The Internet is abuzz with Mitt Romney’s remark that
47 percent of Americans pay no tax [1] and therefore can’t be expected to appreciate his message of personal responsibility, and so on. Since Romney sees the 53 percent of Americans who are net federal taxpayers as his natural constituency, you expect him to be doing especially well in the states where they live.
That doesn’t seem to be the case. Via @emsimpson, here is a map of federal income tax non-payment rates by state compiled by the Tax Foundation:
Of the states with the lowest non-payment rates, only three–Wyoming, North Dakota, and Alaska–are clearly in Romney’s column. These are also the states with the lowest population. On the other hand, eight of the ten states with the highest non-payment rates are solidly Republican. The exceptions are New Mexico and Florida. In short, Romney’s geographic base is in states where large numbers of households pay no net federal income tax.
Of course, it’s possible that all or most of these “
lucky duckies” [3] are voting for Obama. But it’s more likely that Romney shares the delusion that the freeloaders and looters are concentrated in the Northern, coastal cities that Democratic dominate. Actually, the states they call home are the heart of his electoral strategy.
24 comments:
It's interesting to hear the our possible future president of the United States doesn't exactly pay attention to what he's saying in public (even though the fundraiser wasn't open to the public) and doesn't necessarily know where exactly the people he was talking about are located. It makes me wonder if he is actually qualified or understands what he is doing. The people he is targeting for votes are the one's he was bashing while he believed them to be people for the other party.
It's interesting to hear the our possible future president of the United States doesn't exactly pay attention to what he's saying in public (even though the fundraiser wasn't open to the public) and doesn't necessarily know where exactly the people he was talking about are located. It makes me wonder if he is actually qualified or understands what he is doing. The people he is targeting for votes are the one's he was bashing while he believed them to be people for the other party.
It's interesting to hear the our possible future president of the United States doesn't exactly pay attention to what he's saying in public (even though the fundraiser wasn't open to the public) and doesn't necessarily know where exactly the people he was talking about are located. It makes me wonder if he is actually qualified or understands what he is doing. The people he is targeting for votes are the one's he was bashing while he believed them to be people for the other party.
This article shows that all of the facts presented by the candidates are not 100% accurate. It is also very interesting to see how the non-taxpayers vote. Democrat or republican. And it's also very interesting to see how the candidates, in this case Romney, view their voter population. And how their views may be wrong.
I don't expect voters in those bible-belt states to stop supporting Romney, even though they're the actual unintended targets of his comments. Far-Right voters like the one's in these states don't care if their "chosen man" insults them. What they care about is getting Obama out of the White House. Personally, I think this was just a stupid thing to say, no matter the context. Like President Obama said, a president should not only be committed to serving half of the country. He should work for everyone.
When anyone is in the public eye for any reason they need to be carful about what they say, especially if they are running for president. Even though Romney's statement was not ment to be heard by more than a select amount of people he should make sure he knows exactly what he's talking about. His statement targeted the select amount of people that he needed votes from, this may have set him back in this election season.
It seems as if Romney's statement of the 47% was not only unclearly stated, but it was also uninformed. Whether he is right or wrong (and in this case, I think he is wrong), he put himself in a compromising position by throwing out a statement that could easily be interpreted against him. After this statement, anyone could have expect a media explosion, and that what he got. His demographic declaration, accroding to the map, is completley on left-field and is obviously skewed from the truth. The 47% of the so-called "freeloaders", are not so. These 47% are the hard-working people (with a few expections) who can't make enough to pay taxes. Should they be called out for that? No. To lable 47% hard-working citizens and POTENTIAL voters as something they are not, will surely impact the election unfavorably.
I guess your words can really come back to bite you. I'm not really sure where he intended to go with this 47% arguement. He's basically saying that 47% of the people in America are going to vote for Obama because they don't pay income taxes and they depend on the government. But this is a terrible approach because the states with the highest number of people who don't pay taxes are republican states! In other words he's criticizing the people who are voting for him, and I'm pretty sure this is going to cost him some votes. Not only was this a terrible approach because of that, but also because it's insulting to the middle class. Obviously the middle class is somewhat dependent on the government and therefore Romney is including many of those people in the 47%. This is just crazy on Romney's part because he's is basically saying that nobody will be able to depend on the government when he's president. And all that work he's been doing to appeal to the middle class just goes down the drain.
With Romney being the founder of a multi million dollar business, you would think he would be at least some what smart. This comment clearly contradicts that. Not only was saying 47% of americans don't pay taxes a stupid thing to say, he was wrong about which americans didn't pay taxes!! His information was based on assumptions and stereotypes that northern democrats where the ones not paying taxes when in fact his supporters are the ones who are not paying there taxes. Romney needs to figure out his statements and campaign plans before he goes around running his mouth and making him self look like an idiot.
Romney clearly didn't have his facts right. He just made himself look stupid. This goes to show you that our maybe future president had no idea what he is talking about some of the time. it sound like he just made up the numbers. Also you can see how taxpayers and non-taxpayers vote. which is very interesting.
