Mitt, you take personal responsibility!

[umbertino]

by: PW Editorial Board

September 18 2012

Few could have missed what are likely the most contemptible words ever uttered by a candidate for the presidency of the United States - words that show just how unqualified he is to aspire to that office. But just in case a reader did miss Mitt Romney's secretly recorded comments at a Boca Raton, Fla., fundraiser, here they are:

"There are the 47 percent 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 they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of 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 the president no matter what. These are people who pay no income tax. My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

One has to ask today, on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, just who Mitt Romney, Mr. 1 % himself, was referring to as people who don't "take personal responsibility and care for themselves?"

It must be people like him - and their sibling corporations - who he is talking about, because they spend millions to find ways to not pay taxes!

Set aside, for a moment, the fact that the overwhelming majority of the 47 percent who he says are hopelessly in the Obama camp, actually pay plenty of income and other taxes.

Even if we look only at the minority who don't pay federal income taxes, we find 61 percent of that group are workers currently employed but earning dismally low wages, particularly in the non-union states championed by Romney and his fellow 1%ers.

Students, military families, people with disabilities and the unemployed, taken together, account for 17 percent of those who don't pay federal income taxes.

Students, of course, will pay huge amounts of taxes when they get out of school and military families paid taxes before they joined up and will pay again after their enlistments. The unemployed paid plenty of federal income taxes before they lost their jobs and were it not for the outsourcing promoted by Romney and his 1% pals many would still have their jobs and be able to pay federal income taxes.

As for the disabled: Does Romney dare tell the thousands suffering from black lung and other diseases acquired on the job, those born with disabilities or came by them through war or other life's trials, that they don't have the right to food or a roof over their heads?

The remaining 22% of those who don't pay federal income taxes are seniors, most of whom worked and paid taxes all their lives. Taking away the safety net those seniors have earned would not only result in countless early deaths but would quickly plunge the millions who are members of their families into abject poverty too.

The reality is a far different one from the one painted by Romney at that gathering of his rich friends. The fact that someone is not paid enough or that he or she is on active military duty protecting Romney's wealth, among other things, or that he or she is too old or that he or she is suffering from disease acquired on the job does not mean that he or she is not contributing to society.

The poorest one fifth of American households actually pay out a crushing 16 percent of their meager incomes in various federal, state and local taxes while many of the super-rich, Romney among them, devise ever more creative ways of avoiding taxes entirely.

Mitt, you're wrong! It's you who is not taking personal responsibility when you stash your money in offshore tax shelters. The vast majority however does take personal responsibility. If you can't see that now you will understand on Election Day.

The data source for this editorial is a 2011 report entitled "Who doesn't pay federal income taxes?" put out jointly by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center.

http://www.peoplesworld.org/mitt-you-take-personal-responsibility/

[Peace]

Thanks for the post.

[markb57]

Romney spoke the truth and its driving the libs crazy.

[TLHUBER]

To me they are both idiots. Obama and Romney. Just got to pick the lesser of two evils. And the lesser of the two evils is Romney.

[parmenio]

The absolute truth! At least 57% of our population couldn't have said it better. You think we want to turn into another EUROPEAN WELFARE STATE!

[STLBlues]

The absolute truth! At least 57% of our population couldn't have said it better. You think we want to turn into another EUROPEAN WELFARE STATE!

Most people dont see that we are only 30 or less years behind the times of Europe. We continue to do the same thing Europe did years ago and even recently, and its not working never will. Socialism and Communism can never work. You can't redistribute wealth and expect it to work. Can't hope to provide health care to an additional 10 million people on gov't health care and not expect to pay higher taxes, in fact the health care law is a giant new tax code. Obama told us he wouldn't raise taxes, well thats exactly what he did, so when the dinar RV's thanks to OBAMA or taxes on our investment have increased.

So, it sounds to me like Romney knows exactly what the issue is here, TOO MANY PEOPLE DEPEND ON THE GOVERNMENT, ONCE THE PEOPLE DEPEND ON THE GOVERNMENT MORE THAN THE GOVERNMENT DEPENDS ON ITS PEOPLE ..... WELCOME A SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST REFORM!!!!!

WE NEED TO WAKE UP

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR LETTING ME VENT

[simple]

To me they are both idiots. Obama and Romney. Just got to pick the lesser of two evils. And the lesser of the two evils is Romney.

How do you come to that conclusion?

[dinar_stud]

The absolute truth! At least 57% of our population couldn't have said it better. You think we want to turn into another EUROPEAN WELFARE STATE!

Misquoting facts and bashing the poor and the middle class, with half truths and pure BS, and that is not the truth anywhere but in his and hi\s followers minds

We already have a US welfare state, the only beneficiaries are the corporations that don't pay a red cent while shipping jobs over seas.

