You know what I feel when I hear that? I pay taxes. I pay almost twice the rate that he pays. Fuck that guy. I'm sure that I am not alone. This could sink his campaign. I'm sure he thought he wasn't being recorded, but damn. He's not only writing off the votes of 47%, he's calling them lazy freeloaders. I know that he's talking to a specific audience, but even there, you'd think he'd choose his words a bit more carefully.
Exactly: Fuck you. I pay a higher tax rate than you do you smarmy piece of shit. And that's a higher percentage taken out of a smaller income. Taking more from those with less, but who work every day for it. Those were my initial thoughts anyway. I'll be damned if any of the apathy I've been feeling keeps me from from the polls now. I WILL cancel out a vote for Romney.“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...I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Yeah, it was my gut reaction. He basically called me a freeloader. Also, his justification is all screwy, mixing the 47% with Obama voters. In actuality, that 47% is found more in red states. But he seemed very comfortable saying it. It wasn't a cheesy grits kind of Romney.
I thought he already sank his campaign by admitting to the lies he told...
I wish I could hear the rest of the speech. Context is king, he could go on to say that the current welfare system does nothing to prop up those 47%.... or maybe not but still, it did end the speech rather conspicuously mid sentence. Either way, this video isn't good if you're a Romney supporter.
The fallacy here is that the 47% who don't pay federal income tax are the poorest 47%. This isn't true at all. Someome with a high salary and a lot of deductions may pay less than a guy making $30k who doesn't itemize. Besides most if the 47% still pay payroll tax. Its a false argument in every imaginable way.
Although there is plenty of that going around, it's not as if it were part of a thought, or a sentence from several. He made a pretty complete argument there. I don't see how he could wrap that up in a larger context where it would substantially change what he was saying. EDIT: Boston.com had some more excerpts. Here, I agree with Romney: “In a setting like this, a highly intellectual subject—discussion on a whole series of important topics typically doesn’t win elections,” he added.“We have a website that lays out white papers on a whole series of issues that I care about,” he said. “I have to tell you, I don’t think this will have a significant impact on my electability. I wish it did. I think our ads will have a much bigger impact. I think the debates will have a big impact.”
Could be the nail in the coffin? Then again, the majority of his supporters will likely applaud this.