Mitt Romney calls half of America freeloaders
 

Just when you think Romney can't destroy his campaign by insulting Americans any further, he shows how wrong you are about his potential.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...ate-fundraiser

This video has been floating around for a week, and now that it's been vetted it's breaking into MSM

Hey - everyone who gets mortgage and child deductions, to reduce your federal tax bill? You're a freeloading moocher.

On Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid? You're a freeloading moocher.

Pay social security tax, medicare tax, state taxes, local taxes, sales taxes - but make so little money you don't have to pay federal income tax because of the standard deduction? You're a freeloading moocher!

Fired from your job, on unemployment? You're a freeloading moocher!

Too poor to afford food, so get food stamps? You're a freeloading moocher?

I have no sympathy for this loser in the least. As a self-employed professional, job-creating tax payer, I object to his characterization of me as a voter.

Screw you and your bigotry, Mittens. Your joke about Latinos sucks, too. You were a failure during the 2008 presidential primary for a reason, and I can't believe they let you be the nominee this time. Complete incompetence and stupidity.

And by the way? A great portion of those 47% of 'poors' you disparage as losers are the elderly you hope vote for you.

-----------------------------

Bloomberg Business

Today, Mitt Romney Lost the Election

By Josh Barro Sep 17, 2012 6:02 PM ET

You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser, released today by David Corn at Mother Jones, has killed Mitt Romney's campaign for president.

On the tape, Romney explains that his electoral strategy involves writing off nearly half the country as unmoveable Obama voters. As Romney explains, 47 percent of Americans "believe that they are victims." He laments: "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

So what's the upshot? "My job is not to worry about those people," he says. He also notes, describing President Obama's base, "These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax."

This is an utter disaster for Romney.

Romney already has trouble relating to the public and convincing people he cares about them. Now, he's been caught on video saying that nearly half the country consists of hopeless losers.

Romney has been vigorously denying President Obama's claims that his tax plan would raise taxes on the middle class. Now, he's been caught on video suggesting that low- and middle-income Americans are undertaxed.

(That one is especially problematic given the speculation about what's on Mitt's unreleased pre-2010 tax returns.)

Corn tells us there are more embarrassing moments on segments of the video he hasn't released yet. Romney jokes that he'd be more likely to win the election if he were Hispanic. He makes some awkward comments about whether he was born with a "silver spoon" in his mouth.

But those are survivable. The really disastrous thing is the clip about "victims," and the combination of contempt and pity that Romney shows for anyone who isn't going to vote for him.

Romney is the most opaque presidential nominee since Nixon, and people have been reduced to guessing what his true feelings are. This video provides an answer: He feels that you're a loser. It's not an answer that wins elections.

the liberal media

The Top Ten states where the non-taxpayers live, in red; and the Top Ten states where the highest-paying taxpayers are, in blue.

Mitt, Mitt, Mitt ... you just insulted your base.

What is so bad about saying people shouldn't be dependent on government? People shouldn't be dependent on government. People should strive to get off government dependence.

Romney is right, people who don't want to work and who want to live off the government are going to vote for Obama.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/20...g_to_say_.html

Romney is conflating the people who pay no net income tax with the people so dependent on government aid that they have to vote for Obama. But these aren't the same people! Most of the "lucky duckies," to use the classic WSJ term, are old people who subsist on Social Security. Elderly voters broke big for Republicans in 2010. Scores of poor whites who benefit from the Earned Income Tax Credit vote for Republicans.


and remember, the comments he made were for rich donors, not us peasants. he didn't mean for that to get out. now it has-and it's gonna cost him, as it should.

interesting article even more interesting is to hear rationalizations from people as they vote against their own self interests. According to this it is not ok to pay no taxes because your income - legal deductions don't meet the minimum standards for taxation however it is pefectly fine to EVADE taxes by stashing your cash in the Caymans.

:tro::tro:

yep. all too often, people go for the overly simplistic. the easy thing is to say 'half don't pay taxes'...but that isn't close to the whole story. do some pay less or no fed tax? yes, they do. but many still pay ss, medicare (which technically goes to the same big pot with a huge hole in it) property taxes, etc. then there's what the article says, many of that 47% are on social security-they're retirees who paid into the system and now are reaping the fruits of their labor.

thing is, what mitt said wasn't meant for public consumption-it was only meant for the fat cats at that fundraiser. and i feel comments like that are far more telling than the practiced phrases you hear when they know the microphone is on.

what got me is when i read that some of the very rich also paid no federal income tax-now, that's mindboggling.

The funny thing is I am a hell of a lot closer to the demographic he is talking TO then who he is talking about. The thing is that unlike a lot of people I see that changing if the economy crashes. If 5% of the people have all the money then there are few left to buy my house, my stocks and products that fund my jobs. We all crash with it yet people continue to vote against their own interest. Is it mass delusion caused by reality TV? Watching some filthy rich fuk on TV doesn't mean you are days away from being there yourself.

Charlie Pierce in his Esquire blog with a searing summation: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politic...9446e20a667d7d

And on a related note from Mother Jones, piece about Romney policy and ad influencer Robert Rector from the disgusting Heritage Foundation..