Edited September 19, 2012 by dinar_stud

[bamagirl]

What I'm seeing coming off the backlash of his statement is that people only want to hear what makes them happy, to hell with the truth is what I've been seeing... I am not offended and am still planning to vote Romney instead of O... it scares me where 'FORWARD' is gonna lead us..

[dinar_stud]

What I'm seeing coming off the backlash of his statement is that people only want to hear what makes them happy, to hell with the truth is what I've been seeing... I am not offended and am still planning to vote Romney instead of O... it scares me where 'FORWARD' is gonna lead us..

I see different, I see backlash of his statement is that people are sick and tired of being treated as pariah every time this clown, behind closed doors, bashes and makes it quite clear he could care less for these people, people are sick of his lies, half truths and made up numbers. he has attacked the elderly, disabled, disabled veterans and the middle class.

[parmenio]

Misquoting facts and bashing the poor and the middle class, with half truths and pure BS, and that is not the truth anywhere but in his and hi\s followers minds

We already have a US welfare state, the only beneficiaries are the corporations that don't pay a red cent while shipping jobs over seas.

Am I misquoting? Don't think so. I said EUROPEAN WEFARE STATE! How bad do you want it to get before folks wake up?

Edited September 19, 2012 by parmenio

[WorkerBee]

What I'm seeing coming off the backlash of his statement is that people only want to hear what makes them happy, to hell with the truth is what I've been seeing... I am not offended and am still planning to vote Romney instead of O... it scares me where 'FORWARD' is gonna lead us..

Yep, we've been on a downhill decline for numerous years, no matter who's in power we just keep sinking. I think this administration is just more "in your face" about it.

[markb57]

Mitt wasnt off by much

Link: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/19/chart-of-the-week-nearly-half-of-all-americans-dont-pay-income-taxes/

[Unitedrich]

Umbertino,

Man, all I can say is I love your taste in music, but not this stuff.

[markb57]

another article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/18/who-doesnt-pay-taxes-in-charts/?print=1

[simple]

That video is DEVASTATING! More and more is released. This might be the best time for an Independent to run!

Mitt said on November 6th, after the election, everything will immediately get better without him doing a thing, without making any changes! WOW - if it's not the policies in place it's just arguing throughout the congress. Mitt admitted back in January that the economy was turning around.

What I'm seeing coming off the backlash of his statement is that people only want to hear what makes them happy, to hell with the truth is what I've been seeing... I am not offended and am still planning to vote Romney instead of O... it scares me where 'FORWARD' is gonna lead us..

He seemed to have talked through the entire dinner.

[dinar_stud]

Mitt wasnt off by much

Link: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/19/chart-of-the-week-nearly-half-of-all-americans-dont-pay-income-taxes/

Ypu have got to be kidding me

Join Rush Limbaugh and nearly 700,000 other conservatives as a Member of The Heritage Foundation today. Join our fight--and help us return our nation to its founding principles and build an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity and civil society flourish

http://www.heritage.org/

Do you actually believe they will be non biased/partisan???? Not in this lifetime

[stonewall67]

We are at a point in history where telling the truth is thought of as bad but spreading lies is thought of as good!!!

Ypu have got to be kidding me

http://www.heritage.org/

Do you actually believe they will be non biased/partisan???? Not in this lifetime

I hope they are not partisan!!! As a member of the Heritage Foundation myself, I hope we never compromise true conservative values for the sake of getting along!!! Am I biased toward conservative beliefs?? Yes!!! Unashamedly so!!!!

By the way.... Mitt take responsibility for his statement. He said he may have been harsh in the delivery but he stuck by the premise of his statement! By the way..... What he said was TRUE!!!

[grand pubah]

by: PW Editorial Board

September 18 2012

Mitt, you're wrong! It's you who is not taking personal responsibility when you stash your money in offshore tax shelters. The vast majority however does take personal responsibility. If you can't see that now you will understand on Election Day.

Please tell me how using legal tax reduction strategy is being irresponsible? Only a liberal could come up with that direction of thinking. You seriously want the gov't to have as much of your money as they can get?

The whole socialistic platform of demonizing successful people is absurd and goes against everything that made this country the envy of the world.

Fact is that their are way too many people in the USA who live off gov't handouts and have no intention of becoming self-supportive. Romney sounds like a conservative. Too bad liberals have a problem with that. And no, I am not talking about people who receive social security who paid into it their whole life. I am talking about lazy freeloaders who I run across on a very regular basis who live on free gov't handouts but who do not want to work and will not look for a job.

Dems are trying to twist Romney statement into something it was not because they are desperate to get Mr. Obama re-elected. He is a socialist (and probably a closet Muslim) who is bankrupting our country and regulating the fool out of its citizens and businesses while he systematically robs more of our freedoms every day.

And that my dinar friends you can put that in your pipe and smoke it (with all due respect )

GP spillin' the beans

[simple]

By the way.... Mitt take responsibility for his statement. He said he may have been harsh in the delivery but he stuck by the premise of his statement! By the way..... What he said was TRUE!!!

