Those behind numbers in Romney's 'victims' comment

Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON -- Elderly Americans and low-wage workers make up the bulk of those who pay no income taxes and who Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said sees themselves as "victims" and are "dependent on government."

For 2011, 46 percent of households didn't pay federal income taxes. About half of those didn't pay because of standard deductions and personal exemptions designed to exclude subsistence levels of income from taxation.

The rest received tax breaks, including the earned income tax credit, the child tax credit and tax benefits for older Americans such as the exclusion of Social Security benefits from income. This group still paid state and local taxes and payroll taxes.

"Half of them are people that are just plain old poor," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group in Washington. "And the other half are people that aren't very far out of that poor category, but get some tax breaks."

At a private fundraiser in May, Romney used the 47 percent number, a tax figure taken from an earlier year, to describe the group of Americans most likely to support President Barack Obama. A video of the speech was obtained by Mother Jones magazine.

Romney described nonpayers as being dependent on government and feeling entitled to government-provided health care, housing and food assistance.

A total of 49 percent of Americans live in a household in which someone receives at least one type of government benefit, the Census Bureau reported last year.

Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state in the administration of George W. Bush and a former top Defense Department official, said that category includes military veterans who get benefits.