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...-robert-rector

i enjoyed that one, thanks for posting.


the footage, recorded at an "intimate fundraiser" with "a small group of wealthy contributors," offers an extraordinary look at what the candidate is like when he's around people he perceives to be worthy of what he believes is the truth.


it was a moment of pure, unadulterated honesty.

Isn't Van Jones involved with Mother Jones?

It's all so laughable at this point. Like this will make smart people vote for that clown holding the office.

Come on, Steve. Just vote for the clown and be done with it. Not like things will get any better. Dude is a complete head case with a nut job 2nd in command.

reading that reminded me of this, in which factcheck explains romney's claims about obama and welfare are incorrect (what a surprise :rolleyes:)


http://factcheck.org/2012/08/does-ob...elfare-reform/

Obama cannot run on his record, and so he must destroy Romney.

Obama added 5 trillion to the debt, bringing us to 16 trillion and counting.

That's 4 million bags of $4 million dollars each. $4 million squared.

Unemployment has gone up, peaking at just short of 10% even after cooking the books.

Forcing through a medical takeover that the majority of people do not want.

What, besides dishing out teleprompter scrolled condescension, has this guy really done?

Each individual has to make his/her own assessment, but I know that I'm not dumb enough to vote for him. He's shown us nothing good.

romney's doing a good enough job of destroying himself, obama just has to sit back and watch him implode.

and i'm pretty sure romney has only been attacking obama, rather than run on his 'record'.

I won't disagree that Romney has made some missteps. He's far from perfect. But he doesn't need to be that great to be preferable to Obama.

Well I guess Romney lost any chance of stealing the freeloaders votes from Obama.

This just the flavor of the week in the MSM's coordinated campaign to destroy Romney to protect their failed dear leader. Last week it was the comments about Obama apologizing to to thugs. Can you imagine if the MSM did this with the comments from those two idiots Obama and Biden?

He doesn't need to be that great?

I can't facepalm enough. This once great country is gone and has been co-opted by special interests that prey on people like Joey who would rather the world end than a baby be aborted.

Tired of this s.hit. Need to go back to states rights so I can have a chance of getting away from these idiots. Right now it's impossible.

Can you read?

He is better than Obama. That is the only choice to be made in a two-party system.

It's not a two-party system. We have the choice to pick other candidates. The problem is people like you don't stand for anything important. You do what you're told and aren't particularly inquisitive. Just like being spoon-fed and your environment stable.

A slave.

Explain this, slave.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/co...p?id=N00000286

Top contributors to the Romney Campaign

Goldman Sachs
$676,080
JPMorgan Chase & Co
$520,299
Morgan Stanley
$513,647
Bank of America
$510,728
Credit Suisse Group
$427,560
Citigroup Inc
$363,015
Barclays
$349,400
Wells Fargo
$320,025

Please explain how things will get better with Romney as President.

I'd really love to read something that isn't comparable to the mindset of a slave talking about their master.

http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d28...b224c574f2fcdd


another excerpt released from the same mother jones video. filmed at a 50k a plate dinner in boca raton, fla. 50k a plate?! wow.

joey, in what ways will romney 'be better'? the removal of banking regs? lowering taxes even more on the wealthy? growing the defense budget?

As opposed to the bargain-basement $40,000 per plate fundraiser in Hollywood for Obama?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...ampaign-339410

It's funny how none of you guys ever talk about cutting spending, just raising more taxes. As if there is no limit to what can be raised and remaining blissfully ignorant of where the bracket is to collect from.

We want to NOT SPEND 3 Billion a day fighting unjust wars for the benefit of the oil companies and other war profiters like say Dick Cheney and George W Bush. That is a boat ****ing load of spend cut no? And NO I am against raising taxes I am FOR confiscation of money sheltered in overseas accounts to evade US taxes.

The entiitlement side of the street will never go to a 3rd party, big labor as well. This goes to the point Romney was trying to make (badly). 5 to 10% of the voters are in play. Hard to imagine a 3rd party able to overcome that dynamic and defeat the left. Unless/until things come completely unglued.

The assessment that 47% of Americans don't pay taxes is absolutely nothing but shear demagoguery designed to appeal to the far-right and of course the tax evaders that have enjoyed govt sanctioned bailouts in the masquerading of "tax cuts" for over 12 years.

Romney's headline assertion that 47% of Americans pay no income tax is almost correct, assuming he was referring to federal income tax. The Tax Policy Centre said that in 2011 46.4% of people paid no federal income tax. But his suggestion that such people do not "take personal responsibility and care for their lives" warrants further investigation.

Firstly, some of those people who did not pay income tax still paid payroll taxes, for social security and Medicare, so that it was only 18.1% of households that did not pay any income or payroll taxes. Given that there are sales taxes, state property taxes and state income taxes these people are still paying some tax – at what point you are deemed to be taking personal responsibility is subjective.