Yes, what he said was TRUE to his heart. Mitt originally responded to the first snippet and he laughingly stated, I paraphrase, "I wish they would play the whole thing". He needed to know how much was recorded in order to prepare for the media. As the whole 49 minutes unfolded, there is much more he have to contend with throughout the debates and the rest of the election.

Edited September 19, 2012 by simple

[40oz]

Whatever, whatever, Rmoney will tell America anything they want to hear right now. Later, he will change his mind if he thinks it will benefit him. That's why they call him Pappa Flip-Floppa. It's too bad we couldn't have nominated someone with some integrity.

[hbrill61]

by: PW Editorial Board

September 18 2012

Few could have missed what are likely the most contemptible words ever uttered by a candidate for the presidency of the United States - words that show just how unqualified he is to aspire to that office. But just in case a reader did miss Mitt Romney's secretly recorded comments at a Boca Raton, Fla., fundraiser, here they are:

"There are the 47 percent 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 they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of 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 the president no matter what. These are people who pay no income tax. My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

One has to ask today, on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, just who Mitt Romney, Mr. 1 % himself, was referring to as people who don't "take personal responsibility and care for themselves?"

George Benard Shaw famously said "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul."...Why don't you tend to your own backyard and leave ours to us!.....Wow first year anniversary of the occupy wall street already....time to break out those rape tents again...I wonder how many cop cars they can deficate on this year?

It must be people like him - and their sibling corporations - who he is talking about, because they spend millions to find ways to not pay taxes!

Set aside, for a moment, the fact that the overwhelming majority of the 47 percent who he says are hopelessly in the Obama camp, actually pay plenty of income and other taxes.

Even if we look only at the minority who don't pay federal income taxes, we find 61 percent of that group are workers currently employed but earning dismally low wages, particularly in the non-union states championed by Romney and his fellow 1%ers.

Students, military families, people with disabilities and the unemployed, taken together, account for 17 percent of those who don't pay federal income taxes.

Students, of course, will pay huge amounts of taxes when they get out of school and military families paid taxes before they joined up and will pay again after their enlistments. The unemployed paid plenty of federal income taxes before they lost their jobs and were it not for the outsourcing promoted by Romney and his 1% pals many would still have their jobs and be able to pay federal income taxes.

As for the disabled: Does Romney dare tell the thousands suffering from black lung and other diseases acquired on the job, those born with disabilities or came by them through war or other life's trials, that they don't have the right to food or a roof over their heads?

The remaining 22% of those who don't pay federal income taxes are seniors, most of whom worked and paid taxes all their lives. Taking away the safety net those seniors have earned would not only result in countless early deaths but would quickly plunge the millions who are members of their families into abject poverty too.

The reality is a far different one from the one painted by Romney at that gathering of his rich friends. The fact that someone is not paid enough or that he or she is on active military duty protecting Romney's wealth, among other things, or that he or she is too old or that he or she is suffering from disease acquired on the job does not mean that he or she is not contributing to society.

The poorest one fifth of American households actually pay out a crushing 16 percent of their meager incomes in various federal, state and local taxes while many of the super-rich, Romney among them, devise ever more creative ways of avoiding taxes entirely.

Mitt, you're wrong! It's you who is not taking personal responsibility when you stash your money in offshore tax shelters. The vast majority however does take personal responsibility. If you can't see that now you will understand on Election Day.

The data source for this editorial is a 2011 report entitled "Who doesn't pay federal income taxes?" put out jointly by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center.

http://www.peoplesworld.org/mitt-you-take-personal-responsibility/

[eaglefan]

Most people dont see that we are only 30 or less years behind the times of Europe. We continue to do the same thing Europe did years ago and even recently, and its not working never will. Socialism and Communism can never work. You can't redistribute wealth and expect it to work. Can't hope to provide health care to an additional 10 million people on gov't health care and not expect to pay higher taxes, in fact the health care law is a giant new tax code. Obama told us he wouldn't raise taxes, well thats exactly what he did, so when the dinar RV's thanks to OBAMA or taxes on our investment have increased.

So, it sounds to me like Romney knows exactly what the issue is here, TOO MANY PEOPLE DEPEND ON THE GOVERNMENT, ONCE THE PEOPLE DEPEND ON THE GOVERNMENT MORE THAN THE GOVERNMENT DEPENDS ON ITS PEOPLE ..... WELCOME A SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST REFORM!!!!!

WE NEED TO WAKE UP

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR LETTING ME VENT

Totally agree. The whole administration is a bunch of wolves in sheeps clothing

[desimo]

I heard his comments and thought he was correct. There ARE those who are going to vote Obama because he keeps them well on government payrolls and they are not going to bite the hands that doles out to them. The problem is not that he said something offensive. The problem is that our country does not want to hear the truth anymore.