May 19, 2013
SCOTT COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) --- It might be the most well known speech Mitt Romney never wanted you to hear.
Caught on camera at a high price fundraiser the Presidential hopeful told supporters, among other things, this; "47% of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect. So he'll (President Obama) be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean, that's what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
President Obama also answering questions after an audio tape of him as a young senator twelve years ago came out.
In it the then Senator talks about an economic policy that has Republicans taking notice.
"pool resources" The President says at Loyola University "and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution"
So who are the 47 percenters? The actual number, according to the Tax Policy Center is closer to 46%, thats the number of Americans who do not pay Federal Income Tax.
Eighty percent of them pay a payroll tax they're the working poor.
Twenty percent are elderly.
In Scott County, where the unemployment rate is close to 22%, working poor is common.
And they aren't happy when the hear potentially the future leader of America talking about them in a negative way.
"I've worked since I was 15," Harley Upchurch, a single mother of 1 with another on the way told me. "and its hard but just cause someone isnt able to work doesnt mean others should put them down."
Upchurch left her job to have her baby but the minimum wage salary she is prepared for when she gets back to work won't be enough for the family.
She plans on staying on some sort of assistance.
The Tax Policy Center, a non partisan group, says that the number of Americans that do not pay Federal Income Tax has increased for the past twenty five years, but its decreasing now.
It could dip below 40% by the end of the decade.
