bullshit.

/Excuse my French.

[PoliticalTiger]

(09-17-2012 11:37 PM)janedrake Wrote:  It's late, and I may not be able to say this "elegantly," but as long as the mofo Willard Mitt Romney is paying HALF the tax rate I am - after having made his dough f*cking people over and hiding his money offshore - I don't kindly take to his "47%" bullshit.

/Excuse my French.

Perfectly said!

[NJMaverick]

dodge their taxes they are smart and patriotic

When working Americans or retired Americans or soldiers don't pay taxes they are just freeloaders that he doesn't care about