Virginia Republican revives the 47% argument in new book

Morgan Whitaker/Politics Nation

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the likely Republican nominee for governor, will release a book next month that includes what many are calling the new 47% argument of 2013.

In the new book, “The Last Line of Defense: The New Fight for American Liberty,” Cuccinelli argues that ”bad politicians set out to grow government” to “make people dependent on government.”

The reasoning is strikingly similar to Romney, who was caught on camera last fall complaining of the “47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what” because they “are dependent upon government” and “believe that they are victims.”

Romney also said at the time he would “never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

In the excerpts published by the Washington Post Cuccinelli does not go that far, instead accusing the politicians who choose to expand government services of nefarious motives.

In one excerpt he writes, “Sometimes bad politicians set out to grow government in order to increase their own power and influence. This phenomenon doesn’t just happen in Washington; it happens at all levels of government. The amazing thing is that they often grow government without protest from citizens, and sometimes they even get buy-in from citizens—at least from the ones getting the goodies.”

“One of their favorite ways to increase their power is by creating programs that dispense subsidized government benefits, such as Medicare,  Social Security,  and outright welfare (Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing, and the like),” he writes. “These programs make people dependent on government. And once people are dependent, they feel they can’t afford to have the programs taken away, no matter how inefficient, poorly run, or costly to the rest of society.”

“Citizens will vote for those politicians who promise more benefits each year, rather than the fiscally responsible politicians who try to point out that such programs are unsustainable and will eventually bankrupt the states or the nation.”

Cuccinelli even criticizes those within his own party, calling out George W. Bush for his support of Medicare Part D. “It was the largest entitlement program program in forty years, and it was created under Republican president George W. Bush and passed by a Republican-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate in 2003,” he writes. “While there may have been some good intentions involved, this was George W. Bush using taxpayer dollars to buy seniors’ votes for his 2004 reelection campaign, pure and simple. And the Republicans in Congress generall y went right along with it.”

Romney’s now infamous comments about the 47% are widely seen as one of the major factors contributing to his loss. A poll taken about a month before election day found a majority of Americans had a negative reaction to the comments.

Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz pointed to the 47% line as major reason that Romney lost the Latino vote by such a wide margin.

“You want to know why Barack Obama won 71% of the Hispanic vote? Tone on immigration contributed, but I think far more important was ’47%,’” Cruz said at an event a few weeks after the election, although polling shows that Romney’s numbers with Latino voters didn’t change drastically after the comments.

This new book includes the latest in a series of controversial statements from Cuccinnelli since announcing his campaign for governor. Earlier this month he said that catholics should be willing to be arrested in order to protest the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act, even comparing that issue to the civil rights protests of Martin Luther King.

Recent polling shows Cuccinelli is statistically tied with his likely Democratic rival in the 2013 Governor’s race, Terry McAuliffe. Many speculate that Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling may enter the race as an Independent.

96 Percent Of People Have Received Some Government Assistance

By Annie-Rose Strasser /Think Progress

Mitt Romney got himself in trouble when he wrote off 47 percent of Americans who “are dependent upon government.” But he also got his math wrong.

It turns out that 96 percent of Americans have used government assistance at one point or another in their lives, ranging from Social Security to grant programs. In a New York Times op-ed Monday, Professors Suzanne Mettler and John Sides point out that a vast majority of Americans have some tie to the government and that, in 2008, 96 percent of people used government help. The data comes from a 2008 Cornell study of 21 social programs:

The survey asked about people’s policy usage throughout their lives, not just at a moment in time, and it included questions about social policies embedded in the tax code, which are usually overlooked.

What the data reveal is striking: nearly all Americans — 96 percent — have relied on the federal government to assist them. Young adults, who are not yet eligible for many policies, account for most of the remaining 4 percent.

On average, people reported that they had used five social policies at some point in their lives. An individual typically had received two direct social benefits in the form of checks, goods or services paid for by government, like Social Security or unemployment insurance.

