Reaction to Romney Video

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney told supporters that "there are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what" because they are "dependent upon government ... believe that they are victims ... believe the government has a responsibility to care for them ... these are people pay no income tax."

Mitt Romney's "off-the-cuff" remarks that nearly half of Americans are "dependent" on government and believe they are "victims" who are "entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to-you-name-it," were widely publicized. This is in fact old saw for a certain kind of anti-government conservative. I have given talks deep in conservative territory where courteous memebers of the audience would come up to me afterwards and say they agree we should pay taxes for infrastructure but not for giveaways "to those people."