Remember when SiriuslyWrong tried the same argument as Romney about the 47% not paying taxes?
Siriuslywrong argued it extensively. Under political pressure Romney eventually declared it to be a mistake. This article explains again just how much a Republican talking point the 47% became despite the fact that the Republicans were involved in creating the tax environment to make this so.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89I08T20121019
By Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 1:04am EDT
(Reuters) - Mitt Romney has distanced himself from his remarks lamenting the nearly 47 percent of Americans who do not owe federal income taxes, but his fellow Republicans helped engineer the very tax breaks that have put many in that category. And little change is expected soon.
A key reason: The breaks in question - the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit - are based on core Republican philosophies of encouraging work to lift people out of poverty, Republican aides and many conservatives say.
The number of Americans not owing federal income taxes has been growing since the mid-1980s, and the increase largely stems from expansion of these two tax credits - championed by Republicans from conservative economist Milton Friedman to former President Ronald Reagan.
"It is absolutely true - there is some degree of disconnect between complaining about the 47 percent and yet supporting the policies that brought it about," said economist Alan Viard of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.