Majority of Americans Think Too Many Dependent on Government (borders, rates, percent)
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This is exactly why Romney's comment isn't damaging in the least. NO ONE thinks they are a leech on society, even when in fact they are. They think Romney is talking about someone else.
The thing about this 47% that bothers me most is the fact that the tape Jimmy Carter IV provided Mother Jones with had been doctored. About 2 minutes had been cut out of it and 1 1/2 minutes of that came in the period before Romney answered.
Now the media has convinced people that he doesn't care about that 47% when in actuality he said he couldn't hope to win the votes of people in that non-income tax paying group. It is too bad that the media can't limit itself to reporting the news instead of try to make it.
Do you suppose they didn't pay on Social Security? Maybe they managed to escape paying into Medicare all those years. Yeah, they are probably guilty of taking money for those things. I bet they pay out more money for health care each year, out of pocket, than they get in Medicare.
Oh well, maybe someday there won't be such a thing as paying back social security taxes to anybody. I really don't like seeing people who pay nothing getting money back.
Maybe one day America will get into the 21st Century and have a decent welfare system that helps those who need it. When we live in a society we have certain obligations to the other members of our Society. So wierd how many don't mind THEIR money paying for Iraq, Afghanistan, many middle eastern countries YET do NOT want THEIR money going to help OUR people.
Many of the 47% that Romney spoke about do indeed pay tax.
The amount of money going to benefits is a extremely small percentage of our GDP.
Giving tax loopholes to the wealthy and giving huge corporations the keys to America to do whatever they want to whoever they want is the big problem here.
Greed and Corruption is not the way to run America but trying to get the Republican party to see that is virtually a impossible task.
Mother Jones posted the full video and a transcript today. It doesn't appear to be doctored or selectively edited. There is a gap after Mitt finishes talking, but there is no evidence he took what he said back on that part.
Anyway.
I think this is one of those issues where partisan sniping stops people from finding common ground. I would have answered that question in the affirmative myself. I think lots of people off all ideological backgrounds think too many people are dependent on the government. What we may differ on are the reasons for this... I think its that way because too many people are stuck in low paying jobs that make it next to impossible to raise a family without help. I don't think they are lazy or moochers. But I do think this is partly an outgrowth of all those unionized manufacturing jobs leaving the country, plus the natural consequence of the war on drugs - those who survived have criminal records and have great difficulty getting jobs. There are other factors too, it's not a simple issue... but the main thing is that I think both sides would like to see more people working in better jobs. That would be a good point to start working together if everyone could stop blaming each other long enough to listen.
I have a philosophical disagreement with government welfare as I think it's rife with unintended consequences and moral hazard. However, in the real world I'm much more concerned with the corporate welfare mommas, the military-industrial complex, and fat cat corporations that rig tax and regulation laws to their favor against medium and small businesses. I hope for a free society one day but a good start is taking on the massive corporate-military-industrial-complex. If we could fix our foreign policy and end subsidies and corporate welfare and couple that with serious reform to our entitlement system we'd be on the right track. But before we start cutting funding to seniors and poor people in America we need to go after our sacred cows in the Defense budget and Wall St.
I see that you haven't heard that the tape of Romney that we heard had up to 2 minutes cut out of it and about 1 1/2 of those 2 came directly before he said the now famous words. You really don't believe that he said what the Obama campaign and the media claimed, do you?
i saw a tape. show me another tape and i will watch it.
Not this year. But I was in 2009 when my wife got laid off. I was when I was a college student. I probably will be when I retire. And chances are you will be too at some point in your life.
Not this year. But I was in 2009 when my wife got laid off. I was when I was a college student. I probably will be when I retire. And chances are you will be too at some point in your life.
I don't think any one really expects 100% of people to pay income tax. Impoverished retirees of course won't pay, those who are disabled or incapable of ever holding a job won't pay any income tax.
The problem is that the number who contribute nothing but take much is growing higher and higher. Now it's at 47% but it's rising. And the national debt is rising at an incredibly high rate.
At some point it becomes unsustainable. You've got the cost of this government rising very fast and the number of taxpayers is dropping quite fast.
Have you ever read much at Fair Tax.com? It sounds like you have the basics down to a Tee. If you haven't try it.
Yes, I am familiar with the FairTax and as an involuntary renter who expects to never be able to buy a home, I have a huge and irreconcilable disagreement with the idea that rent on an existing home should be taxed while purchase of the same existing home should be untaxed.
This makes FT a tax on those unable to buy a home. Why not be more honest and just tax people for not buying a home? The Obamacare tax is the precedent that tells us this would be constitutional.
I don't think any one really expects 100% of people to pay income tax. Impoverished retirees of course won't pay, those who are disabled or incapable of ever holding a job won't pay any income tax.
The problem is that the number who contribute nothing but take much is growing higher and higher. Now it's at 47% but it's rising. And the national debt is rising at an incredibly high rate.
At some point it becomes unsustainable. You've got the cost of this government rising very fast and the number of taxpayers is dropping quite fast.
First off, 47 percent pay no federal income tax mostly because they make too little to pay income tax. Taxing them would do noting to sustain the federal system because they don't make enough for the pittance of tax you would collect from them to amount to much. The EITC has a lot to do with this and it was created to encourage people to work by not penalizing that choice.
Secondly, those 47 percent do tend to wind up contributing a higher percentage of their incomes in taxes than those with higher incomes. Sales tax, utility taxes, state income taxes, property taxes, all are part of that equation. This is why the 47 percent line is bogus.
The unsustainabilty in the federal deficit is the inability to raise revenues. The marginal tax rates on the top earners have plummeted in the last 40 years. The 15 percent capital gains tax allows many of the wealthiest to pay lower effective rates than the middle class.
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