As Sides and Mettler are quick to point out, the survey does not include “government activity that benefits everyone — national defense, the interstate highway system, food safety regulations — but only tangible benefits.”

This means that Romney was not just insulting those who are too poor to pay a federal income tax. If Romney believes that dependence on government leads people to “believe that they are victims” who would never take “personal responsibility and care for their lives,” he has written off 96 percent of the country.

Bill Clinton Uses Facts to Destroy Romney’s Claims About the 47 Percent

By: Jason Easley/politicususa

On Face The Nation, Factchecker in Chief Bill Clinton destroyed Mitt Romney’s claim that the 47% are victims with history and facts about working class Americans.

Here is the video from Face The Nation:

Bob Schieffer asked Clinton if Romney’s 47% comments were smart politics.

The former president answered,

No, but it’s interesting. You know, I know a lot of higher income people. A lot of whom help me do my work, and they’re supporting Gov. Romney, and a lot of people say things like that. But I think it’s worth pointing out, if you look at that 47%. First, they do pay taxes. They pay Social Security taxes. They pay Medicare taxes. They pay state and local taxes.

Second, they are out of the federal income tax pool for two reasons. One is the economic crash, which lowered a lot people’s incomes. Even a lot of the newer jobs don’t pay high incomes. Now, the second reason is interesting. It’s a bipartisan reason in the past. It’s because the combined impacts of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child Tax Credit. I doubled the Earned Income Tax Credit, which I think President Ford signed into law, and which President Reagan supported. And it’s refundable, if you work and you got kids and your income’s low, the government will actually refund the credit if you drop out of owing income tax. It was designed to support working families.

Then we put in a Child Tax Credit, which when President Bush passed all of those tax cuts that’s what he did for middle class people. He doubled the Child Tax Credit to a thousand dollars. Then when President Obama came in, and he had a Democratic Congress, and the economy was reeling, they increased the Earned Income Tax Credit so you could get a little more if you had more than three kids. So an enormous number of these people who were dropped out were dropped out for reasons of work and family, not dependents. These people are working their hearts out. They would love to make enough money to pay federal income tax. We were all before trying to help them with their work and their child rearing.

Schieffer asked former President Clinton if Romney understood who he was talking about, and he answered, “I don’t know. Because, you know the primary they ran kept pushing them all to the right. I remember when they all raised their hands and said would you oppose the budget, a new budget, if it had ten dollars in spending cuts for every one dollar of tax increase, and every one of them said, yeah, I’d be against that. So they got pushed further and further, and further out there, and I think you know, you don’t just purge all that out of your system when you start running for the general election.”

If you read between the lines, President Clinton was telling America that Romney is just another member of the super rich and his comments about the forty seven percent are what a lot of wealthy Republicans believe. Clinton showed the difference between a leader who understands who the working class of America are, and a candidate who has absolutely no clue.

Either Romney has no idea about the role former Republican presidents Ford, Reagan, and George W. Bush playing in cutting taxes for a group of people that he labeled victims, or maybe he does know, and that’s why his tax plan has to eliminate a lot of deductions the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. Romney could very well believe that the moochers don’t deserve the EITC or Child Tax Credit.

Bill Clinton used history and facts to show Mitt Romney and everyone on the right who shares his beliefs how wrong they are about nearly half the country.

The giant contradiction in all of this is that Romney claims to value work, but he doesn’t want to reward Americans for working hard and taking care of their families. Mitt Romney has no clue what it is like to be middle class or a member of the working poor in this country. As evidenced by his own remarks, he appears to be absolutely clueless as to who half the country is and what their daily lives are like.

Mitt Romney is running for president based on a country club ideology that looks down on everyone who isn’t rich. Romney seems to believe that by virtue of their wealth, the super rich are superior human beings. This attitude leads one to believe that Romney isn’t running a presidential campaign. He’s engaging in a hostile takeover.

President Obama and the Democrats still feel your pain. Mitt Romney and the Republicans think you are a deadbeat.

