Bay Buchanan, an adviser to Mitt Romney, said on CNN Tuesday morning that Romney’s assertion that he doesn’t have to “worry” about 47 percent of Americans was a political analysis. Romney said at a fundraiser in Florida that 47 percent of Americans will vote for Obama because they are dependent on government, remarks that were caught on video and released by Mother Jones Monday. “[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives,” Romney said.
“[W]hen he says he’s not worried … he’s talking politics,” Buchanan said. “He’s analyzing the voter base. How do I reach my 50 point plus one vote? … [W]hat he’s saying is there are people out there who don’t pay taxes, unfortunately, they’re in a position where they’re dependent on government, and those individuals are — those Americans are voting for Barack Obama. They’re in his backyard. And so those are people that I’m not going to be able to reach with my 20 percent tax cut or my cuts in spending, because they would be concerned. It’s not going to impact them getting a 20 percent tax cut. They don’t pay taxes. So that’s what he was talking about here.”
Buchanan said that Romney is “clearly concerned” about the so-called 47 percent and that “his whole policy is designed to help those people get moved back into the middle class or get into the middle class if they haven’t been there before.”
