Romney Admits Tax Plan Is Based on Fox News Lie That 47% of Americans Don’t Pay Taxes

Last updated on February 7th, 2013 at 08:28 pm

Mitt Romney has admitted that the economic rationale for his presidential campaign is the Fox News lie that half of Americans don’t pay taxes.

Here is the video from Mother Jones:

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Romney said, “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 is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

There you have it. The entire economic rationale behind Mitt Romney’s campaign is that he is overtaxed, and it is time to make you deadbeats pay.

The idea that 47% of Americans pay no income taxes is a conservative myth that has been pushed hard by Fox News.

As I wrote in July of 2011, “The 47% statistic is not all Americans pay no taxes, but single filers who will pay no federal income taxes. According to the Center On Budget and Policy Priorities the real reason why 47%-51% of Americans paid no federal income taxes in 2009 is,

The 51 percent figure is an anomaly that reflects the unique circumstances of 2009, when the recession greatly swelled the number of Americans with low incomes and when temporary tax cuts created by the 2009 Recovery Act — including the “Making Work Pay” tax credit and an exclusion from tax of the first $2,400 in unemployment benefits — were in effect. Together, these developments removed millions of Americans from the federal income tax rolls. Both of these temporary tax measures have since expired.

The combination of the recession and the Obama stimulus cut taxes to low and middle income Americans led to fewer Americans owing federal income tax in 2009.

In April 2010, the Tax Policy Center tried to straighten out Republicans and conservative media who were continuing to misuse their research, “Let me explain—repeat actually—what this means: About half of taxpayers paid no federal income tax last year. It does not mean they paid no tax at all. Many shelled out Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes. In fact, only 14 percent of Americans didn’t pay either income or payroll taxes. Some paid property taxes and, it is fair to say, just about all of them paid sales taxes of one kind or another. So to say they pay no taxes is flat wrong. However, this class warfare-like rhetoric plays to a perception that the income tax is a chump tax: Only hard-working folks like us pay it. The welfare queens don’t. The super-rich don’t. It is a powerful emotional argument. It is also flat wrong.”

Mitt Romney has taken a recession year anomaly and extrapolated it to mean that nearly half of Americans pay no federal income taxes ever when the truth is 86% of Americans pay taxes.

The entire basis for Mitt Romney’s tax plan and economic beliefs is a lie. It is a falsehood Fox News placed into the discourse, and the Republican nominee for president has made the centerpiece of his economic worldview.

Regularly, liberals and progressives will visit this website or contact me to tell me to stop writing about Fox News. They think that if we just stick our heads in the sand, and ignore them, Rupert, Roger, and the gang will go away. But Mitt Romney has just shown us why we have to do more than pay attention. We have to combat the misinformation.

Fox News isn’t just influencing your parents, grandparents, or that crazy uncle who always ruins Thanksgiving by screaming about some Obama conspiracy. Fox News is shaping candidate views and positions within the Republican Party. The lies of Fox News have formed the basis for Mitt Romney plan to enact a reshaping of the tax system that would forever change America.

A Romney presidency would mean that the poor and middle class would carry the tax burden for the rich. As president, Mitt Romney would view those who aren’t rich like him as parasites who are sucking the life out the wealthy.

Fox News is important because the Republican nominee for president is using their lies as justification for policy. Mitt Romney doesn’t needs advisers when he has Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Roger Ailes telling him what to do.

Romney’s entire plan for the economy is based on a lie, but for once it isn’t one his own. The lie in Romney’s ear has come straight from the lips of Fox News.

Mitt Romney is the ultimate Fox Bot.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association