Mitt Romney aimed low in his famous remark. We are now well past a majority in terms of how many people are net receivers from the government. The coalition of voters who have an economic interest in voting for more goodies from the government is over 70 percent and growing.
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy…”
Alexander Fraser Tytler, Scottish lawyer and writer, 1770
The Congressional Budget Office is just out with a new report that shows exactly how much income redistribution the government is accomplishing. Recently, liberal politicians and the media have been focused on income inequality, but they almost always use data on pre-tax and pre-transfer income before the government’s income redistribution programs have done their work. Looking at the data after income taxes, after refundable tax credits, and after government transfer programs tells quite a different story.
It is well known that only about half of Americans actually pay any income taxes. This fact became quite famous during the 2012 presidential campaign when Mitt Romney was reported to have commented about how 47 percent of Americans were bound to vote for Democrats (or whatever party promised them free stuff) since they did not pay any income taxes. This new data make clear how Governor Romney was wrong because he focused just on income taxes.
In fact, it is much worse than he thought.
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