Over the past 24 hours, I’ve been asked quite a bit why I have haven’t written about the leaked Romney speech. You know. This speech:
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….
I have written about it – just not for my taxgirl blog. I was asked to comment on the entitlements bit and I did; you can check out my piece on USA Today.
This 47% (or so) argument isn’t likely to go away – with good reason. As I mentioned in my USA Today piece, the numbers of non-payers are climbing and spending is not proportionately decreasing; no matter where you stand on the spectrum, that should be cause for concern since it’s not sustainable.
I’ve followed this trend for a bit now. If you’re interested in the ongoing debate about tax apportionment, entitlements (whatever that means) and tax breaks, you can check out some of these prior posts:
- 2008 is a Record-Breaking Tax Year
- Occupy Wall Street Raises Questions About Taxes, Money, and Blame
- Why Everyone Is Wrong About the Buffett Rule
- Can The Poor Be Trusted With Your Tax Dollars?
- As Taxes Edge Upwards, Leaders Question Taxpayer Patriotism
And a couple of great links from the Tax Foundation:
- Record Number of Tax Filers Paid No Federal Income Taxes in 2008
- Record Numbers of People Paying No Income Tax; Over 50 Million “Nonpayers” Include Families Making over $50,000
And with that, I just might be 47%-ed out. We’ll see (*insert wink here*).
