To this day, I have no idea how Politifact rated Romney's statement as "true". The statement in the title of the article, "Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax," is true in the strictest possible definition of "true", but that's not what Romney said. He said: The pull quote that they based their rating on was in the middle of that rant. The trueness of the statement that should be rated is this one: "The 47% of people who pay no income tax vote 100% Democratic." And that is ridiculous on its face. I'd be surprised if it were even 60/40. Wonder why the GOP only can resonate with morons these days. It doesn't matter one whit whether one pulled quote, completely decontextualized of its intended meaning, is technically true or not. His belief is false, and very easily proven so. I know that's not the point you were making, but unless and until we decide to look objectively at who pays what and why, there's no good way to decide if there's a better way to operate. EDIT: I'll bet a significant number of people in that room pay no income tax, since they probably make their money off of capital gains and not much else."There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney said in the video. "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.
"And I mean the president starts out with 48, 49 percent … he starts off with a huge number," Romney continued. "These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. So he’ll 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 is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."