Mitt has been tripped up by an unplanned recording at a private and secret fundraiser among the very rich. This is what has caused attention in the press and has severely effected his ratings in the polls:
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.
According to the Washington Post, when you look at those Americans who don’t pay federal income taxes, 29% pay payroll taxes (of course, that is a direct tax on their income), and almost a quarter are elderly. For the most part they all work, and most are eligible for a federal tax credit for low-wage earners, a Republican idea created as an alternative to welfare. Perhaps Romney doesn’t know what his own party has created.
In the older population, the large quantity elderly white people and some of the white working class included in that 47 percent are the bedrock of the GOP base. When Romney rails against the “dependent,” Romney is talking about his older white base, which is dependent on Social Security and Medicare and doesn’t want either program touched. Both are his and Ryan’s major targets.
So once again, Romney has stepped in it and doesn’t even have a way to clean his foot off. If we get to the debates and he continues a similar performance, he will be kissing the election off.