Of the 18.1% paying no income or payroll taxes, more than half (10.3% of all households) were elderly, so retired people who may well have paid income and payroll taxes, as well as others, during their working lives. Of the remainder, 6.9% of all households did not pay income or payroll taxes, essentially because they were poor, leaving 1% of "others" who did not pay either of these two types of taxes. Presumably, within the "others" category would fall the likes of six of the 400 US tax filers in 2009 with the highest adjusted gross income (at least $77m), who, according to Internal Revenue Service studies, paid no US income tax, and the 19,551 US households with income above $200,000 who owed no US or foreign income tax.

The percentage of people paying no federal income tax was even higher in 2008 and 2009 (50.8% in each of those years) but it is no coincidence that such figures have gone up during a recession (the figure was 39.9% in 2007).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...?newsfeed=true

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-li...d-open/1417104

welllllll....thanks for paying attention joey. i've railed numerous times about the overspending on defense alone. that's only the tip of the iceberg. i've also said, numerous times, that we have got to get a handle on social security, and the two medi-'s. those programs are the incredibly vast majority of fed spending. they are untenable now, and the longer we wait to fix 'entitlements' (and medicare and ss aren't entitlements-we pay into those for retirement) the worse the eventual 'fix' will be.
and when the talk started about romneys speech at the fundraiser, the focus wasn't about the cost per plate, but what romney had to say when he thought he was only talking to people like him. and yeah, i can't relate to either 40 or 50k for one lousy dinner, and listening to some blowhard.
i see complaints on here, with good reason, about outsourcing jobs overseas. about money hidden overseas. well, the republican nominee knows all about that, doesn't he? why would one of the perpetrators of those be willing to make any changes in regards to those??
not a fan of raising taxes. however, the bush tax cuts have done nothing but raise the deficit. it was supposed to be temporary. i think they shouldn't be extended, especially not for the wealthy. it sure hasn't accomplished anything insofar as job growth. you know, what it was supposed to do.

:tro::tro:


yeah, romney wants to cut spending..but only in some areas. in others, he wants to increase spending.


romney supporters-go to factcheck.org and see what they have to say about his unrealistic plans.

:D

saw that the other night.

Rest of Romney tape is being released
 

Mother Jones is releasing rest of Romney tape, which includes more of Mitt Romney saying exactly what he really thinks:


Romney: Palestinians not interested in peace

By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press – 1 minute ago

COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) — Republican Mitt Romney faced a new challenge Tuesday for saying Palestinians "have no interest" in peace with Israel, comments captured on newly released videotape of his private remarks to wealthy donors.

"You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem ... and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it," Romney said. He said pushing Israel to give up disputed territory for a two-state solution with the Palestinians "is the worst idea in the world."

The clip is the second to surface this week of Romney's remarks at a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla., on May 17. Romney's campaign spent part of Monday trying to mitigate fallout from the first clip, in which Romney tells donors that 47 percent of Americans "believe they are victims" entitled to help from the government that permeates their lives.

continued ...

How the Romney private dinner tapes were revealed
 

Interesting stories on all these tapes: first, there is a one-hour tape of the entire private dinner. All the bits and pieces are from this.

Excerpts have been out on the internet for some time, weeks, mostly YouTube. I saw one of them on Daily Kos earlier in the week.

A person going by the name of Anneonymous620 has been dribbling them out for some time, but not gaining traction.

In fact, 9 audio clips were posted on Daily Kos a couple days ago, but the poster was accused by other members of a false flag operation without verification of source/clips.

Jimmy Carter IV, yes, Jimmy Carter's grandson, does oppo research on his own. He saw one of the clips of tape on YouTube, Kos, Huffpost, and contacted, via Twitter, the person who put the tapes out.

Carter got the person connected with David Corn. Corn verified the tapes, location, etc. and published them under Mother Jones masthead. Corn has the original, high quality video with no blurring, blocking, etc.

And then they took off.

And the party? The location and host has been revealed, it was held March 17 at the Boca Raton residence of hedge-fund manager Mark Leder.

Mark Leder is famous for throwing sex-parties and orgies at his Bridgehampton home.

You can read the details at www.MotherJones.com

A thorough, non-hysterical opinion piece by David Brooks in the NYT. Succinct regarding Romney and the purely inaccurate, wrong-headed notions.

Thurston Howell Romney

This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?

:tro:

Interesting aside: all those tax credits that are allowing lower income folks, people with lots of kids, mortgage deductions, etc to pay no federal taxes? Several of those tax credits were passed by Bush I and II.

And of course, half of the "no tax payers" are elderly, and pay no tax on their Social Security income. Evil moochers? Freeloaders? Hardly.

The bigger story about this, is that Mitt relaying the conservative meme that "47% pay no taxes thus they are freeloaders" is that the statement itself is a lie. They are not freeloaders. Half are elderly, and half are too poor to pay federal taxes (although they pay plenty of other taxes).

Which makes Mitt's disparaging dismissal of them as "freeloaders" both very, very cold and ignorant of America.

Whoa ... he nailed it. Yikes.

in what regard?

:tro:

Media Matters follows the development of Fox News and RW media in creating, out of thin air, the meme that the 47% who pay no taxes are "freeloaders and moochers" via Hannity, Doocey, Carlson, O'Reilly

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

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.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201...neys-47/189967