This statement right here I think just hurt Romney's chances of winning the election. Or just put him behind. Romney, especially at this point in the election, has to be very careful about what he says because basically he is in the public eye 24/7. He just needs to make sure that he knows EXACTLY what he's talking about.
Mitt Romney knew the crowd he was talking to didn't care about the facts. He told them what they wanted to hear just so they would contribute more to his campaign. He can get away with it at a $50,000 per plate dinner. It wouldn't work anywhere if voters really paid attention and didn't just believe everything they're told. It's not an excuse that he's uneducated. If he is, he sure doesn't need to be president. But I think he knew exactly what he was doing.
This is just another example of why people need to research what politicians say instead of just taking their word for it because obviously they don't always know exactly what they're talking about. This is not something that helped Romney in the slightest.
You would think Romney was smart guy, provided by the fact that he started a multi-million dollar company; but comments like these make you second guess his intelligence. Not only is saying 47% of americans don't pay taxes a stupid thing to say, he was wrong about the group of people that don't pay taxes. He claimed that northern democrats were the ones that didn't pay taxes, using false stereotypes and assumption as facts. In fact however it is those in the south who are his supporters that don't pay taxes! Romney bashed his own supporters in a false statement that attempted to make them look better! Romney need to start checking his facts before he starts popping his mouth off again or he stands absolutely no chance at becoming president.
How does Romney expect to win when he's declaring that around half of Americans don't pay their taxes. Although he probably did that so he could look good with that crowd. He should really watch his mouth and think before he speaks because those 47% still vote. I mean its not like he has all the votes from all the top paying states, he only has two. So what does he believe, that he's going to win the election with two states?
This article demonstrates the fact that much of the information we hear from political candidates is not accurate. Although this statement was not intended to be heard by the millions of voters in the United States, Romney is still responsible for his words and must be held accountable, just like every other candidate should be as well. Who does Romney think he is appealing to? As presented by this graph the majority of the states with the lowest non-payment rates are already heavily in support of him. These statements were released at a crucial time, as intended by the Democrats, and it may prove to be a major setback for Romney in the election. I also believe the videos were intentionally released after Obama received criticism on his foreign policy, in attempt to take the public eye off Obama's issues and on to Romney's.
The statement about the 47% shows that Romney doesn't know all the facts about what he says. Looking at where most of the non tax payers, he called out, are located, it wasn't a very smart decision. Most of these people are in republican voting states. This article shows not only that Romney can say things without full knowledge of the facts, but it also shows the importance of the candidates knowing what they're saying before they say it.
Romney messed up by calling out the 47% saying they aren't paying taxes. They are not much and some of them can't because they just don't have it in the cards to do so. They work hard for the money they earn as little as it may be they do work for it. This is more than likely going to comeback and cause problems for Romney later on down the road.
I guess your words can really come back to bite you. I'm not really sure where he intended to go with this 47% arguement. He's basically saying that 47% of the people in America are going to vote for Obama because they don't pay income taxes and they depend on the government. But this is a terrible approach because the states with the highest number of people who don't pay taxes are republican states! Not only was this a terrible approach because of that, but also because it's insulting to the middle class. Obviously the middle class is somewhat dependent on the government and therefore Romney is including many of those people in the 47%. This is just crazy on Romney's part because he's is basically saying that nobody will be able to depend on the government when he's president. And all that work he's been doing to appeal to the middle class just goes down the drain.
Some voters tend to vote party wise rather than candidate wise. Romney will still probably get the vote despite the fact he characterized "red" states as entitled and as victims.
Some voters vote based on party rather than on the candidate. Romney will still probably get the vote of the "red" states despite the fact that he called them entitled and victims.
Romney needs to focus on things he brings up. Now he nor another is not always going to get facts perfectly correct everytime, but you would expect him to win people over by stating the correct percentage of non-taxpayers. But in a way over exaggeration catches the attention of people. I don't know how much people thought of it as an attention getter, But I'm pretty sure the majority thinks he is incorrect and full of it. We shall see how votes are distibuted.
Romney needs to focus on things he brings up. Now he nor another is not always going to get facts perfectly correct everytime, but you would expect him to win people over by stating the correct percentage of non-taxpayers. But in a way over exaggeration catches the attention of people. I don't know how much people thought of it as an attention getter, But I'm pretty sure the majority thinks he is incorrect and full of it. We shall see how votes are distibuted.
The visual definitely makes sense. If you rank the states by any measurable factor such as economic, educational, health, etc- those red states will be at the bottom of the list every time. It’s a starkly defined geographic fact that people in red states are, by any measure, poorer, less educated, and less healthy than their blue-state counterparts.
The real question is, do red-state voters vote for Republicans because they are poorer, less educated, and less healthy? Or are they poorer, less educated, and less healthy because they vote for Republicans? What a quizzical, yet fascinating, chiasmus wouldn't you agree?
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