If this is part of the argument that Bill Clinton is going to take to voters on behalf of President Obama, Mitt Romney is in a world of trouble.

Fallout over 47% continues

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How The Right Wing Media Built Mitt Romney's 47 Percent Line

ZACHARY PLEAT & REMINGTON SHEPARD/Media Matters for America

The right-wing media's assault on struggling Americans found its way in to GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's recently revealed remarks disparaging 47 percent of Americans "who pay no income tax" to a group of wealthy donors, once again demonstrating the conservative media's central role in the GOP.

 

 

 

 

 

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Romney Dismisses 47 Percent Of Americans That "Believe Government Has A Responsibility To Care For Them"

Mother Jones Reports On May 17 Recording At Romney Donor Dinner. In a September 17 post, Mother Jones reported that Romney disparaged those who don't pay income taxes and receive govenment benefits in front of an audience of wealthy donors. Mother Jones quoted Romney as saying:

ROMNEY: 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.

[...]

[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. [Mother Jones, 9/17/12]

Right-Wing Media Crafted Romney's Attack On The 47 Percent

Romney: "These Are People Who Pay No Income Tax"

Fox's Doocy: Should The "47 Percent Of Americans Not Paying Taxes ... Be Allowed To Vote?" During the July 28, 2010 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy teased a segment by asking if those 47 percent of Americans who don't pay taxes should be allowed to vote. [Fox News, Fox & Friends,7/28/10]

Fox's Carlson: Hyped Blog For "The 53 Percent That Are Paying The Taxes" Versus "The 47 Percent Who Don't Pay Federal Income Taxes." During the October 11, 2011, edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson detailed an effort by a right-wing blog to counter the Occupy Wall Street protests. Carlson highlighted this blog's claim that it represented the 53 percent of Americans who pay federal income tax as compared to the Occupy Wall Street protesters who are part of the 47 percent of Americans who do not pay taxes. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/11/11]

Fox's Hannity: "50 Percent Of American households No Longer Pay Taxes." During the April 9, 2012 edition of Fox News' Hannity, host Sean Hannity claimed that 50 percent of American households don't pay taxes and then asked "What does that mean for America if you have a voting electorate that's not paying any taxes?" [Media Matters, 4/9/10]

Romney: The 47 Percent "Are Dependent Upon Government" And Are Unlikely To "Take Personal Responsibility"

Limbaugh: "47 Percent Of The Population Is Content To Be Slovenly, Lazy Takers." During the November 22, 2011 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, host Rush Limbaugh attacked those who do not pay income tax, claiming they are "content to be slovenly, lazy takers." [Premiere Radio Network, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/22/11]

Limbaugh: Do Low-Income People "Even Want To Work?" During the April 21, 2011 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, Rush Limbaugh claimed that low-income people "don't know anything" before asking if low-income people "even want to work?" [Premiere Radio Network, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/21/11]

Romney: The 47 Percent "Believe That They Are Entitled" To Government Aid

O'Reilly Railed Against "Prospering" "Entitlement Mindset" In America. On his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly demanded to know "why this mindset" of acceptance of government aid "has taken root." [Fox News,The O'Reilly Factor, 3/20/12]

Fox's Charles Payne Expressed Regret That People Feel They Earned Government Assistance. On the Fox Business show Varney & Co., Fox Business' Charles Payne said that while anti-poverty programs "are good programs," people should feel shame for using them and expressed disappointment that Americans feel they are entitled to these programs:

I think the real narrative here, though, is that people aren't embarrassed by it. People aren't ashamed by it. In other words, there was a time when people were embarrassed to be on food stamps. There was a time when people were embarrassed to be on unemployment for six months, let alone demanding to be on it for more than two years.

