And if she owns her own home, she pays property tax (as well as state and local) and sales.
If you’re not a moocher, then clearly you’re not who we’re talking about. You’re one of us.
Its not about being poor or not poor. Its not even about being dependent. Its about being dependent when you don’t have to be.
If you’re not on the dole, then you should be irritated at the numbers of people who are.
If you are on the dole through no fault of your own, you should be irritated at the fact that O’s economy has driven large numbers of people onto the dole who wouldn’t be there if he hadn’t spent the last 4 years choking the life out of this economy.
Good article, and she is correct. People should be judged by the content of their character, and not for any other reason.
If Linda B. is implying that there are no moochers among the 47%, then she is wrong.
And if Linda B. is implying that Romney said *everyone* in the 47% is a moocher, then she is wrong again.
If you want to work and better yourself you need to ask yourself which candidate would give you the best chance of doing just that. If you want to sit on your behind and watch TV all day make calls on your free cell phone we both know which candidate that is as well. What you may not know is the day of free government stuff will end one way or the other. And one way isn’t pretty. Just look at Europe. When folks leave our offices for a business trip I often say, “Write if you find work.” Most young folks have never heard the saying which was very popular during the Great Depression.
The essential question is: “Is she a NET taxpayer or not?” If she is not, then she lives off the rest of us NET taxpayers. No matter how you cut her ideology, intentions, working for this or that, if she doesn’t pay income taxes, she is not paying her fair share.
The 47% is about all the people who do, not about their level of income.
Should there not be editors who think about these things prior to publishing these stories?
SOME people are SO “sensitive”....they are narcissists...seeing something as applying to them
even if it does not. Get over yourself Linda. EVERYONE KNOWS exactly who Romney was talking about...if it doesn’t apply to you...quit yer bitchen...
I'm not aware of any 47% tax bracket, not yet at least.
I blame Rush Limbaugh.
I am in the 53% who pay income taxes...lots and lots of income taxes. And not because I am rich, it is because I have no deductions to claim.
This whole notion about people who don’t pay federal income taxes being a drag on the economy and vote themselves freebies through the democrat party is just horse manure. You can thank Rush Limbaugh for this particular flavor of horse manure.
Income taxes were never meant to be paid by the majority of US citizens. I will paraphrase Calvin Coolidge here...
“only the very wealthy should pay income taxes and they should only pay a pittance”.
How this transformed into the Rush Limbaugh school of thought where even homeless people should fork over their 10% is beyond me. But Romney sure did latch onto the Rush Limbaugh school of thought and now he’s paying for it in the polls.
The problem is the size of the US government and the amount of money it spends. Their spending needs to be chopped down to about a tenth the size it is currently.
As usual, the media’s characterization of what Mitt Romney said has people confused about what he really meant.
A nut job with psychologocal problems who is incapable of knowing that by "parasites" we don't mean the mentally challenged; or...
A troll who IS in fact a parasite gaming the system and claims the opposite; in other words, she suffers silently and "conservatives" are keeping her there.
The "progressives," and Obamabots really believe that the majority of working, taxpaying US citizens are morons!
I can say the same. In fact, I could have written this article! I wonder how many more of us there are.
If the shoe doesn’t fit don’t wear it.
What Romney should now explain are the reasons why many of those 47% ers on fixed incomes must go on food stamps and apply for other “benefits” such as energy assistance etc.
The price of ; goods, services ,food, as well as the cost, use, and types of of energy resources, particularly coal,and oil, have all been driven up by Obama through his endless edicts, use of regulations and prohibitions. These are all designed to change the systems of distribution and use of pleantiful resources to conform to a socialist scheme or ideal. Without any regard to the consequences.
After all let US remember “To make an omlet ..”one must break a few eggs” and the one who made that remark. Explaining his murdering of millions to seize their land to conform to a socialist idea of wealth and food distribution. That went praised by The New Tork Times.
I am curious how many FReepers are part of the blanket 47%. You damn well know it’s a healthy chunk. Many commenters here find the nooks and crannies within the blanket 47% to hide, but that does not change the epic stupidity of lumping in hundreds of thousands of hard working conservatives who make up the blanket 47%.
I have a couple nearly lifelong acquaintances who are bitter, venomous lefties. They spit when they say Bush and they sneer and practically foam when they say Palin.
