Not who Romney thinks they are. You knew he was wrong, you probably just didn't realize how wrong.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
The 51 percent and 46 percent figures are anomalies that reflect the unique circumstances of the past few years, when the economic downturn greatly swelled the number of Americans with low incomes. ... SNIP ...
In 2007, before the economy turned down, 40 percent of households did not owe federal income tax. This figure more closely reflects the percentage that do not owe income tax in normal economic times.[4]
Most of the people who pay neither federal income tax nor payroll taxes are low-income people who are elderly, unable to work due to a serious disability, or students, most of whom subsequently become taxpayers. (In years like the last few, this group also includes a significant number of people who have been unemployed the entire year and cannot find work.)
Go for it, Willard! Run on a platform of putting the elderly back to work and forcing kids with Downs Syndrome to work, preferably with explosives. And we don't need any college students anyway, as your education policies clearly show.
Moreover, low-income households as a group do, in fact, pay federal taxes. Congressional Budget Office data show that the poorest fifth of households paid an average of 4.0 percent of their incomes in federal taxes in 2007, the latest year for which these data are available — not an insignificant amount given how modest these households’ incomes are; the poorest fifth of households had average income of $18,400 in 2007.[6] The next-to-the bottom fifth — those with incomes between $20,500 and $34,300 in 2007 — paid an average of 10.6 percent of their incomes in federal taxes.
Moreover, even these figures greatly understatelow-income households’ totaltax burden because these households also pay substantial state and local taxes. Data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy show that the poorest fifth of households paid a stunning 12.3 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes in 2011.[7]
So those folks in the bottom 20% paid 4+12.3 = 16.3% of their incomes in taxes. Let me see ... Mr. Romney, your own tax rate was what? LESS THAN THAT? 13.9% Federal? Because you didn't pay enough Social Security and sales tax to make up 2.4% of $20,000,000, did you?
Willard M. Romney pays a lower total tax rate than the poorest 20% of Americans. And he calls THEM "entitled".