David A. Rice feels like Mitt Romney wrote him off.
The 61-year-old has always been a values-based voter, generally votes Republican and could be a key vote in the swing state of Florida. But he's also among the 47% of Americans that Mitt Romney said don't pay income tax and rely on government support.
"There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney says in a clip from a secretly filmed private donor meeting in May, which was first posted on Monday afternoon. "There are 47% who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing."
Romney's '47%' – Washington's tax-break obsession to blame
Rice says he is working part-time and doesn't pay taxes because he can't find a good job. And the fact that Romney wrote him off in those comments is frustrating.
"I am insulted. I support you and you just wrote me off with the 47% who pay no taxes. In that group are those who cry every time they use food stamps; people who would trade them in a minute for a real job. In that group are Christians who shudder at the thought of voting for abortion and gay rights," he wrote in an iReport. "You have strengths that appeal to the demographic you just wrote off ... use it! In the middle of rich supporters you cannot afford to write off a huge group with a careless word."
The 61-year-old said that he has been forced once or twice to take food stamps - and unlike what Romney contends in his comments - he maintains it was not something he was proud of or hopes to ever have to do again.
"It really hurt me," the iReporter told CNN. "It was not something that I wanted to do, I did it because I didn't have a job."
Rice says he didn't think it was right for Romney to lump every low-income person into the same group.
"Not everyone who takes food stamps is a food stamps junkie," Rice told CNN. "There are people who think the government owes them a living and that the government ought to take care of them and be their momma and daddy all their life. That doesn't apply to everyone."
It all left Rice a bit uneasy.
Which leads to the big questions swirling around the Romney campaign: How much damage will Romney's comments do to his chances for winning the election? Were his comments a big enough gaffe, combined with previous missteps, to really dent his campaign? Were his comments just the brutal truth others don't want to hear? Will it sway the votes of Republicans, independents or the undecided?
Rice says he'll still be voting for Romney because of the candidate's social views. But he knows it may not be the same for others.
"I think it was a mistake on his part because he insulted a lot of people who he needs to vote for him," he said.
CNN asked our readers on Facebook what they thought about the remarks and more than 71% said Romney was wrong and should apologize. Twenty-four percent of readers who answered our unscientific poll said he was right, and it was something someone needed to say. Just about 4.5% felt that Romney was right but shouldn't have phrased the remarks the way he did.
Nevin Sanli, from Los Angeles, California, said he is in the 47% and Romney's recent remarks, as well as other gaffes, have sealed his decision to vote for Obama.
"I never took a penny in help or government assistance money or otherwise. I own two businesses, and all I have been doing, along with my business partners, is creating jobs. I am not a victim," Sanli said in response to the CNN poll on Facebook. "I worked hard and built it all from scratch and I pay a lot of taxes. I am not as rich as Romney, but I sure pay a much bigger percentage of my income in taxes than he does. I find his remarks to be un-American, shocking and insulting."
And definitely unbecoming a president, he added.
"Elitism, silver-spoon arrogance and outright divisive statements, with undertones of racism, cannot be attributes of an American president," Sanli wrote.
For his part, Romney has stood behind the comments from the secretly recorded video. They were an honest reflection of his campaign's message, he said.
"This is a message I'm carrying day in and day out and will carry over the coming months," Romney said on Fox News. "This is a decision about the course of America, where we're going to head. We've seen the president's policies play out over the last four years."
Kristopher Daughtrey agreed with those tough words and took them to show that Romney won't shy away from the truth and will stick to his convictions.
"I applaud Romney for his remarks. He's the only one willing to not sugarcoat it. I'm not a huge supporter of either party, but at least Romney has the guts to speak out frankly about it, instead of Obama, Congress, and other politicians trying to justify their actions constantly or running away with their tail between their legs," Daughtrey said. "If you're going to be president then you need to have the backbone to walk the walk and not just talk about it."
Jason Asselin, an iReporter from Iron Mountain, Michigan, is an independent who says that he generally votes for the best candidate, despite their affiliation, though he likes the ideas and stances of the tea party.
While Asselin is normally a critic of Obama, he said Romney's comments really angered him because he doesn't pay taxes, but it isn't because he doesn't want to.
"I try paying taxes each year and every year they say we don't make enough, it isn't that I don't want to pay my taxes - they won't take them," he says. "Our government put rules and regulations in place for the lower class of people. It isn't our fault for falling under that. I don't like being called the 47%, I'd like to be called American."
Asselin said he is frustrated that Romney makes assumptions about how he will vote. And he is not alone.
Jeff Zicker, 21, might have been a candidate for the 47% category. He's college-aged, but left college because he landed a job performing with a national Broadway tour. He worked two jobs all through college, and these days he pays all his taxes, which puts him in the 53% category.
“For (Romney) to say his plan only appeals to those who don’t victimize themselves just further proves how out of touch he is with the rest of the American public,” he said.
Zicker is a moderate Democrat who will be voting for Obama this fall.
“I honestly believe that somebody that would say that a large of a portion of Americans, that this group victimizes themselves and tries to appeal to voters in that way, I don’t think that shows that they would be fit in any way to be president," he said.