They hate Romney worse than Achmadinejad.
They work hard and have raised and sent kids off to college, but I don’t know how much of their tuition they cover. He owns and operates an outdoor-based business and she is self-employed and puts on events often (not always) involving rich Hollywood folks.
They have a home in town and a business building, along with a couple shop-type structures. They have a small second home which was purchased as a hunting base but is now rented out (for good money) to oilfield workers. They have a third stucco home (couple bedrooms, garage, yard, fence, very nice) down in the southwest, purchased just last year as a getaway place, and they are in the process of purchasing another (very basic) hunting cabin in another state.
They work hard and have made smart moves. But they depend heavily on (and value very much) the EPA, Forest Service, US Fish & Wildlife and the Ag Department, and other federal agencies (DOT, DOD and so on) as do we all.
They don’t pay federal income tax. They write off everything they possibly can. They don’t pay for the federal government services they depend on. They hate the candidates that I tend to support, they hate anyone with money unless that person is a leftwinger, they despise people like me who pay their federal tax bill for them and have the temerity to wonder why.
Are they moochers? Tell you what-—they think Obamacare is great, they think Obamaphones are funny, they think the poor and nonwhite are deserving of something extra, they think the “rich” have it coming, they secretly think I’m a sucker and that I probably cheat my country just as they do because “everybody does.” They do not care where federal money goes (unless it was one of George Bush’s wars) and they are quite sure Obama will bring an end to dependence on oil (not foreign oil—OIL) within the next several years.
Are they moochers? You tell me. They are far from alone, I’ll tell you that.
It’s a provable number as a generic tent.
You fall into that tent. Are a moocher? Doesn’t sound like it but, how do we discern what the actual percentage is, in your group, who are doing just fine without government freebies.
The salient point is there are many others in your group who demanding that the 53% who do pay federal income tax are under constant assault “To Pay Their Fair Share”.
That means we actually contribute, today, to the Federal income tax scheme either through direct work or capital gains.
I reminded of a time when I was driving to Atlanta and as I drove the Natchez area of Missouri seeing all these “Shanty Houses”. I mean, they used paper and other scrap material to cover their houses where, I guess, the home needed repair.
I thought “Geeze, this is America. No reason anyone should live like that and no need for all these outhouses in an entire neighborhood”.
I’m also thinking, at the time, “Hell, we have all these welfare programs that could really help them”.
So I stopped one day and asked a fella who was doing something in his yard “Hey, could I ask you a question?”.
Old man smiled and said “Sure”.
“I’m not trying to be rude but we have a lot of government programs, welfare and such and you could live in a much nicer place. Have you ever considered asking for something that might help? We do pay taxes so you can get these things.”
He smiled and said “yep, young man, we could ask the government for a lot of things. Use to think it would make my life a littler easier. But, you see this home and the dirt here have been in my family three generations. Same as most of the people on this street. If we ask the government for anything then they’ll take this away because the home away so I can get from them what I make anyway”.
“No, this is my family’s home and I’ll pass it to my son. But, I make enough and don’t really need more”.
“When you take from the devil there’s all kinds of things that happen that you didn’t think about and ain’t none of them good”
“Pride in one’s work and keeping busy are good for your character and your soul”.
So I smiled understanding this man’s ethos, thanked him for sharing and left knowing that indeed, there is good in working and not being beholding to the government or anyone.
I also wondered if this man wasn’t a better man than me and if he didn’t fit the American ideal of Self Determination;
Life - lived as he saw fit without interference
Liberty - he was beholden to no one when he got through with his day, week, month and ultimately years.
Happiness - He had all he needed, was truly grateful(how you get to happiness) and God had blessed him by supplying all he needed.
To this day I admire him for he was truly a rich man.
Wrong, Linda. If your tax bracket is too high, all you need to do is make less money. Work less hard. Don't take risks! Because, if you lose, you lose, but if you win, the government confiscates the proceeds.
Of course, guess what that type of action does to the economy and to Linda's chances of rising out of the 47%.
Interesting argument. Some in the "47%" voted against the redistributionists, but paying extra tax for the govt. to waste does not do any good.
Romney would like to take his 47% statement back, obviously. It may cost him votes from the right and center.