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."
I think he is one of those sleeper cell Freepers (i.e. DU troll). I’ve already seen a few of them popup in the past hour.
Uh....this was deliberate and the msm took it hook line and sinker. Mitt hasn’t been able to get his message out by conventional means due to msm filtering. Throwing out this “undercover” video is brilliant.
Msm is too stupid to see what this really is.
Agree with that. His campaign is dead meat. That 47% includes retirees, military, people temporarily on welfare/food stamps. It’s one thing to want to rationalize government spending, it’s quite another to so bluntly group people into a generalization that they are all oblunder lovers and should be written off in his presidency. I wondered why he keeps sticking his foot in his mouth and now I know. HE’S SIMPLY STUPID, a dumbf*** mittens.
First someone has to get them out of bed and drive them to the polls.
I spoke to a mother with one child..she gets $85.00 per month food stamps for the kid .none for herself..she has been looking for a job for 16 months. she isnt getting rich off the system and wants Obama gone.
Trolls post behind freepers backs, and are clueless about the difference between a “sleeper” account and a poster with 44,000 posts.
I’m pretty sure the 47% figure means those collecting government checks.
That means the most republican age group, the over 65s.
The military, retired military, and many others.
Because that’s how the 47% is calculated; read the background
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=1001289
Uou think all these people are deadbeats? Mittens got tax breaks, too.
“The fraction of tax units paying no income tax varies
widely by filing status and type of unit. About 47 percent
of single filers will owe no tax, compared with 38 percent
of joint filers and 72 percent of heads of household. More
than half of elderly tax units and tax units with children
will pay no income tax this year.
Differences in income explain much of that variation.
Single people and heads of household have average
income under $30,000 while married couples filing
jointly have income averaging nearly $75,000. More than
60 percent of units with income between $20,000 and
$30,000 pay no income tax, compared with only about 20
percent of those between $50,000 and $75,000.
Filing status matters too, largely because of differences
by filing status in exclusions, deductions, and credits,
and in the presence of children. More than three-fourths
of joint filers and heads of household with income
between $30,000 and $40,000 pay no tax compared with
just one-sixth of single tax units in that income range.
And almost 90 percent of units with children in that
income category pay no tax, reflecting, in part, the value
of the earned income and child tax credits.”
PING - I know you found this elsewhere...
ansel12 can be contrary...but he is definitely not a "troll".
A lot of people on welfare seem to live a whole lot better than I do but I was raised frugal anyway.
The local farmer I buy vegetables from was telling me about how he spotted the “new welfare class”. He says they’re showing up at the farmer’s market which is unusual from the old welfare class who don’t worry about good deals. The old class buys crap with food stamps no matter what the cost.
The new welfare class are bargain shoppers who stretch the food stamps as far as they can. He said that he and some of the other sellers are giving double deals to the bargain shopping food stamp users. He said that they’re coming in to buy things like bushels of tomatoes for canning.
I feel the exact opposite. It sounded like an insult to me. We are all dependent on the gov't in some Way 9military, SS..)...but he just told America that if you are dependent on the gov't you shouldn't vote for me. Not a smart statement IMHO. I also think he just put the conservative talk show hosts in a quandry --they will spend a lot of time trying explain what he meant by that....
Not necessarily. The statement is carefully worded. It's not referring to "people who are getting government checks", but to people "who will vote for the president" and/or "who are dependent on government" (which doesn't necessarily mean getting an entitlement check -- but includes government employees, etc.)
"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...
Further, by context, Romney is clearly excluding anybody who is without a sense of government dependency -- which would include most social security and military retirement recipients.
He is instead referring to a dependent mentality...
Well I hope his solution is to open up the economy so that businesses create jobs.........and then cut their azzes off. I am not holding my breath though.
“I feel the exact opposite. It sounded like an insult to me. We are all dependent on the gov’t in some Way 9military, SS..)...but he just told America that if you are dependent on the gov’t you shouldn’t vote for me.”
Words fail me how stupid this sounds.
YOU think that the discussion we have had here for YEARS about the number of people mooching off the government actually involved people in the military and people collecting SS money they paid?!?!?!
I know that several posters are trying to float this line of bull, so you will have to excuse me if I dont buy it.
If you aren’t just running some spin job troll BS, then you really need to stop and think.
Romney didn’t lump you in with welfare losers, you did.
Look, a moron is a troll that posts behind freeper’s backs, and sets out to personalize things and post pure insults.
Man up, post to ME, and make your case like an adult.
The 47% of Americans collecting government checks, who do you think they are, you don’t realize that it includes almost everyone over age 65?
Grow up and try to force yourself to read some of the posts on this thread.
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