Posted on 09/17/2012 5:01:13 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Romney: 47 percent depend on government, will vote for Obama By Justin Sink - 09/17/12 06:16 PM ET
Mitt Romney, in candid remarks at a fundraising dinner caught in an undercover video, dismissed "47 percent" of Americans as "dependent upon government."
"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney is shown saying. "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 healthcare, to food, to housing, to you name it."
The GOP presidential nominee goes on to say his "job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
The video, uncovered by Mother Jones, is from a fundraising dinner earlier this summer. The magazine has said it is withholding the date and location of the fundraiser for the source who provided the video. The magazine posted only small, individual clips, and not Romney's remarks in their entirety.
The Obama campaign seized on Romney remarks in a statement emailed to reporters Monday night.
"It's shocking that a candidate for President of the United States would go behind closed doors and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half the American people view themselves as ‘victims,’ entitled to handouts, and are unwilling to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their lives," said Obama campaign manager Jim Messina. "It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”
Later Thursday afternoon, the Romney campaign issued a statement downplaying the remarks.
"Mitt Romney wants to help all Americans struggling in the Obama economy," said Romney communications director Gail Gitcho. "As the governor has made clear all year, he is concerned about the growing number of people who are dependent on the federal government, including the record number of people who are on food stamps, nearly one in six Americans in poverty, and the 23 million Americans who are struggling to find work. Mitt Romney's plan creates 12 million new jobs in four years, grows the economy and moves Americans off of government dependency and into jobs."
But the video threatens to derail what had been an orchestrated reboot of Romney's presidential campaign, which came under fire last weekend from Republican allies frustrated by the nominee's strategy. Reports emerged of infighting and bickering among top Romney advisers, and some campaign allies said Romney needed to refocus his efforts on bringing out the base after failing to rally independent and swing voters.
In a conference call earlier Monday with reporters, campaign aides pledged that Romney would provide more specifics on his policies and programs on the campaign stump.
"We think voters now, from what we see in data and other research, are looking for — OK, if we're going to make this change, how is it going to make my life better, how are things going to improve?" said Romney adviser Ed Gillespie on a conference call with reporters. "We know that they know he has a plan, which is a good thing, but we also know they would like to know a little bit more about the specifics, and we're going to meet the demand."
To aid in that effort, the campaign released two new ads on Monday detailing Romney's five-point economic plan and criticizing Obama's record. Romney also made a major push for Hispanic voters Monday, speaking at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles and granting interviews to Univision and Telemundo.
But that push could be partially undermined by another of the covert clips, where Romney candidly discusses some of the problems encountered by his campaign, including trouble attracting female and Hispanic voters.
Romney jokes of his father, who was born in Mexico: "Had he been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot of winning this."
Later in the fundraising video, Romney admits that Republicans are having a difficult time attracting Hispanic voters — and there could be severe repercussions for the party.
"We are having a much harder time with Hispanic voters, and if the Hispanic voting bloc becomes as committed to the Democrats as the African-American voting block has in the past, why, we're in trouble as a party and, I think, as a nation," Romney said.
Romney also told donors the campaign was using his wife, Ann, "sparingly ... so that people don't get tired of her."
And he admits that the president remains popular with many voters, which makes attacking him difficult.
"But when you say, 'Are you disappointed that his policies haven't worked?' they say yes," Romney said. "And because they voted for him, they don't want to be told that they were wrong, that he's a bad guy, that he did bad things, that he's corrupt. Those people that we have to get, they want to believe they did the right thing, but he just wasn't up to the task."
Almost everyone over 65 is part of that 47%, and they are the most republican age group, to insult them and retired military, is a real live, Mitt Romney type gaffe.
The man is just so out of touch, I bet you $10,000.00 (a similar type Romney gaffe) that he will suffer some for this.
When does he start his real campaign?
America: Leave the 47% behind, vote Romney!
Frankly, I can’t think of a single military retiree that I know that would call their retirement check being dependent on the government. They would probably laugh at that implication rather than suffer the faux indignation being spouted all over this thread.
