Wed. Apr 8th, 2026
A leaked video reveals Romney making controversial statements at a private fundraiser. Photo courtesy of MotherJonesVideo/Youtube.com

Things have really gone from bad to worse for the Romney campaign, especially for the candidate himself. On Sept. 17, a secretly recorded video of Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser in May in Boca Raton was released. Among the most controversial statements by Romney is the now infamous remark in which he disparaged 47 percent of the country as lazy, dependent Obama voters.

“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’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.”

Romney later went on to say, “My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
The release of the video by Mother Jones magazine caused an immediate uproar over the comments and created immediate backlash, even among prominent Republicans and Conservatives.

A significant number of Republican Senate and gubernatorial candidates released statements or spoke in interviews against the remarks made in the video. Scott Brown (R-MA), who is running for re-election in Massachusetts, stated, “That’s not the way I view the world,” and Senate candidate Linda McMahon (R-CT) said, “I disagree with Governor Romney’s insinuation that 47 percent of Americans believe they are victims who must depend on the government for their care.”

These aren’t Democrats or even center aligned moderates but rather Republican candidates for office that are distancing themselves from Romney in order to save their own campaigns.
These Republicans are speaking out for good reason. The 47 percent that Romney disparaged aren’t solid Obama voters, but rather a giant cross section of America that includes retired elderly, disabled veterans, students and the working poor.

To trace how Romney’s line of thinking can come about, one needs to look at the popular meme of the “53 percent” which was started by CNN contributor Erik Erikson in 2011. Erikson, who famously stated to “suck it up you whiners” in response to Occupy Wall Street, popularized a view that only 53 percent of this nation’s households pay federal income taxes and that the rest are essentially lazy moochers.
Of the 46.3 percent of Americans who don’t pay income taxes, 61 percent pay payroll taxes, 22 percent are retired elderly and 15 percent are the poor and students who make under $20,000 a year. Ironically, it’s a Republican policy that allows the poor to escape paying income taxes. Those working a full time job while earning less than the federal poverty line are eligible to receive the earned income tax credit. This policy was the brainchild of conservative economist Milton Friedman and was expanded significantly under President Reagan in 1986.
Romney may believe that 47 percent of the nation may be lazy, entitled government dependents, but that is far from the truth.

Rather than apologize for insulting half the nation, Romney doubled down in another hastily organized press conference. He stated that while the remarks were “ineloquent,” he stands by the central idea of the comments.

In a desperate attempt to get the focus off of Romney, the campaign publicized out-of-context remarks from Barack Obama, in 1998 at Loyola University, stating that he believed in redistribution.

Of course, there is now the confusion of false equivalency between the two comments. Obama stated, “I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.” Obama went on to say, “How do we pool resources at the same time as we decentralize delivery systems in ways that both foster competition, can work in the marketplace and can foster innovation at the local level and can be tailored to particular communities.”

Redistribution is one of those scary words that come up every election to scare the general electorate despite them not knowing what it actually means. The government already distributes wealth on a vast scale. Social Security, Medicare, VA benefits and student aid, are all programs that takes wealth from some and then gives it to others. If someone believes in having or using any of these programs, they too believe in redistribution.

Romney may not believe that it is his job to worry about half of the country, but as president, his job is to worry about the entire country, not just the half that voted for him. Once again, Romney has shown himself to be unfit for the office of the presidency. Amateur hour has now become amateur month at the Romney campaign.

 Alex Caraballo can be reached at alex.caraballo@spartans.ut.edu

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