VIDEO: Romney shifts focus to Obama's 1998 comments on 'redistribution'

World/National News

FACTCHECK: Tax realities behind Romney's '47 percent' view

"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 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. . . . My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
- Mitt Romney, speaking at a private fundraiser in a May 17 video released by Mother Jones magazine

Romney appears to conflate a few things: President Barack Obama's approval rating, the percentage of people who do not pay income taxes and people who rely on government assistance.
There may be some overlap among these groups, but they really are not the same.
First, let's start with the notion that nearly half of Americans do not pay income tax. Yes, as of 2011, about 46 percent of American households paid no income tax, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. But this is one of those "facts" that are not very informative. "Income taxes" are just one type of tax that people pay, and for most working Americans - about three-quarters - payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare far exceed what they pay in income taxes.
In other words, substitute the phrase "federal taxes" for "income taxes" and the picture changes dramatically. Indeed, when all federal taxes are included, the percentage of people who pay no taxes drops to 10 percent or less, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Moreover, if some people do not pay income taxes, it is because of policies often advocated by Republicans, such as child tax credits and tax benefits for the working poor. President Richard M. Nixon offered an early version of the earned-income tax credit, and it was enacted under President Gerald R. Ford and expanded under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, all Republicans. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) pushed for the child tax credit - signed into law by Democrat Bill Clinton in 1997 and expanded by George W. Bush in 2004.
Some 44 percent of those who do not pay income taxes are in that category because they get tax benefits aimed at the elderly, while an additional 30 percent benefit from tax credits for children or for the working poor, according to a paper published by the Tax Policy Center.
As for entitlements, Social Security and Medicare are reserved for the elderly - and are generally popular. But it seems simplistic to think that the beneficiaries of these programs are all Obama voters, especially since polling indicates that Republicans' share of the vote among white seniors has increased in each of the past five elections, to 58 percent in 2008.
Perhaps it is too much to expect a politician to be entirely accurate in a closed-door speech, but one would think he would have even less need to stretch the truth if he thought the cameras were not rolling.

-- By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post

Related Photos

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Conference in Los Angeles, Calif., on Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. Illustrates ROMNEY (category a) by Ed O'Keefe and Philip Rucker, (c) 2012, The Washington Post. Moved Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. Melina Mara

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September 20, 2012

VIDEO: Romney shifts focus to Obama's 1998 comments on 'redistribution'

By Ed O'Keefe and Rosalind S. Helderman The Washington Post The Eagle Tribune Thu Sep 20, 2012, 12:13 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — After two politically treacherous days, Mitt Romney is trying to right-side his campaign by focusing on something President Barack Obama said 14 years ago.

The Republican presidential candidate has been battered by relentless news coverage dissecting his assertion, caught on video, that "47 percent" of Americans feel entitled to government assistance. Now his aides believe they've stumbled upon a way to change the subject.

In a 1998 audio clip that surfaced online Tuesday afternoon, Obama is heard speaking at a conference at Loyola University, where he suggested that society needed to come up with a plan to "structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution, because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure that everybody's got a shot."

Romney pounced on those comments, which Obama made when he was an Illinois state senator, at an Atlanta fundraiser on Wednesday. Obama's speech, Romney said, indicated support for a European-style system that would never work in the United States.

"I know there are some who believe that if you simply take from some and give to others then we'll all be better off. It's known as redistribution," Romney told the crowd. "It's never been a characteristic of America."

"This idea of redistribution follows from the idea that if you have a business, you didn't build it - someone else did that," Romney said, harkening back to Obama's "you didn't build that" line from a speech he made in July to point out that small businesses have relied on some government support.

Romney also brought up the 1998 speech in a Fox News interview Tuesday and in a USA Today op-ed published Wednesday, all part of a new strategy to raise doubts about Obama's economic theories, draw attention away from Romney's criticism of Americans who don't pay income tax, and perhaps also add the word "redistribution" to the list of well-worn, right-wing attack lines, including "Are you better off?" and "Drill baby, drill."

White House press secretary Jay Carney called the newest GOP assault the sign of a "desperate" campaign that is having a "very bad week."

"The charge based on this 14-year-old video sounds very familiar to one that was tried and failed in 2008," Carney said Wednesday. In 1998, "then-Senator Obama was making an argument for a more efficient, more effective government, specifically citing city government agencies that he did not think were working effectively. He believed then and believes now that there are steps we can take to promote opportunity and ensure that all Americans have a fair shot if they work hard."

The shift in campaign tactics comes just days after aides said Romney would begin offering details of his five-point economic plan, as voters become more attentive to the campaign and after polling data suggested they're eager to learn more about Romney's policy positions.

But in a memo to reporters Wednesday, Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades said the campaign would now focus instead on the rivals' "starkly different visions" for the country.

"Mitt Romney's vision for America is an opportunity society, where free people and free enterprise thrive and success is admired and emulated, not attacked," Rhoades said in the memo. "President Obama's vision for America is a government-centered society, where government grows bigger and more active, occupying more of our everyday lives."

On the campaign trail Wednesday, Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., even slipped a new attack line into his standard stump speech.

"He's going to try and distract and divide this country to win by default," Ryan said during an event in Danville, Va. "You know, President Obama said that he believes in redistribution. Mitt Romney and I are not running to redistribute the wealth. Mitt Romney and I are running to help Americans create wealth."

On Capitol Hill, Romney supporters aimed at Obama.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one of Romney's most prominent surrogates, said Obama's 1998 remarks give "more insight into what he views government's role as."

"This is a president who believes the government's job is to pick winners and losers in the economy," Rubio told reporters Wednesday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggested that Romney should campaign more aggressively in key swing states, particularly Virginia.

"If we win Virginia and one of Ohio and Florida, we're going to win this thing," Graham said. "So, if I were Mitt Romney, no person in Virginia could go very long without meeting me."

Democrats appeared buoyed on Wednesday. Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, met behind closed doors with Senate Democrats for their weekly caucus lunch, a gathering described by participants as upbeat.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Messina told senators that he expects the presidential race to remain close, but he also described polling data from key swing states that appeared to be solidifying for the president.

"What impressed me, as much as anything, was the pace of volunteers, calls, voter registration is dramatically larger than it was four years ago," Durbin said of the data.

In another sign of renewed Democratic optimism, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., suggested Wednesday that Romney's dismissal of nearly half of the American electorate could work to swing key House and Senate races.

"I think what's happening is that the American people, particularly the middle class in America, are getting a clearer and clearer picture that the Democratic Party is on their side and the Republican Party is not," Hoyer said.

On the Republican side, that possibility was causing some concern among some GOP candidates, who were direct in seeking to distance themselves from Romney's video comments.

Sen. Dean Heller, locked in a tight race for reelection against Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley in Nevada, became the third GOP Senate candidate to take issue with Romney's comments, telling reporters Wednesday that he has "very different view of the world" when it comes to competing for the votes of those who do not pay income tax or who receive government assistance.

And Mark Meadows, a Republican running for an open House seat in the Asheville, N.C., area, said that voters in his district don't fit Romney's description at the fundraiser.

"I'm concerned about all 750,000 people," Meadows said at a televised forum Tuesday night. "I am here to represent the people of this district."