Who Are the 47 Percent?-or-How Wrong Can Mitt Romney possibly BE?
First, his statement reinforces what many Democrats and Republicans already believed — that Romney is a wealthy man who has known nothing but privilege, and by either choice, circumstance or both, remains completely out of touch — lacking any sense of the socioeconomic realities with which most people contend.
Second, Romney’s myopic assessment of the average American is simply dead wrong. And his gross mischaracterization of half of the populace as parasites who’d rather depend on government than work reveals an insidious ignorance that renders him unworthy of the office he seeks.
Let’s consider who the 47 percent actually are. According to a recent report by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, 46.4 percent of American households do not pay federal income taxes. This is partly due to a complicated tax code that offers a set of exemptions intended to favor working families. Indeed, the majority of that 46.4 percent do, in fact, work.