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highplainsdem

(48,731 posts)
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 11:25 AM Sep 2012

Joe Conason: Looking For That ’47 Percent,’ Mitt? Check Red States And Elderly Republicans

http://www.nationalmemo.com/looking-for-that-47-percent-mitt-check-red-states-and-elderly-republicans/

Watching him on video, the Republican nominee sounds not only vulgar and arrogant but profoundly ignorant about the nation he hopes to govern. “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” said the Republican nominee, who proceeded to describe those people.

“All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government…”Those people,” he went on, “believe that they are victims…believe the government has a responsibility to care for them…believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”

Let’s stop right there: Whatever percentage of Americans plan to vote for the president, there is no plausible evidence that they all think of themselves as entitled to government benefits. Nor is there any evidence that all of Obama’s supporters are in fact “dependent on government.” And there is plenty of evidence that Romney supporters – like Obama supporters and like many Americans who will not vote at all — receive Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment benefits, housing vouchers, veterans benefits, and other forms of federal assistance.

The Republican-leaning moochers, as defined by Romney, can easily be found in the red states, which contribute far less in federal taxes than they receive in per capita benefits. Alabama, for instance, receives almost $4000 per capita in federal spending on retirement and disability, while contributing just over $1000 per capita in federal income taxes. Kentucky receives upwards of $7000 per capita in direct benefits, including retirement, disability, student assistance, and unemployment, but contributes slightly less per capita than Alabama in federal income taxes.

Roughly the same dispensation exists across much of the old Confederacy, where white voters in lower income brackets will faithfully vote for Romney despite his sneers at them. Across the red states generally – from Mississipppi, Arkansas, and South Carolina to Kentucky, West Virginia, Missouri, Oklahoma, the Dakotas and Alaska — there is a clear pattern. More money flows in from Washington via government spending than goes out to Washington via federal taxes, which belies the incessant whining of their “conservative” elected officials. (The difference is made up in revenues from the blue states – New York, New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, among others – that receive less from Washington than they pay.)

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Joe Conason: Looking For That ’47 Percent,’ Mitt? Check Red States And Elderly Republicans (Original Post) highplainsdem Sep 2012 OP
let's not forget the millionaires 2pooped2pop Sep 2012 #1
Red states, Elderly, Students, disabled ... Hey, don't forget ACTIVE FREAKING MILITARY BlueStreak Sep 2012 #2
 

2pooped2pop

(5,420 posts)
1. let's not forget the millionaires
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 11:35 AM
Sep 2012

who manage to pay no taxes or significantly less taxes than they should. Did someone say there were 4000 millionaires who paid zero income taxes?

 

BlueStreak

(8,377 posts)
2. Red states, Elderly, Students, disabled ... Hey, don't forget ACTIVE FREAKING MILITARY
Wed Sep 19, 2012, 11:36 AM
Sep 2012

If you are not an officer, in all likelihood, you pay no Federal income taxes because a good part of your pay is non-taxable, and your base pay is wiped out by standard deductions.

If you are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, then you certainly don't pay any Federal income taxes because even your base pay is non-taxable.

I hate those damn moochers fighting for us in Afghanistan. (sarcasm)

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