This is why Obama bans cell phones when he appears at a fundraiser

Via Gothamist

Ya gotta love that he can even think about what happens to people who make so little a year compared to him, eh? What is that, 10% or much less than that of his income? Hard to tell since we don't know what he actually makes annually.

Thanks for posting this video. Big question: Should it run as an ad from now until the election? Or just every other week until the election?

And who will pin Obama down to just what he'll do to the median income earners and below? Scary times, lousy choices.

NBC ran it with a transcript beneath on national news this evening.

Romney characterized 47% of the electorate as dependent on government unwilling to take "responsibility for their lives." I can't really disagree with him on this point though seeing as Mitt took responsibility for his life by getting his ass born to a father who was Governor of Michigan, a Presidential candidate, and president and chairman of American Motors for 8 years.

His sense of entitlement is really breathtaking. It reminds me of what Ann Richards said about Dubya that he was "born on third base and thought he had hit a triple."

That 47% or whatever the percentage is don't pay income tax probably doesn't prevent them from paying an overall higher tax rate (sales tax, gas tax, Medicare, and Social Security, etc.) than the Mittster. It also illustrates the fundamental point that we can continue to transfer vast wealth to the unproductive rich, or in Romney's case as a reward for socially destructive activities like trashing companies, gutting pensions, and firing workers or we can invest it in the 99%. As I have said many times before, we can have good jobs paying a living wage, good housing, healthcare, education, and retirements or we can have billionaires and multi-millionaires like Romney. We cannot have both.

I think anyone who sees this video will be repulsed by it and Romney. The Romney campaign is a slow motion train wreck. It seems like we are being treated to one or two of these self-inflicted disasters every week. As sick as everyone is of a two faced lying huckster like Obama, staying out of the way and letting Romney be Romney look like they will land Obama back in the White House.

We're screwed either way, but I have to admit the Romney campaign does exercise a morbid fascination.

What the fuck is it with this Obama guy? I mean, I've always heard it's better to be lucky than good, but this defies belief. First, he had Jack Ryan, who imploded just in time for nobody to be available to run but Alan Fucking Keyes, then McCain/Palin, the and the September/October surprise that ruined McCain (through no great feats of Obama). Now Romney and his Magic Underwear Clown Show.

All Romney needs now is a squirting flower and spinning tie. Wardrobe complete.

I know, let's pick a guy named "Ryan" to run against Obama again, because it worked so well the first time. The democrats are craven, morally bankrupt careerists (and evil) and the republicans are the 40-Watt Club Guinness Book of World Record holders (and also evil).

Apparently there are more videos to come.

Drip, drip, drip. Couldn't happen to a nicer MOTU.

And it couldn't happen to a nicer Private Equity sleaze bag, could it?

That said... The enemy of my enemy can still be my enemy.

about Hank Paulson.

LINK

Gee, what awful moochers! 70% of the 47% are working poor or workers who earn so little they qualify for the Earned Income Credit. And not that different from all those millions of Americans sucking on the government tits, as Sen. Simpson put it so colorfully. Just might be exactly how higher earning Republicans really think, heh?

The breakdown, per the TPM chart:

Low income workers -- 70%

Seniors on SocSec -- 17%

Students, people on disability (like, uh, ya know, wounded vets? and others), the unemployed, and people with very low incomes (like around what Mitt wanted to bet Gov. Good Hair about something during one of the R primary debates, $10,000) -- 13%

I guess when you can bet $10,000 on a whim, you might tend to see people who earn that in one year as, well, throwaway people, just like a throwaway bet.

Anyone see a big fat target for Republican cuts on the backs of the SocSec recipients? And that 70% of working poor, wow, gotta be big pickin's there.

LINK

*Percentage going down as some of the economy improves.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/the-47-who-they-are-where-they-live-how-they-vote-and-why-they-matter/262506/Since 54.6% of taxpayers paid Fed taxes in 2011, the percentage, rounded correctly, of those not paying Fed taxes would be 46%.

In 2011, 47% of Americans paid no federal income taxes. Within that group, two-thirds still pay payroll taxes. The rest are almost all either (a) old and retired folks collecting Social Security or (b) households earning less than $20,000. Overall, four out of five households not owing federal income tax earn less than $30,000, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Here's another, slightly wonkier, way to think about the 47%. Divide the group into two halves. The first half is made tax-free by credits and exemptions, the vast majority of which go to senior citizens and children of the working poor. The half that you're left with is so poor, they wouldn't owe federal income taxes even if there were zero tax expenditures.

There are some not-so-poor outliers, like the 7,000 millionaires who paid no federal income taxes in 2011. But for the most part, when you hear "The 47%" you should think "old retired folks and poor working families."

Click the link for embedded links in the quote.