Who Is the 47 percent?

Americans who, according to Romney, don't take responsibility for their own lives live in the states that swung Republican in 2008:


The good people at Ezra Klein's Wonkblog crunch the numbers:

53.6 percent of households pay the federal income tax. Presumably Romney is okay with these folks.

28.3 percent of households pay no federal income tax, but they do pay the payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare. That means they don’t need Mitt Romney to convince them to “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” They already have jobs.

Most of the households in this group don’t pay any federal income tax because they qualify for enough deductions that their income tax liability has shrunk to zero. See this Tax Policy Center report for more, which gives an example of “a couple with two children earning less than $26,400. They get an $11,600 standard deduction and four exemptions of $3,700, and that takes their liability to zero.” Indeed, it’s worth noting that many of these deductions and credits were part of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, which Romney wants to extend.

See the full breakdown here. (Image via Scott Thomasson)