Romney said "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 healthcare, to food, to housing, to you name it. "
I'm sure, they don't pay federal income taxes because they have low incomes or none at all, but they are also recipients of welfare programs.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/09/20/romney_and_the_welfare_state_115500.html (heres an excerpt)
"In 2011, Social Security had 49.6 million recipients and Medicare 45.6 million, most of them overlapping. There were 5.2 million Americans with unemployment compensation and 3.2 million with veterans' benefits. An estimated 107.2 million people received "means-tested" benefits available to those with low incomes. Medicaid had 80.5 million beneficiaries, food stamps 48.3 million and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) 23.1 million. Among households with means-tested benefits, almost a third received three or more."
Aside from seniors and veterans, why do we have 48+ million people on food stamps? That program was meant to give a helping hand, not be a lifestyle. This is a serious problem for the country and its just getting worse. I wonder if given the choice between a low paying job or just sitting home and collecting benefits equal to that low paying job, if many of them would decide to just sit home.
Everyone wants to condemn Romney for his statements, but he wasn't lying. People in need are one thing, but the bottomline is that 53% of the country is paying a whole lot more to fund these programs.
You know, I agree with you about raising taxes if it goes to paying down the existing debt. I would also agree to reduced SS benefits. I don't trust them though and think they will just use the extra money to pay for an even bigger government than we have now.
AV
edited to put the quote marks back in on Romney's quote