But others say that Romney is merely beginning a dialogue that many Americans refuse to have. Steven Evans said that he thinks the discussion is an important one as the country moves forward.
"It is time to start a national dialogue on whether we are creating a major dependency class," he said on Facebook. "I am glad to see him tell the truth. Let's decide whether we are going the way of Greece or the traditional USA."
But some believe that having that conversation with only half of the country is problematic.
“It’s not in touch with what America’s values are and what we should be in a country," Zicker said of Romney's comments. "At the end of the day, we’re all connected. What I do affects you economically and socially. We shouldn’t see it as an one-for-all system.”
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It's probably no where near 47%, but there is no doubt a large portion of the public that fits that description perfectly. I've seen it MANY times.
Really? So, how much of that is based on facts, data, uh.... truth? And how much of your assumption is based on popular right wing, out of touch stereotyping.
I doubt anyone would argue that, but he took a number from a specific measure and used it for something else. Granted, it's been done over and over before on one news network, but people expect a little more credibility I would hope.
If payroll taxes are counted, the number of non-payer households drops to an estimated 18% in 2011. In that 18% percent are the people living off monthly government checks, retirees, disabled, and the welfare class.
More likely he saw it when filling out his own 1040.
maybe a little bit of both, distaster and truth....but the Guy has a real problem with the connection between his month and brain...I will not comment on the amount of brain he has
Also on the Mother Jones site: Mitt calls hispanics "taco jockys". He says the hispanic vote is not worth going after.
I really do not believe that Mitt Romnney will say that, he is a classy man. Let concentrate in the truth , many of us , Democrats are a bunch of free loaders.
Mittens has a big set. Said something nobody else has the courage to say. Ichi !
Yep, and his brains sit on the other side of that set.
I am conserative at heart, but also know a snake and a worm when I see it. If only the GOP had found an acceptable candidate
Considering what happened the last election, they don't know how to do so.
Besides Romney's disgraceful speech, what bother me was his tone,he's joking the 47% depended on government. Also, his comment in Latino was so disrespectful and disgusting. I don't know what they think when he asks support from them.
Release the hounds.
In the early 20th Century, it was only the wealthy who paid income tax.
The federal government imposed tax on incomes to fund the Civil War first.
The imposition of such tax on people was made a tax that did not have to be different state by state by the 16th Amendment.
With his statements, Willard Romney implied that all those who did not pay income taxes today are dependent on the government for their entire welfare, when the truth is that a very large number of those who do not pay income taxes are workers who don't make enough to qualify for an income tax liability.
It is insulting to Americans to be called freeloaders when that is very far from the truth for those hard-working Americans who may each hold two jobs just to get by. How many of our military servicemen and women don't pay income taxes due to their low income and family expenses? Willard Romney wants to dismiss those patriots too, I suppose.
but there are a lot free loaders who should have to work but don't want to. Not everyone on the system is legit. Don't be so nieve.
Pretty idiotic move to insult the very population you are trying to convince to vote for you. Lumping together half the population in the US as freeloaders and muchers is elitist, snobbish and downright un-American so I don't see how the average working Joe wouldn't' be offended.
The only truth in Romney's remarks is that they reflected how this panderer-in-chief really thinks about the middle class and the poor and minoritiy groups in this country. It is a good thing that now people know that he is a chameleon and changes colors depending on who he is with.
The 47% comes from the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan group. They also estimated that 4,000 households with incomes over $1 million ended up with zero federal income tax liability in 2011. Another 14,000 made between $500,000 and $1 million, and all of those are in that 47%.
romney is wrong but he shouldn't apologize, it was at a private fundraiser event and recorded underhanded
I would like to think that the Romney campaign people we the ones brilliant enough to leak this to a fanatic web site, and then the rest of the liberal press were duped into promoting it.
But, alas it is probably just a fortunate accident. What the press is doing is reminding the 53% that 47% of the country, that are almost all Obama supporters, are sponging off of them. Obama and his liberal media friends have been promoting the idea that the wealthy have not been paying any taxes, and yet the raw statistics show they pay 52% of the taxes collected. Nonetheless, the message that rich pay no taxes is reverberating throughout the liberal community.
Now we find out that most of the people in this country that do not pay taxes are Obama supporters sponging off the rest of us. And it is the liberal community itself that is responsible for reporting the message. What irony.
As to the 47% that they think Romney's comments will alienate, I wonder how many recognize that they have been driven into that situation by Obama's economic policies. My guess is some. The real sponges are not likely to be Romney supporters anyway, so I doubt if he will loose any votes from people who have a financial interest in continuing to be sponges
People are so blind. Can't you see that Romney will do what the ultra conservative Tea Party in the back ground want him to do? If the people vote him in they will get exactly what they deserve for doing it. Just like we forget the main reason we have a high deficit is the cost of 2 wars we were in, down by one now. What sense did it make to cut taxes after that? That with the Republican Lead Congress doing nothing to discredit their President.
Birthers and Dottie Sandusky: I can't decide who is the more stupid. well, Maybe Larry "wide stance" Craig's wife....lol