we re back with some breaking news. president obama responding to those secret romney tapes. he made the comments for an interview to be aired tonight on david letterman. here s a clip. i don t know if you have seen the videotape, but i m sure you know what we re referencing here. mitt romney at a fund-raiser, i believe in florida. there s a cell phone videotaping his remarks and he talks about being in dismisses ive terms why 47% of the people voting don t matter to him. what does that mean? is that just is that what rich guys at country clubs are talking about? well, i don t know what he was referring to, but i can tell you this. when i won in 2008, 47% of the american people voted for john
is that right? yeah, virtually all americans who of working age or older pay taxes. and if you don t pay income tax, you generally pay payroll tax. if you re not paying either of those taxes, it s either because you re very poor, because you re a student, because you re elderly. but the bottom line is that it is true about half of house holes don t pay income tax. the reason is complicated. the recession is a big part of it. your age is a big part of it. the statement is accurate but somewhat misleading. but misleading because they are paying some form of tax or making some form of contribution and it has nothing to do with personal responsibility and because they re lazy and shiftless. correct. these people are paying payroll taxes. the obama administration has lowered payroll taxes to give families a little more money in
i mean, it, in fact, reinforces everything we know to be about mitt romney, people s worst fears about mitt romney. and it would be one thing it would be bad strategy still. the strategy is wrong, his facts are wrong, but it would be one thing if he was simply caught talking about his campaign strategy, which is what he said he was doing. on top of that, he doesn t actually have policies that focus on you know, focus on helping seniors or future seniors who need medicare, focus on the ryan plan, as we ve talked about before, reverend, wants to cut college affordability, wants to cut food assistance by 17%. his policies are similarly gens against those americans. on top of that, what s interesting you know, he s so hypocritical when he says i think people want to pay taxes. when rich people, the wealthiest among us don t want to pay taxes, that s okay. but when you have people who
and guess what? that s a higher rate than mr. romney paid. and those other people in the pie who aren t paying income taxes, they re elderly, they re student, they re people with disabilities, they re disabled veterans, they re the long-term unemployment, down on their luck because of the bush recession. these are the people who romney says don t take personal responsibility? that sort of talk is just ugly. joining me now is margie and anne lowry, economy reporter for the new york times. she s writing about this today on times economix blog. thank you for being with me this evening. anne, let s break down the facts. this 47% figure romney cites ignores the facts that most americans are contributing.
today, romney s comment is a country club fantasy. it s what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. it reinforces every negative view of people have about romney. he s running a depressingly inept presidential campaign. this is his friends. conservative columnist bill crystal at the weekly standard had harsh words. he says, quote, it s worth recalling that a good chunk of the 47% who don t pay income taxes are romney supporters. so romney seems to have contempt not just for democrats who oppose him, but for tens of millions who intend to vote for him. romney s comments are stupid and arrogant. these are two conservatives. exactly. with friends like these, who needs the opposition. but the reality is, republican establishment folks have always been a little bit nervous about mitt romney because everybody