What is Romney thinking?

[cbuskstwar]

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...out/70000561/1

More fuel to the fire that Romney has new clue about the middle class. Had to post this because I want someone in office who will support everyone (not saying Obama will either.)

[pghin08]

This is a huge hit for the Romney camp. It really paints him as being out of touch. That 47% "pay no taxes" stat is quite misleading. A lot of those people are senior citizens whose sole income comes from social security. They've also taken the "pay no taxes" thing too far. That's not true at all. The stat is that 47% pay no EARNED INCOME tax. Most of those 47% still pay a payroll tax (along with, of course, local and state taxes). When you take into account that there are wealthy people that pay no earned income tax (there aren't a lot, but they do exist), along with everything else, that 47% ends up being very deceiving.

Big mistake for Romney. There are actually a lot of people in the 47% that he's referencing that would vote for him. He's done a lot to damage his campaign since the convention.

[habsheaven]

I wouldn't be too concerned on the 47% number. The fact that he thinks ALL Obama supports think of themselves as VICTIMS and entitled is insulting and obnoxious.

[AUTaxMan]

This is a huge hit for the Romney camp. It really paints him as being out of touch. That 47% "pay no taxes" stat is quite misleading. A lot of those people are senior citizens whose sole income comes from social security. They've also taken the "pay no taxes" thing too far. That's not true at all. The stat is that 47% pay no EARNED INCOME tax. Most of those 47% still pay a payroll tax (along with, of course, local and state taxes). When you take into account that there are wealthy people that pay no earned income tax (there aren't a lot, but they do exist), along with everything else, that 47% ends up being very deceiving.

Big mistake for Romney. There are actually a lot of people in the 47% that he's referencing that would vote for him. He's done a lot to damage his campaign since the convention.

I believe he said pay no income tax.

[pghin08]

I believe he said pay no income tax.

Sorry, you're right, he did say no income tax. Still a bad statistic to use. This is probably the best article I've seen on it, from the Wall St. Journal:

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/0...s-47-comments/

[Star_Cards]

This is a huge hit for the Romney camp. It really paints him as being out of touch. That 47% "pay no taxes" stat is quite misleading. A lot of those people are senior citizens whose sole income comes from social security. They've also taken the "pay no taxes" thing too far. That's not true at all. The stat is that 47% pay no EARNED INCOME tax. Most of those 47% still pay a payroll tax (along with, of course, local and state taxes). When you take into account that there are wealthy people that pay no earned income tax (there aren't a lot, but they do exist), along with everything else, that 47% ends up being very deceiving.

Big mistake for Romney. There are actually a lot of people in the 47% that he's referencing that would vote for him. He's done a lot to damage his campaign since the convention.

^what he said. even with him saying income tax it's not as simple as then saying that all of those people are somehow skirting the tax system or living off of the system. I have no clue how many of those would be elderly but I'd imagine it's pretty high with the amount of baby boomers who are in this group now. A lot of them have paid into the system over many years of paying their taxes. Since that's basically the idea of social security it's kind of shady to then say something to sort of bash those that have paid in and are now reaping the benefits

[mikesilvia]

This is a huge hit for the Romney camp. It really paints him as being out of touch. That 47% "pay no taxes" stat is quite misleading. A lot of those people are senior citizens whose sole income comes from social security.

People on social security still pay income tax. It's income, not tax free money.
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Are-Your-Soci...its-Taxable%3F

There are plenty of people that take in social security, disability and investment income, thus pay income tax.

Romney's point is nothing new and what most tax payers are already thinking; should half the country pay income tax while the other half doesn't, yet probably use the social services that income tax provides.

This 47% was increased under Bush and continued under Obama. More and more I think Clinton was the best president for domestic economics that we have had of the past three presidents.

Obama is spending $3 for every dollar we ad to the economy: http://nation.foxnews.com/government...ed-more-3-debt

We can't continue this and continue to grow the percentage of Americans that pay no tax. The debt burden continues to grow at a monstrous rate and we continue to shrink the amount of people that pay it off.

[pghin08]

People on social security still pay income tax. It's income, not tax free money.
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Are-Your-Soci...its-Taxable%3F

There are plenty of people that take in social security, disability and investment income, thus pay income tax.

Romney's point is nothing new and what most tax payers are already thinking; should half the country pay income tax while the other half doesn't, yet probably use the social services that income tax provides.

This 47% was increased under Bush and continued under Obama. More and more I think Clinton was the best president for domestic economics that we have had of the past three presidents.

Obama is spending $3 for every dollar we ad to the economy: http://nation.foxnews.com/government...ed-more-3-debt

We can't continue this and continue to grow the percentage of Americans that pay no tax. The debt burden continues to grow at a monstrous rate and we continue to shrink the amount of people that pay it off.

I think you misunderstood me. If your sole income is from SS, it's usually not taxable, as noted on the IRS link you just posted.