Romney in secretly taped video: Obama voters ‘dependent’ on government

The Ticket


Mitt Romney told a group of donors in a surreptitiously taped private fundraiser that voters who back President Obama are "entitled" and "dependent on government."

Mother Jones magazine obtained videos of the fundraiser from an anonymous source. The magazine said it took place after Romney clinched the Republican presidential nomination in the spring, but wouldn't specifically name the event to protect its source.

Romney told the donors:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. 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 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. My job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Romney seems to be referring to the estimated 47 percent of Americans who did not owe federal income taxes in 2011 because their incomes were so low that they qualified for a tax credit, or because they didn't work at all. Last year, 22 percent of people who didn't owe income taxes were elderly people on Social Security, and an additional 17 percent were students, disabled people or the unemployed. More than 60 percent of the group were low-income workers, many of whom qualified for the child tax credit or the earned income tax credit. (These workers did pay payroll taxes for Social Security and other programs.)

Romney campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho released a statement about the video Monday evening. "Mitt Romney wants to help all Americans struggling in the Obama economy," she said. "As the governor has made clear all year, he is concerned about the growing number of people who are dependent on the federal government, including the record number of people who are on food stamps, nearly one in six Americans in poverty, and the 23 million Americans who are struggling to find work. Mitt Romney's plan creates 12 million new jobs in four years, grows the economy and moves Americans off of government dependency and into jobs."

The Obama campaign jumped on the comments, however. "It's hard to serve as president for all Americans when you've disdainfully written off half the nation," campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement.

More videos from the private fundraiser are on the Mother Jones site.