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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There was nothing gutsy about this. He made these statements to a select crowd of people who paid $50,000 per plate to hear him speak, in a room where the media was not allowed to attend...there was not one thing gutsy about this. Had the video not come out, he would have continued to hide what his agenda is /are.
I wonder what you think about the guy who taped (and edited to fit his own agenda) who ALSO paid $50K for his own plate at said private fundraiser and who has since shared with the media he just wanted to make money and get paid for his video?
part of that 47% are military personal that are fighting over seas , children and the elderly, lazy lazy people. And this is coming from a man who hides his money in offshore accounts so he does't have pay taxes.
It comes down to the MORMAN or the MUSLIM.........who flew those planes into THE WORLD TRAD CENTER?
Yea. You said it Mittons. Every body is a grubby mooch. This joker won't even release the returns because they're so rediculous yet he is spouting off about everyone else. Those of you giving this clown a pat on the back-realize he thinks your filth too. Stop fantasizing.
Brutal truth. 40+ percent will vote blue no matter what. 40+ percent will vote red no matter what. He is right about that. Everyone knows it already. And I feel he is right about the people who see themselves as victims of the government. He's right that people feel they're owed something all the time. Anyone who feels the government owes them all this stuff, will vote blue. The left is just angry because he said it and they want to use the media to cause people to think that now they're going to be victims of Romney.
Romney told the absolutely truth...dems don't like it and spin it to portray themselves as helpless victims...of course it's nothing even close to the truth but for some reason they always seem to want sympathy.
Problem is that the Republicans do exactly the same thing when they are not in office. They see themselves as helpless victims. Isn't that what you are doing?
Well what it really is there, Jeremy, is that the "40%" (where'd this number come from?) red voters are ALSO comprised of people who "rely" on government handouts like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, welfare assistance, unemployment etc. Just like some in the "40%" blue. You see you and Romney are making up your own statistics and not using facts to do so. Typical. Fox does it all the time.
Under the "Election Center" heading on CNN's homepage there are 9 stories. ALL of them bsh Romney. Is it no wonder that this pathetically and completely biased organization has fallen off the chart in ratings?
so when it was beating up Obama over the middle easy protests last week you didn't have a problem with that did you?
CNN must not be that bad. You are hear looking at stories and making comments.
You are just here checking for something negative about Obama, so you can
have fun responding to the articles with more negativity. But the articles that bash
Romney of course makes your day so messed up and you are angry as heck.
Well he claimed that **EVERY SINGLE PERSON** who doesn't pay income tax is a lazy deadbeat. It was already stated time and time again that this isn't the case - many of them are elderly and retired, or are working poor, or are in the military - she he was proven FLAT OUT WRONG. If in the face of truth you continue to say he was right, then you're doing nothing more than proving the stereotype that Republicans are uneducated mor.ons. That's all there is to it.
*so
pretty much
Under the "Election Center" heading on CNN's homepage there are 9 stories. ALL of them bash Romney. Is it no wonder that this pathetically and completely biased organization has fallen off the chart in ratings?
Maybe because HE'S THE WORST CANDIDATE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS ***EVER*** FIELDED? Maybe it's becaue he's utterly unlikeable? Maybe it's because he shares every fault that you GOP slimeballs were faulting John Kerry for eight years ago?
Maybe it's REALITY/the media/the majority of the American people who are RIGHT, and YOU ignorant uneducated greedy pigs who are wrong? Has that thought ever occured to you?
Free the South then nuke it.
Wake up
To borrow an often over quoted phrase and apply it to a large portion of the American public, " You can't handle the truth." All the little rats with their hands out merrily plod along following the Pied Piper as he plays his song.
I find it interesting how CNN visually represented the percentage numbers in their Facebook poll. 71% said Romney was wrong... Twenty-four percent of readers who answered our unscientific poll said he was right...just about 4.5% felt that Romney was right... The impact of writing 24% would have been greater and more appropriate. I know it is a small thing to point out in relation to the headline but when we read we pick things up differently and associate them accordingly. Even in print visual impact has a lot to do with our formulation of opinion and remembrance when reading facts.
Maybe. But nobody's asking or expecting that. Just stop peeing on us and telling us it's raining.
Mittens made huge assumptins about a large amount of Americans. He isn't fit to be the leader of anything. He has a bigots mentality. They assume things about people and make decisions accordingly. Obama 2012.
The truth of the matter is that Romney was finished before he even began running for the Presidency. He had little or no chance of winning and this latest gaffe along with all the others are just additional nails on his coffin. Most of the people he call as free loaders are senior citizens on Social Security, the military overseas receiving war zone pay, etc. He's simply a person that has been so far out of touch a ten foot poll wouldn't help him.
A vote for Romney is the same as saying you want your taxes to be raised close to or more than $2K a year. After all that's his plan and it's a bit short on details so in reality the tax hike could even be more. His answer to our economic problems is to raise the taxes on everyone that is making less than $350K a year, and then at the same time he's going to give the wealthy (making more than $350K a year) a tax break – at the American taxpayer's expense. I guess when you listen to the GOP and the party of “No New Taxes” it only applies to the wealthy members of the party. Everyone else is used for their votes and then discarded out in the cold.
Think about it...
DRE you are wise beyond your years. You are so on point with your comments.
The remarks may sound harsh to some, but sometimes those who try to uplift you by telling you the bitter truth can also appear to be your worst critics. It does take a courageous person to speak the truth.
The people that are praising Romney by saying he has the balls to 'speak the truth' don't have any idea what balls are. He said this in a private meeting with a bunch of rich people that are donating to his campaign. What's so ballsy about talking down on the 47% that includes: Soldiers in combat, the elderly, children, and people making less than $20,000 a year? The very fact that there are going to be the same people in that 47% that hear about this and still vote for him is insane. It's the most un-american thing a politician has said in quite awhile, and even worse a guy running for president.
The fact that you'd rather have a socialist America is more insane
The Kool Aid really tastes good eh dude?
He just dug his own grave. I'm not surprised he said what he said. But needs to just say what people want to hear and turn around and do the opposite when you get into office, Just like every other politician that's ever been elected
Owebama the amateur
Explain why those Deadbeats at Exxon and Boeing are not paying any taxes...I thought not paying taxes is what the rich want to do?
You are a real creep. I love the childish capitalization of the Presidents middle name. Wow. That really says something. The only other degenerate I have seen make such a statement like that was the dirty plumber I hired a few years ago for a project. Turns out his shoddy work was a result of his drug use. Typicaly clowns you and he.