I think that's what Stu is trying to say, is that when the president says Wall Street is at fault, so, you are entitled to get anything that you want from the government, because it's not really your fault, no longer is the man being told to look in the mirror and cast down a judgment on himself. It's someone else's fault. So food stamps, unemployment, all of this stuff, is something that they probably earned in some indirect way. [Media Matters, 5/19/11]

Romney: The 47 Percent "Will Vote For The President No Matter What"

Limbaugh: It's "Obvious" That Obama's Campaign Is "Aimed At The Welfare State." On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh said: "It is obvious that this Obama campaign is aimed at the welfare state and what we are affectionately calling the stupid -- maybe ignorant is better." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/4/12]

Analyzing the math behind 47%

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Mitt Romney will probably get 95 electoral votes from ‘moocher’ states. Obama will probably get 5.

 by Dylan Matthews/New York Times

Mitt Romney’s comments on the 47 percent of Americans who make too little to pay income tax and “will vote for this president no matter what” are causing him some political problems this morning. But could they cause him any electoral problems? Is he really insulting anyone who would already be willing to vote for him?

Actually, yes. The Tax Foundation put out this helpful map of the states with the highest and lowest percentage of people who don’t file income tax returns. The biggest non-filing states are — except Florida and New Mexico — solid red states:

Source: Tax Foundation

Three of the states with the lowest number of non-filers are solidly conservative: Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming. Two, New Hampshire and Virginia, are swing states. All the rest are solidly Democratic, including half of New England. All told, Obama gets 50 electoral votes from the “maker” states to Romney’s 9 — 17 are tossups — while Romney gets 96 electoral votes from the “taker” states to Obama’s 5, with 29 as tossups.

Now, granted, many of the non-filers in red states vote Democratic. As Columbia’s Andrew Gelman and others have shown, those making less are likelier to vote Democratic regardless of whether they live in a red or blue state. But in terms of the electoral college, many of the states Romney is taking for granted, and some of the states he’s working hardest to win, have the highest populations of “takers” he derided as part of the Democrats’ base.

What Romney Won’t Tell You About The 47 Percent

By Pat Garofalo/Think Progress

The Romney campaign is in damage control mode today, trying to explain Romney telling wealthy donors in a private meeting that “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.”

“These are people who pay no income tax,” Romney continued, in a video posted by Mother Jones. “My job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” But who are the 47 percent of Americans who currently have no federal income tax liability?

Mostly, they are either too poor to qualify for even the lowest tax bracket (but still pay federal payroll tax, and state or local sales taxes, gas taxes, and excise taxes), or they benefit from tax credits for the working poor, the elderly, or students, as these charts from the Tax Policy Center show. Only 7 percent of the country is non-elderly and has no federal tax liability, and most of them make less than $20,000:

Here are the reasons for those who paid no federal income tax reaching that point:

In 2011, payroll tax receipts totaled $818 billion, only $200 billion less than was brought in by the federal income tax. Those Americans who paid payroll taxes, but had no income tax liability, still pay about 15 percent of their income, higher than the 13 percent Romney pays.

As ThinkProgress has explained, more and more income has become concentrated at the top of the income scale in the last few decades, so the wealthy have paid a larger share of federal taxes, because they have a larger share of the income.

Romney is hardly alone in his contempt for those who don’t have any federal income tax liability (even though people who fall into that category disproportionately live in Republican states). Over the last few years, many Republicans have explicitly called for finding a way to make the poor pay more, so that the number of federal income tax payers rises.

Romney Tells Wealthy Donors That 47% Of Americans Are Lazy Moochers

By Annie-Rose Strasser/Think Progress

It’s only September, but Mitt Romney has already written off almost half the country’s voters. A hidden-camera recording obtained by Mother Jones captures Romney at a private fundraiser telling donors that, “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.” Watch it:

Publicly, Romney claims that he aims to help middle-class Americans. As he told CNN’s Gloria Borger last month, “I know the very wealthy are going to do just fine whoever is elected. The middle class is the people that is the group of people that I am most concerned about, they need our – and the poor – they need our help. They need our help with good jobs. That is only going to come if we encourage this economy by keeping the burdens on small business down.”

UPDATE

Romney from April 11, 2012: “Is there anyone who believes that dividing America and trying to find some group to tax more is somehow going to create more jobs?”