Obama’s making welfare and laying about fashionable again. His deeds speak stronger than words. And yet, even here, we have whiners beating down Romney over not parsing his words correctly.
Do you honestly believe those people will think he’s talking about them?
Or that he actually WAS talking about them?
Everyone knows whom he was talking about.
“Almost everyone over 65 is part of that 47%, and they are the most republican age group, to insult them and retired military, is a real live, Mitt Romney type gaffe.”
Nonsense.
None of those people will think of themselves as part of that group. Everyone who has the potential of having their mind changed wants to see themselves as “open-minded” and reasonable and capable of being convinced. These people hear Romney talking about Obama voters who will never change their mind and won’t listen to reason and they say “That’s not me.”
The number Romney puts on it (as long as it’s less than 50% so he doesn’t look defeatist) doesn’t matter - 47%, 42%, 35%. No independent, convince-able voter will think Romney’s talking about them, so they won’t feel insulted.
It’s pretty obvious Romney’s not talking about SS retirees and military pensions, and nobody but the spinning leftist media will try to paint it that way.
That's a bad strategy. A lot of those 47%-ers are not in the group by choice. Romney needs to trumpet how he will make it possible for them to rise up out of it.
It means those who are not paying federal income taxes. Many of those are paying Social Security taxes, however.
That means the most republican age group, the over 65s.
They may be getting Social Security, but a lot of them make enough money to owe income taxes. And they also are pissed that Zero raided Medicare to help pay for his Obamacare mess.
The military, retired military, and many others.
Their pensions hardly count as welfare. Also, a lot of them make enough to be paying income taxes.
Romney said those depending on government, meaning checks, income.
Not owing income tax has absolutely nothing to do with “depending on government”.
Not owing income tax has absolutely nothing to do with “depending on government”.
What Romney said was:
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 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.
The 47% number is is often quoted as the percentage who do not pay federal income tax.
People getting military pensions and social security often have high enough incomes to owe federal income tax.
No, that isn’t what he meant, for one thing not owing taxes has nothing to do with collecting anything from the government. Absolutely nothing. Zero, nada.
What he said, and what he meant was *” 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 means government money, moola, health care, food stamps, social security, military retirement, medicare, medical, government pensions, unemployment.
The man is an idiot, and I bet you $10,000.00 dollars that he regrets being such a clueless, remote, out of touch idiot, when he is running a campaign.
I think a lot of people have it confused about what these kind of laws do. They have led to a lot of dvisiveness. They seem to make us more intolerant rather than tolerant.
I ‘m starting to feel that way too. Let’s just forget about the elections and split the country now. Obama heads a violent and dangerous crowd. We can’t trust to compomise with them. They just tell lies and break/ignore the law. We can’t go on like this. Our Constitution and electoral process is meant for people who can govern themselves. Half the country doesn’t seem to be able to, or doesn’t believe we should do that.
He was speaking of the 47% who will vote for Obama no matter what. They believe helplessness and bigger government is the way to go. They may be dependent or they might not be, although there is significant overlap between that 47% Romney is referring to, the 47% of people who pay no taxes, and the people that are dependent on government.
Needs REPEATING for the crowd here.
There's too much callous disregard for the millions pushed into these programs by the state of the economy.
This message will unfortunately resonate with a lot of swing voters who aren't in that 47% and may seal it for hussein.
I think Mitt just threw an interception in the waning moments of the 4th quarter with the game tied, putting obama in field goal range.
Yeah and Obama is responsible for the misery and joblessness of Americans. Obama added 6 trillion $ in debt on the U.S. which will lead to total collapse of America. And it passed the dream Act Amnesty by itself in spite of Congress which is illegal. Those illegals will take more jobs from Americans.
mia said: “Not everyone dependent on government is happy about their situation. Many people are unhappy with the fact that they don’t have jobs and have nothing to look forward to. They feel helpless and hopeless.
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