PLANK OCTOBER 18, 2012
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Chuck Marr of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has posted on his Web site a pie chart that everybody should see, but most especially Mitt Romney. It's a breakdown of the "47 percent" of Americans (actually, 46 percent) who don't pay federal income taxes. This group was famously labelled, by the Wall Street Journal editorial page, "lucky duckies."
Here's how Romney, in his demented talk (since disavowed) to rich donors in Boca Raton, broke the duckies down (I will never get tired of this quote):
All right, there are 47 percent 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. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. ... And so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.
And here is how Marr breaks them down:
Sixty-one percent are working duckies. They just don't happen to earn enough to pay income tax. They do earn enough to pay highly regressive payroll taxes, excise taxes, and state and local taxes. For the bottom quintile that constitutes, respectively, 9 percent, 2 percent, and 12 percent of their incomes.
Among their occupations are retail (4.5 million), food service (3.5 million), health care (2.7 million), construction (2.1 million), and manufacturing (2.1 million). Next time you're in the hospital be sure to tell the person who empties your bedpan that Mitt Romney doesn't think he or she takes personal responsibility for his or her life.
Twenty-two percent are elderly duckies. These folks really do expect the government to give them health care and income support via Medicare and Social Security. When I think about this group, Romney's Boca fugue brings to mind Steve Martin's classic joke about his elderly mother:
I'm so mad at my mother. I dunno. She's 102 years old. She called me up the other day, she wanted to borrow ten dollars for some food! I said, "Hey! I work for a living!" So I loan her the money. I have one of my secretaries take it down. And yesterday, she calls me up and says she can't pay me back for a while! I said, "What is this bullshit, man?" So I worked it out with her. I'm having her work on my transmission. And if she can't fix that I'm having her move my barbells up to the attic.
Seven percent are sick (or disabled) duckies. The fact that they are sick (or disabled) doesn't necessarily mean they collect government benefits. But whether they do or they don't, Romney has effectively labelled them weaklings or malingerers.
Three percent are student duckies, but not to worry; that ratio will likely go down as higher education becomes more unaffordable. As Rick Santorum has pointed out, higher education is for snobs.
Seven percent are "other" duckies. A significant subset likely collect welfare or unemployment. All joking aside, these are the true objects of Romney's distaste. (Never mind that he himself has been unemployed and clipping coupons, apart from the occasional speaking gig or publisher's check, these past five years.)
Somehow Romney's talked himself into believing that these less-than-7-percent constitute nearly half the country. Forget contempt; the sheer country-club-pinhead ignorance of this remark disqualifies him to be president.
There's more useful data on Marr's blog post concerning the Earned Income Tax Credit and other stuff. Check it out.
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8 comments
If the stupid seven percent who are unemployed had prudently planned to have a Mexican-born father, who while he was down and out received American welfare, yet became a successful rich executive and then went into the private equity business they wouldn't be unemployed. Would they. Lazy zygotes make lazy fetuses makes. . .
- tec619
October 18, 2012 at 8:09pm
If I sought a cure for cancer, the invention of some new energy technology, the creation of some art or writing that lasts an eternity, or even successully fighting in a world war, I would be a fool to hope to achieve any of that by relying only on those people who paid taxes, or were wealthy enough to pay for their own education or their own health care.
- Nusholtz
October 18, 2012 at 9:34pm
Timothy Noah I wish they'd put you on network TV and especially where they need to hear/see this: FOX.
- Sophia
October 18, 2012 at 9:43pm
Here's how Romney, in his demented talk (since disavowed) This is not true since disavow means: to deny knowledge of, connection with, or responsibility for (actually, with his notpology he really isn't taking responsibility for it) Actually Romney never apologized for the remarks, this is what he said: Clearly in a campaign with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and question-and-answer sessions, now and then you say something [that] doesn’t come out right In this case, I said something that’s just completely wrong." No apology at all. No I'm sorry, more like an admission of an error on a math test like he forgot to carry the one. And not one reporter has as of yet called him out on it, asked him if he is sorry for what he said and why is he sorry. Fucking gutless talking heads like Wolf Blitzer. Is it really so hard to ask "You say it was wrong, exactly what was wrong and are you sorry you said it? If you are, then why did you ever say it in the first place?" It sickens me that he could actually be elected President without a single reporter calling him out on this.
- blackton
October 18, 2012 at 11:10pm
At the risk of overkill, I thought I'd post this link. Although harshly written, food for thought: http://www.politicususa.com/mitt-romney-mentally-ill.html (I don't like the term "mentally ill." Brain "disorders" are much more subtle and complex than that.) When it comes to the presidency, I don't want someone in charge who is unpredictable, and I have no idea what they truly believe or support, if anything. We must do better.
- Claris
October 19, 2012 at 8:10am
Of course, Noah has presented the case for why so many of modest means are tax protesters and receptive to Republican calls for "tax" cuts. Even those in the bottom quintile pay almost 23% of their income in "taxes", state and local taxes being the highest (12.3%) followed closely by payroll taxes (8.8%). How, during the past 30 years, did payroll taxes get so high, high enough to generate more than $2.7 trillion of payroll tax collections in excess of the benefits they are supposed to fund? If you don't know the answer you should. Republicans should be given credit where credit is due: they can simultaneously and shamelessly deride the 47% for not carrying their weight even as they have made many in the 47% tax protesters. An absolutely amazing political feat.
- rayward
October 19, 2012 at 10:15am
Republicans should also be congratulated for showing the purest form of cognitive dissonance when it comes to deriding the 47% for not paying taxes while they themselves spend 100% of their time deriding how much we pay in taxes. If anything, the derision is almost a perverse form of class envy towards those who don't pay taxes.
- singlspeed
October 19, 2012 at 12:13pm
Singlspeed, there's no "almost" about it. They are envious of people with lower tax rates, and they are perverse.
- GSpinks
October 21, 2012 at 9:55am